1933
01/30/33 Adolf Hitler sworn in as chancellor of the German Republic.

1938
11/09/38 Kristallnacht. Reich Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbles instigates progroms in Germany and Austria.

1939
11/23/39 Polish Jews are forced to wear the Star of David. Within a year, the Star of David is introduced in all of the countries under German control except Denmark.

Photo right: German soldier in Copenhagen. (The Museum of Danish Resistance 1940-45.)

1940
04/09/40 Invasion of Denmark and Norway. In a matter of hours the Germans invaded Denmark in a bloodless takeover. Danish authorities cooperate closely with the occupying power from very early on. But from the moment of occupation, the Danes insist that all of the Jews - both those who were Danish citizens and the 1,500 who had found refuge there during the 1930's - were to be treated as all other Danes. Germany went along with Denmark's insistence.

1941
06/22/41 "Operation Barbarossa," Germany invades the Soviet Union. Following the attack, the Germans demand that the Danish authorities arrest all leading Danish Communists. This was unconstitutional. Even so, during that summer 295 were interned in Horserød Camp.

06/23/41 Special squads "the Einsattsgruppen" begin mass killings in the Soviet Union.

11/24/41 Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia is established as a "model camp".

12/07/41 Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.

1942
01/20/42 At the Wannsee conference in Berlin the Nazis coordinate detailed plans for the so-called "Final Solution of the Jewish Problem."

05/03/42 Danish Prime minister Thorvald Stauning dies. Vilhelm Buhl appointed new prime minister.

Summer 1942 Large scale deportations of Jews throughout Europe transported to concentration camps.

09/26/42 King Christian X's chilly reply to Adolf Hitler's birthday telegram unleashes the "telegram crisis" accompanied by German demands to appoint pro-German ministers.

11/02/42 British take El Alamein in Egypt.

11/05/42 SS-general Werner Best, the new German high commandant of Denmark, arrives in Copenhagen.

11/08/42 British and American forces invade North Africa.

11/09/42 Erik Scavenius appointed Prime Minister of Denmark.

11/25/42 First deportations of Jews from Norway to Auschwitz.

1943
02/02/43 Germans surrender to Soviet troops at Stalingrad.

03/23/43 General elections to "Rigsdagen," the Danish Parliament were held with German acceptance. Election result: the Danish Nazi Party is defeated.

Summer 1943 The Wehrmacht fear an Allied invasion in Jutland. A wave of sabotage actions spreads across the country. Unrest at Danish workplaces culminates in massive strikes and unrest.

08/24/43 Best is called to the Führer headquarters and reprimanded for yielding too much to the Danes. (Returns to Copenhagen on August 27, 1943) Resistance members blow up the public hall Forum, which accommodated German soldiers on leave from Norway. (No one is killed.)

08/28/43 The first execution of a resistance worker. Werner Best presents the German demands to Prime minister Scavenius. They insist that the Danish government introduce the death penalty for acts of sabotage as well as press censorship, among other things. The Danish government refuses and stops functioning. The king never formally approves this, so legally the government still exists. Only a caretaker civil administration is functioning lead by Nils Svennningsen, head of the foreign ministry.

08/29/43 In Denmark Werner Best, informs the king that martial law has been declared and that the executive power of the country was now in the hands of the German military forces. The martial law includes a curfew all over the country, prohibitions to assemble and to strike. German forces march into Copenhagen, King Christian X is kept under house arrest at his palace. Prominent Danes, including Chief Rabbi Max Friediger, were arrested.

08/31/43 Jewish address lists are confiscated from the office near the Copenhagen synagogue. In panic, some Jews flee to Sweden. Danish officials confront German authorities with the rumors of an impending round-up, which were immediately denied by the Germans.

09/08/43 Werner Best sends a telegram to Berlin: "The time has come to turn our attention to the solution of the Jewish question (in Denmark)."

09/15/43 Adolf Hitler approves the deportation of the Jews in Denmark. German preparations begin. German "specialists" arrive in Copenhagen.

09/16/43 The formation of the Danish Freedom Council, a joint political leadership for the resistance groups.

09/28/43 Werner Best receives final order from Berlin to round up Jews in Denmark the night between October 1 and 2. He informs embassy official Georg F. Duckwitz that the time for the round-up is imminent. Duckwitz immediately pays a visit to social democratic leader Hans Hedtoft who is engaged in a meeting with other political leaders of his party. Hedtoft, together with a couple of colleagues, contacts advocate of the Supreme Court and president of the Danish Jewish Community, C. B. Henriques who is stunned. Henriques phones acting Rabbi Marcus Melchior.

09/29/43 Acting Rabbi Marcus Melchior warns the congregation at the morning service in the synagogue. Others received word through friends, business acquaintances, or strangers wanting to help. A letter of protest in the name of the Church is sent to Werner Best by bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard: "…Despite different religious views, we shall therefore struggle to insure the continued guarantee to our Jewish brothers and sisters of the same freedom we ourselves treasure more than life itself."

10/01/43 Jewish New Year. Thousands of Jews go into hiding. Germans begin the attempt to round up the Jews living in Denmark. Throughout the country Jews are arrested (mostly the elderly from the community's old people's home in Copenhagen adjacent to the Synagogue). Most other Jews had sought refuge at the homes of friends and acquaintances, or even complete strangers. Sweden officially offers asylum to refugees from Denmark.

10/02/43 The German steamship "Wartheland," having waited to sail the arrestees to Germany, leaves the Copenhagen harbor, with 202 arrested Jews onboard. (All in all by the end of November, 1943, 481 Jews were found by the Germans and deported from Denmark to Theresienstadt, the ghetto, north of Prague, Czechoslovakia.) Swedish radio broadcasts that its borders are open to Danish refugees.

10/03/43 Social Democratic party leaders expressed "… The Danish Jews are a vital part of the Danish people, and the people as a whole are therefore deeply affected by the measures taken, which, we feel, violate Danish jurisprudence." Ecumenical letter of September 29th read from the pulpit in most Churches during Sunday services attesting to the brotherhood of all Danes.

10/04/43 Denmark protests: King Christian X and the chairman of the central economic organizations register complaints, the University in Copenhagen shuts down for a week.

10/06/43 A group of 80 Jews, hiding in a church attic in Gilleleje, are informed upon, arrested by the Gestapo, and transported to Theresienstadt.

11/02/43 The SS officer in charge of implementing the final solution, Adolf Eichmann, visits Denmark. Werner Best makes him promise that Danes can stay in Theresienstadt and will not be transported to death camps (such as Auschwitz). Danish officials secure, that interned Danes can receive parcels of food, clothing, and medicine prepared by their countrymen. And the promise is secured to allow representatives of the Danish administration and the Danish Red Cross to pay a visit to the camp in the near future.

12/30/43 Adolf Hitler orders reprisal killings for acts of Danish sabotage. Kaj Munk, a clergyman who had helped rescue Jews, was targeted and killed

1944
06/06/44 D-Day. Allied forces land in Normandy, France.

06/23/44 Red Cross representatives inspect the ghetto of Theresienstadt and are shown a camp readied for a positive impression: Hundreds have been sent away to make camp conditions look decent.

06/24/44 Bombing of Tivoli Gardens in retaliation for sabotage.

06/26/44 Week long general strike in Copenhagen and other cities.

09/19/44 Germans arrest most of the Danish police force. Two thousand are deported to concentration camps.

1945
04/15/45 The "White buses" rescue Danish prisoners from Theresienstadt and other concentration camps through Denmark and then Sweden.

05/04/45 German forces in Denmark surrender. A few weeks later refugees who spent the war years in Sweden are allowed to return home to liberated Denmark. In general, abandoned Jewish property had been left untouched - in many cases cared for by neighbors and friends. But for many the escape had been costly, people had been forced to flee from jobs and businesses. Public servants, however, were given back their jobs and received salaries accrued during their absence.

05/07/45 Germany surrenders to the Allies.