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Denmark in
World War II
お んれ By Hannah Arendt
Hannab Arendt (1906-1975) was a political scientist!
and pbilosopber born in Hanover, Germany. Wben
Hitler came to power, sbe was forced to leave Germany
and came to the United States in 1940. Sbe continued
ber academic career by lecturing and teacbing at
arious colleges, including The New Scbool for Social
Researcb in New York City. Among the many books sbe
urote were Eichmann in Jerusalem, On Revolution,
and The Origins of Totalitarianism.
Editor's Insert
During the Second World War. the Germans invaded Denmark
in April, 1940. In the beginning of her essay, Hannah Arendt
explains that of the four countries almost completely immune to
anti-Semitism- Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and Bulgaria
Denmark challenged its German masters directly. As soon as the
German authorities talked about forcing Jews to wear the yellow
badge,' the Danes replied that all Danish citizens, including the
King, would be wearing it the next day if the policy were carried
out. In addition, all Danish government officials threatened 舌は
the German authorities with their immediate resignation if
the Germans started to implement any anti-Jewish actions. The
following excerpt from Eicbmann in Jerusatem shows how
the Danes sabotaged the German plan to carry out the mass
extermination of the Jews.
only
2タカ人の
What happened then was truly amazing; compared with what took place
in other European countries, everything went topsy-turvey. In August,
ー after the German offensive in Russia had failed, the Afrika Korns
1943
had surrendered in Tunisia, and the Allies had invaded Italy
すgovernment canceled its 1940 agreement with Germany which had
permitted German troops the right to pass through the country. Thereupon.
the Danish workers decided that they could help a bit in hurrying things そのうえに
up: riots broke out in Danish shipyards, where the dock workers refused
to repair German ships and then went on strike. The German militarv
commander proclaimed a state of emergency and imposed martial la
and Himmler thought this was the right moment to tackle the Te
the Swedish
す。
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themselves as Jews
secret police), and overseer of the concentration camps
