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Nazis in Denmark Oust Jews from Professions, Seize Property

June 6, 1940
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Few reprisals have been taken against the approximately 1,000 Jews remaining in German-occupied Oslo, Norway, but the 5,000 Jews of Copenhagen, Denmark, along with the 1,000 or so German Jewish refugees there are beginning to suffer, step by step, all the well known humiliations of the Nazi anti-Semitic program, according to reports of Hungarians returning from these countries. In Norway, they state, most German Jewish refugees and those Norwegian Jews who had reason to fear Nazi persecution were able to escape to Sweden before the Germans completed the occupation.

In Denmark, however, the German occupation was much better organized and it was impossible for more than a few hundred Jews to escape by sea before the Germans took over control of the Danish ports.

Most of the Jews who escaped were young professionals and students who fled to Malmo and Halsingborg, Sweden, in open boats. Danish trawler captains were unwilling to run the risk of crossing the newly-laid British mine fields and in most cases the fugitives had to buy their own boats outright and sail them without any knowledge of navigation.

Jews who were unable to leave Copenhagen and other Danish cities before the Germans took control are now being mulcted of their property and savings and are subjected to economic and social restrictions of every sort.

No plays by Jewish dramatists may any longer be presented on the Danish stage and no Jewish actors may exercise their profession. Several theaters have been closed for failing to observe these regulations.

Jewish students have been expelled from public and private schools. All Jewish physicians, lawyers, teachers and other professionals have lost their livelihoods.

Hundreds of Jewish refugee youths who were being trained on Danish farms for emigration as farmers to Palestine and Central and South American countries have been expelled from the farms and sent back to concentration camps in Germany.

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