The Danish collaborator trials took place in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

in the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Danish citizens who were accused of collaborating with the Nazis during their

occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself neutral. For most of the war, the country was a protectorate and then an occupied territory of Germany. The decision to occupy Denmark was taken in Berlin on 17 December ...

were put on trial. The basis for the trials was the Criminal Code supplement drawn up in the last year of the Occupation, and adopted shortly after Liberation. The Criminal Code Supplement criminalized acts that had taken place after August 29, 1943; this became one of the most serious criticisms of this law, that it retroactively applied to actions before it passed. The accused under the penal code supplement were in particular persons who had participated in German war service or had had undue financial cooperation with the occupying power. Trials were conducted at the Copenhagen Municipal Court ( :da:Københavns Byret) and sentences were passed from November 1947 to November 1950. After the war, 101 men and 2 women were sentenced to death by the treason court cases during the German occupation of Denmark. Of these, the 78 judgments were upheld by both the Eastern and Western Lands and the Supreme Court. Forty-six men were executed, while 30 men and two women were pardoned by the Justice Minister and allowed to change their sentences to life in prison. Of the 32 who served life imprisonment, the last was released in 1956. All foreign nationals who had been sentenced to death were pardoned, so only Danish nationals were executed. The two women who were sentenced to death were

Grethe Bartram Maren Margrethe Thomsen, known as Maren Margrethe "Grethe" Bartram and "Thora" (23 February 1924 – January 2017), was a Danish woman who informed on at least 53 people from the Danish resistance movement during the Second World War, resul ...

and Anna Lund Lorentzen. Both sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and both women were released in 1956. In 2005 the Danish government formally apologized for its role in aiding the Nazis during the war.

References

{{reflist Denmark in World War II World War II war crimes trials Trials in Denmark

See also

References