The Danish Freedom Council ( da, Danmarks Frihedsråd) was a clandestine body set up in September 1943 in response to growing political turmoil surrounding the

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 ...

by German forces during the

Second World War 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 ...

Background

Technically, Denmark was illegally occupied by the Germans through

Operation Weserübung Operation Weserübung (german: Unternehmen Weserübung , , 9 April – 10 June 1940) was Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign. In the early morning of 9 Ap ...

on 9 April 1940. The Danish government as well as

King Christian X Christian X ( da, Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was King of Denmark from 1912 to his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, in the form of a personal union rather ...

immediately made formal protests but ultimately acquiesced to a unique German arrangement whereby Denmark was given 'independence' despite having German troops stationed in the country. Concerned about the safety of the population, the Danish government thought it best to accept these terms. As a result, resistance initiatives could not be formally recognised by the Allied forces. Although the Danish government in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

had accepted the situation, many Danes had not. Much of the Danish Navy had sailed to Allied ports and Danish ambassadors abroad had refused to accept their government's decision. A

Danish resistance movement The Danish resistance movements ( da, Den danske modstandsbevægelse) were an underground insurgency to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the initially lenient arrangements, in which the Nazi occupation autho ...

arose at the initiative of citizens and former Danish soldiers. Initially the movement was willing to pass intelligence on to the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE) but refused to follow the SOE's calls for sabotage operations. Any sabotage that did take place was sanctioned by resistance leaders within Denmark or based in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. There was an increase in acts of sabotage in Denmark from 1943 on.

Field Marshal Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and th ...

later stated that intelligence from Danish resistance had been "second to none". Up to 1943, the occupation was relatively quiet. However, Danish acts of sabotage caused the Germans to harden their response, arresting those involved. This led to strikes, more arrests for civil disobedience, causing even more strikes. By August 1943, the situation had become so bad, that the Germans sent the Danish government an ultimatum — they were to declare a state of emergency and they were to condemn to death all captured saboteurs. The government refused to do this and resigned. The Germans responded by formally seizing power and, legally, Denmark became an "occupied country", adding to the legitimacy of the Danish Resistance. Anti-Nazi sentiment sharpened further when the Germans attempted to arrest the Danish Jews in October 1943. The operation failed thanks to Danish assistance in helping over 7,000 of them to escape to Sweden.

The Freedom Council

In September 1943, the 'Danish Freedom Council' was created to co-ordinate the fight for liberation. The Council set out to unify the many different groups that made up the Danish resistance movement and consisted of representatives from the

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

, Free Denmark,

Danish Unity Danish Unity ( da, Dansk Samling) is a political party in Denmark, founded in 1936 by Arne Sørensen. In 1939 the National Unity party, established by Victor Pürschel in 1938, merged with the party. It contested elections in 1939, 1943, 1945, 19 ...

and a resistance group called the Ring. Key members were Børge Houmann,

Mogens Fog Mogens Ludolf Fog (9 June 1904 – 16 July 1990) was a Danish physician, politician ( Danish Communist Party) and resistance fighter. In the 1930s, he headed the ''Socialistiske Læger'' (Social Physicians) who opposed Fascism. During the Sec ...

, Arne Sørensen,

Frode Jakobsen Frode Jakobsen (21 December 1906 in Østre Jølby, Denmark – 15 June 1997 in Denmark), was a Danish writer and politician who is remembered for his contribution to Danish resistance activities during the German occupation of Denmark in the Secon ...

Erling Foss Erling Christian Foss (25 February 1897 – 15 June 1982) was a Danish civil engineer, famous for his contributions to the Danish resistance movement. As a result of contacts with Ebbe Munck and the Danish army's intelligence service, he bec ...

and

Aage Schock Aage is a Danish masculine given name and a less common spelling of the Norwegian given name Åge. Variants include the Swedish name Åke. People with the name Aage include: * Aage Bendixen (1887–1973), Danish actor * Aage Berntsen (1885–195 ...

. Directives from the British Special Operations Executive helped to unite the different groups.Denmark - History - The Occupation 1940-45
from the Danish Foreign Ministry. Retrieved 18 April 2008. In December that year, the SOE sent orders that military groups should be organised, ready to attack the Germans in case of invasion. They were first organised by the Communists and the Danish Unity Party, and then increasingly by members of the Ring. The resistance movement grew to over 20,000 and in the lead-up to

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

acts of sabotage markedly increased. Though the D-Day landings were to be in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, the SOE encouraged tying up German troops elsewhere in Europe so that the fewer would be present in northern France. If acts of sabotage were increased, more German troops would be tied up in Denmark. The Danish Resistance used the country's proximity to Sweden to great effect. Stockholm became a base for the Danish Resistance. Here they were far safer than in Denmark — but they could easily get back to their country.

References

Sources

* Hæestrup, Jørgen. ''Secret Alliance - A Study of the Danish Resistance Movement 1940-45''. Vols I, II & III. Odense University Press, 1976-77. , & . * Moore, Bob (editor). ''Resistance in Western Europe'' (esp. Chapter on ''Denmark'' by Hans Kirchoff), Oxford : Berg, 2000, . {{Authority control

Danish Freedom Council The Danish Freedom Council ( da, Danmarks Frihedsråd) was a clandestine body set up in September 1943 in response to growing political turmoil surrounding the occupation of Denmark by German forces during the Second World War. Background Techni ...

Freedom Council

Background

The Freedom Council

See also

References

Sources