Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz
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Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz (; 29 September 1904, Bremen – 16 February 1973) was a German diplomat. During
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 opposing ...
, he served as an
attaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accord ...
for
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
in
occupied Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, 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 = Soverei ...
. He tipped off the Danes about the Germans' intended deportation of the Jewish population in 1943 and arranged for their reception in Sweden. Danish resistance groups subsequently rescued 95% of Denmark's Jewish population. Israel has designated Duckwitz as one of the
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...
.


Early life

Duckwitz was born on 29 September 1904 in Bremen, Germany to an old patrician family in the Hanseatic City. After college, he began a career in the international coffee trade.


Career

From 1928 to 1932 Duckwitz lived 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 ...
,
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 = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...
. In November 1932 he met
Gregor Strasser Gregor Strasser (also german: Straßer, see ß; 31 May 1892 – 30 June 1934) was an early prominent German Nazi official and politician who was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. Born in 1892 in Bavaria, Strasser served i ...
, the leader of the leftist branch of the German nationalistic
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
, in Bremen. Over the course of their conversation, Duckwitz found that "elements of Scandinavian socialism ereconnected with nationalistic feelings" and subsequently decided to enroll in the party. On 1 July 1933, he joined the Nazi Party's Office of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. Over the course of his tenure, he became increasingly disillusioned by Nazi politics. In a 4 June 1935 letter to
Alfred Rosenberg Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
, the head of the office, he wrote, "My two-year employment in the Reichsleitung .e. executive branchof the azi Partyhas made me realize that I am so fundamentally deceived in the nature and purpose of the National Socialist movement that I am no longer able to work within this movement as an honest person". Around the same time, the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
secret police made its first notes on Duckwitz after he had sheltered three Jewish women in his
Kurfürstendamm The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially ''Ku'damm'', ; en, Prince Elector Embankment) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former ''Kurfürsten'' (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevar ...
apartment during a local anti-Semitic Sturmabteilung event. He later wrote that he had then become "a fierce opponent of this azisystem". He eventually left the Office of Foreign Affairs to work for the
Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...
shipping company. In 1939, he was assigned to the German embassy 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 ...
as a maritime attaché.


Rescue of Jews in Denmark

After 1942, Duckwitz worked with the Nazi Reich representative
Werner Best Karl Rudolf Werner Best (10 July 1903 – 23 June 1989) was a German jurist, police chief, SS-''Obergruppenführer'', Nazi Party leader, and theoretician from Darmstadt. He was the first chief of Department 1 of the Gestapo, Nazi Germany's secret ...
, who organised the Gestapo. On 11 September 1943 Best told Duckwitz about the intended roundup of all Danish Jews on 1 October. Duckwitz travelled to Berlin to attempt to stop the deportation through official channels. That failed, and he flew to Stockholm two weeks later, ostensibly to discuss the passage of German merchant ships. There, he contacted Swedish Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson and asked whether Sweden would be willing to receive Danish Jewish refugees. In a couple of days, Hansson promised them a favourable reception. Back in Denmark on 29 September, Duckwitz contacted the Danish
social democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...
Hans Hedtoft Hans Hedtoft Hansen (21 April 1903 – 29 January 1955) was a Danish politician of the Social Democrats who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 1947 to 1950 and again from 1953 until his death in 1955. He also served as the first President ...
and notified him of the intended deportation. Hedtoft warned the head of the Jewish community, C. B. Henriques, and the acting chief rabbi, Marcus Melchior, who spread the warning. Sympathetic Danes in all walks of life organized a mass escape of over 7,200 Jews and 700 of their non-Jewish relatives by sea to Sweden.Denmark, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005209 Afterward, Duckwitz went back to his official duties.


Later life

After the war, Duckwitz remained in the German foreign service. In 1955 to 1958, he served as
West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
ambassador to Denmark and later as the ambassador to
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. When
Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
became Foreign Minister in 1966, he made Duckwitz Secretary of State in West Germany's Foreign Office. After Brandt became Chancellor, he ordered Duckwitz to negotiate an agreement with the Polish government. Brandt's work culminated in the 1970 Treaty of Warsaw. Duckwitz worked as Secretary of State until his retirement in 1970. On 21 March 1971, the Israeli government named him
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...
and included him in the
Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
memorial. He died two years later, at 68.


Legacy

Duckwitz was portrayed by
Patrick Malahide Patrick Gerald Duggan (born 24 March 1945), known professionally as Patrick Malahide, is a veteran British film, television and theatre actor, author and producer, known, amongst other things, for his roles as Inspector Alleyn in '' The Inspec ...
in the film '' Miracle at Midnight''.


References


External links


Yad Vashem honouring of Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz as ''Righteous among the Nations''
– an article from the
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust The ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'' (1990) has been called "the most recognized reference book on the Holocaust". It was published in an English-language translated edition by Macmillan in tandem with the Hebrew language original edition pu ...

Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz
– his activity to save Jews' lives during the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
, at
Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
website
The tip-off from a Nazi that saved my grandparents
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand 1904 births 1973 deaths 20th-century Freikorps personnel German Righteous Among the Nations Denmark in World War II People from Bremen Ambassadors of West Germany to Denmark Ambassadors of West Germany to India Officials of Nazi Germany Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Nazi Party members German resistance to Nazism Nazi-era German officials who resisted the Holocaust