A number of Danes were honored at a City Hall ceremony Friday for their work in saving Jews from the Nazis. Dr. Joergen Gersefelt commented that “they were Danes, our friends and did not matter if they were Jews and it does not matter now.” The remark summed up the attitude of the 198 Danish men and women who played key roles in the Danish underground resistance which rescued some 8000 Danish Jews in October 1943. Almost the entire country joined in arranging to ferry the Jews to Sweden after the underground learned that the occupying Nazis planned to round up the Jews for shipment to death camps.
Mayor John V. Lindsay proclaimed last Friday as “Danish Resistance Day.” Dore Schary, honorary chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, which arranged the City Hall reception, said, “We repay the debt in prayer, thanks and affection.” One of the Danes said Dr. Gersefelt saved many Jewish children by injecting them with a serum that kept them unconscious to keep them quiet while they were smuggled onto boats which took them to Sweden. The Danes will be in the US until Thursday.
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