The Danish people were honored for their rescue in 1943 of 7000 Danish Jews at ceremonies Friday here and in New York. The ceremony here was in conjunction with the visit of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle presented the Queen with an illuminated scroll during a luncheon in her honor by the Danish Bicentennial Committee of Seattle at the Olympic Hotel.
Martin D. Rino Federation president, presented the scroll which said: “The Jewish community of Seattle greets Her Majesty, Queen Margrethe ll on the occasion of her historic visit to our city. Jewish people throughout the world will forever remember with gratitude the humanity and courage displayed by the people of Denmark in a dark period of human history.”
In 1943, it stated, “when Denmark was under Nazi occupation and its small Jewish community was about to be sent to the death camps for extermination, the people of Denmark, under the noble leadership of King Christian X, saved the Jewish population by transporting them under cover of night across the waters to safety.”
In New York, an organization called Tribute to the Danes, which includes many Holocaust survivors, presented a plaque to Danish Consul Krog Meyer at the Danish Consulate. The plaque, which will be installed in the Museum of Freedom Fighters in Copenhagen, says: “To the people of Denmark, in eternal gratitude for their selfless dedication to the highest human principles, exemplified by the October, 1943 rescue of their brethren of the Jewish faith.” The presentation was made by the organization’s president, Dr. Leon A. Falik, a Holocaust survivor.
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