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Gestapo Permits Danish Diplomats to Visit Jews in Therezinstadt, Allows No Parcels

January 27, 1944
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Two representatives of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affaire have been allowed by the German authorities to visit the Czech fortress city of Therezinstadt where 1,600 Danish Jews are confined together with Jews deported from Germany, Austria and Bohemia-Moravia.

The report of the Danish officials, made public in the press here today, states that due to Denmark’s special position – it is not considered an occupied country – the Danish Jewish deportees are treated better than the other Jews in Therezinstadt. The Gestapo, however, does not permit residents of Denmark to send parcels to Jews in Therezinstadt.

The Danish authorities are trying to maintain contact with the Danish Jews in Therezinstadt, but they meet with strong Gestapo opposition. Food parcels, therefore, are not sent to the Danish Jews directly from Copenhagen but through the International Red Cross in Switzerland. Individually signed from letters from Therezinstadt confirm receipt of these parcels.

It is now possible to state that 9,000 Jews from Denmark have succeeded in reaching Sweden. They include foreign Jews living in Denmark prior to the Gestapo raids there. At present only few Jews are still hiding in Denmark trying to escape deportation from the country. They are being sheltered by non-Jewish friends and most of them will probably reach Sweden within the next few weeks.

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