(JTA) — A ceremony in a Copenhagen synagogue marked the 70th anniversary of the rescue of most of Denmark’s Jews from the Nazis.
Sunday’s ceremony marked the October 1943 operation in which more than 7,000 Jews were sent by boat to Sweden after they were ordered deported to Nazi concentration camps, The Associated Press reported.
A German official who knew about the deportation orders told Danish lawmakers, who passed the information to Danish Jewish leaders.
Finn Schwarz, a leader of the Copenhagen Jewish community, told the hundreds of people gathered at the ceremony that the Jews’ escape to Sweden was “almost a miracle,” the AP reported.
On Tuesday night, the Oresund Bridge linking Copenhagen and Malmo will be lit with 700 lanterns in commemoration of the escape, The Local. se reported.
The Elisabeth K571, one of the few boats still in existence from the secret evacuation, reportedly will take part in the memorial activities, according to The Local.
The nearly 500 sick and elderly Danish Jews who did not escape were deported to a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.
