The West German Government awarded today its Grand Cross of Merit to Chief Rabbi Marcus Melchior of Denmark for his role in the Danish rescue of the Jews of Denmark from the Nazis during World War II. Rabbi Melchior will receive the award in ceremonies in Copenhagen on November 11 and go to Bonn to be received by President Heinrich Luebke on November 25.
Rabbi Melchior and Danish resistance leaders had been warned by Georg Tuckwicz, a German commercial salesman, of Adolf Eichmann’s plans to deport Denmark’s Jews to Eastern Europe. The warning was given in time to enable the Danes to evacuate almost all of Denmark’s Jews to sanctuary in Sweden.
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