DENMARK’S DEFIANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25579, 5 July 1944, Page 4

DENMARK’S DEFIANCE

Four years of Nazi injustice and brutality have not sufficed to break the free spirit of the Danish people. There have been intermittent crises in Copenhagen and elsewhere in Denmark since August and September of last year, when the first manifestations of open revolt against the German tyranny plunged the country into turmoil. The situation was brought to a head early in August, when the Germans, in defiance of the. agreement whereby Denmark was to be permitted to retain its own forms of government, demanded that Danish saboteurs should be surrendered for trial in German courts. The Scavenius Government refused, with the full concurrence of Parliament and the people. -The German Commissioner, Dr Best, then agreed to withhold the demand for the surrender of saboteurs provided the threat of the Government’s resignation was withdrawn and order was restored. Strikes continued, however, and actually increased under provocation of the German military, which regarded Dr Best’s approach as too conciliatory. The Commissioner, acting on instructions from Berlin, then issued an ultimatum requiring the proclamation of a state of emergency throughout the country, a curfew, a German censorship, and the prohibition of strikes and'all gatherings—even indoors —of more than five people. He also insisted on the surrender of all arms and the setting up of special courts with power to impose the death penalty for sabotage. The answer of the Government, with the King’s approval, was again a refusal to. associate itself in any way with the German demands. It resigned, and the German Army stepped into control. There was immediately inaugurated a campaign of terrorism, accompanied by wholesale arrests and the deportation of Jews. The revolt of the Danes reached serious proportions, including an attempt by units of the small Danish Navy to escape to Swedish ports, before it was finally quelled by German troops. General von Hannecken, the German commander, assumed full legislative; judicial, and executive powers, and at once ordered summary trial by court martial for sabotage as well as the imposition of heavy fines on towns in which strikes and the destruction of property occurred. The struggle since the closing months of 1943 has never been modified, and has apparently risen to a new climax of violence in the uprising of the Danish partisans, accompanied by a general strike which has brought all transport and industrial effort to a standstill. The Germans, hard pressed as they are on three fronts, are obviously concerned at the magnitude of the challenge that confronts them in

Copenhagen. It will be a new experience for the Nazis to have terms presented to them by a supposedly conquered people—terms on which the latter will be prepared to permit law and order to be restored. According to Swedish reports—Sweden being virtually the only source from which information concerning conditions in Denmark can reach the outside world—the Danish Council of Liberty has asserted that the revolt will continue unless von Hannecken agrees to the abolition of the Danish Nazi Corps, the removal of the curfew, the reopening of Copenhagen’s supply routes, and the guaranteeing to Danish strikers of immunity from reprisals. If the German commander accepts these conditions h 6 admits defeat. If he rejects them he must be prepared for the continuance of war against the partisans, with the added inconvenience of the cessation of production which has become increasingly important to the German war effort. This heroic stand by the Danes, in the hour when German' divisions are being routed in White. Russia, severely mauled in Normandy and relentlessly pursued in North Italy, may easily have farreaching consequences. It will be an inspiration to the oppressed peoples in other temporarily subjugated countries to do all that is in their power to add to German difficulties and hasten the day of their own liberation.