Rage against the Holocaust denial epidemic

OPINION:

We are once more in the throes of an epidemic of Holocaust denial. Deniers of the greatest genocide in recorded human history are yet again being given an opportunity to show their ignorance and prejudice by rejecting the fact that a mere 80 years ago, a highly sophisticated society caused millions of human beings to be incarcerated, transported and exterminated in factories of death solely because of their identity.

This denial is not merely a rejection of a historical fact. It is not just a denial of the suffering of millions of men, women and children. It also casts aside the valor of those — alas, too few — who chose, in the midst of the Nazi persecution, to reject that evil and to let their humanity shine through.

This was recently highlighted by Prince Joachim of Denmark, the great-grandson of King Christian X, the monarch who bravely chose to prevent the Nazis from seizing and killing the Jewish citizens of his kingdom.

The prince spoke at Washington’s oldest Orthodox synagogue on the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which marked the start of the organized persecution of Europe’s Jews in 1938.

Although he began with a description of the lengthy and cordial relationship between the Danish nation and its Jewish citizens, Prince Joachim focused his lecture on the dark days of German occupation. Highlighting the role of Denmark’s leaders as well as of ordinary Danish citizens, the prince noted that, at all levels of the Danish population, with determination and purpose, as the Germans sought to deport the Jews of Denmark, there was a coordinated effort to surreptitiously transport them to neutral Sweden, where they could find a haven.

In describing this important exception to the horrors of the years of the Holocaust, the prince was, in part, elaborating his own family’s history. He spoke of the principled stance taken by his great-grandfather, the king, and by his grandfather, the crown prince, in resisting Nazi demands. He indicated that the oft-repeated story that Christian X wore the yellow star is a myth because, in Denmark, the government opposed efforts to require Jews to wear a yellow star.

During the years of Nazi occupation, the Danish government successfully prevented the segregation and humiliation of its Jewish citizens. Although he never wore a yellow star, Christian X, through his actions, repeatedly sought to protect his Jewish subjects and rejected attempts to separate them from their non-Jewish neighbors.

As the prince recounted, when the German authorities sought to exchange a few Jewish prisoners for resistance fighters, the king angrily pounded the table and retorted, “How dare you offer me to exchange a Dane for a Dane.” To the king and the vast majority of the Danish population, Jews were simply fellow Danes.

When word was received at the time of the Jewish High Holy Days in 1943 that the Germans were planning to arrest and deport the Jews of Denmark, the Danes urged Jews to stay indoors and then organized a flotilla of small boats to transport them to safety. All but a handful of Danish Jews were saved. The prince further indicated that once the Jews had been taken safely out of Denmark, neighbors protected and maintained Jewish-owned property so that when Jews returned at war’s end they found their properties intact.

When asked why he thought that Danes, from the king to the simplest fisherman, acted as they did, the prince ascribed it to the spark of humanity within each of us. He explained that he believes the Danes did what every person is capable of doing: relying on that innate component of decency.

In Denmark in 1943, decency and compassion for fellow human beings prevailed. Danes saw friends and neighbors in danger, and they chose to help, reminding us that even in the moments of the worst manifestation of evil, it is still possible for humans to act appropriately with compassion for their fellows.

The prince’s eloquent remarks also served as a powerful reminder that denying the Holocaust is not merely refusing to acknowledge one of the most highly documented chapters of human depravity; it is also denying the role of many brave people who coalesced to save thousands of lives. It is also a denial of the spark of humanity within each of us that, regrettably, only too often fails to emerge, but which shone brightly in Denmark in October 1943.

The horrors of the Holocaust must never be denied. Beyond denying the suffering and martyrdom of millions, that denial also diminishes the significance of the courageous actions of people who, like the Danes, refused to be consumed by the evil around them. Just as the depravity of the Nazis must never be denied or forgotten, so the courage of the Danes should, as Prince Joachim made so evident in his presentation, always be remembered and valued.

• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm. He is the author of “Lobbying for Equality, Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights during the French Revolution,” published by HUC Press.