Danish Jewish Museum

Today I went on my own to see the Dansk Jødisk Museum.  Similarly to most things in Copenhagen, it was about a 5 minute bike ride.

Sadly, this was the only place I've seen armed guards in the entire city since arriving. Four or five guards with guns stood pacing back and fourth in front of the museum doors.  Even though its just a precaution, its still a little upsetting. 

I payed a total of 65DKK to see the regular exhibit and the new exhibit "Home" about WWII.  There was a lovely courtyard in front of the building.  The inside of the museum was really well designed.  It was really geometric and kinda funky looking.  The regular exhibit was very wooden with a lot of light while the "Home" WWII exhibit was darkly lit and finished with grey bricks. 

What was fascinating to me was that 99% of Jewish Danes survived Holocaust.  The main contributing factor was this was the strong ties between Sweden and Denmark. Sweden was a neutral force and therefore helped hide and house many Jewish people looking for refuge.  For about 20 months, the Jews of Denmark lived very comfortably and for the most part without fear of being turned in or found out.  Only around 460 Jewish people were transported to Theresienstadt transit camp in Bohemia. Of the people that were in Theresienstadt, a majority were returned home safely when the war was over.  

Another interesting fact was that the Denmark Social Service did a great job of keeping the apartments and homes of the fleeing Jewish people safe and protected while they were in Sweden. The goal was to help the returning refugees have a safe, organized, and strategic return once the war was over. To avoid crowd confusion and panic (once returning), Denmark didn't have Sweden send everyone back on boats in one day-- rather, this reintegration process took a few weeks. 

I strongly recommend visiting this museum if you want to get a perspective on the Holocaust that is extremely different than ones shared by other countries in Europe.

I also picked up a really beautiful necklace in the gift shop!