Why did not more people in WWII emulate the Danes? They all wore the Star of David, even the king and Queen.?

Answer 1

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. It is enough to say that King Christian refused to capitulate to Adolf Hitler when he decreed that all Jews wear a yellow star to identify them as Jew. They day after he stated this the King himself wore a yellow arm band and asked his citizens to join him. It was to say that a Dane is a Dane, no matter the name. The decree was never enforced and some say was rescinded the next day.
Even though this is an urban legend only a very few Danish Jews of the 7800 there, were taken to concentration camps. They were hidden or transported to Sweden under King Christian X instruction.

I wish I knew why. It would have been a very short war and the collateral damage wouldn't have been so far reaching even unto the next generations. Maybe it was because he was in a leadership position and the people found it easier to defy because he brought himself to their level.

Answer 2

Sorry, mate, this is an urban legend. Although Denmark did behave particularly well to their native Jews, no one (including Danish Jews) ever wore the star.

Part of the reason was that the Danes were Aryans and under Hitler's whacked out racial theories, that meant they couldn't be treated as foully as the Poles and other Eastern Europeans could be. That meant they could get away with more defiance than other people - that doesn't detract from their bravery, after all they didn't know that.

Answer 3

Fear. One of my many Great Aunts, living in Luxembourg during the Occupation by the Nazis, refused twice to give the Nazi salute. She was told that the next time she refused, she would disappear and no one would ever see her again. My German professor in college lived in the Sudetenland during the war. One of his aunts, who ran an orphanage, wrote a letter to his Mom complaining that the Nazis would not allow her to have enough butter and milk for the children. She disappeared. One of his cousins was a Monsignor in Prague, who preached a mild sermon against Nazi actions, also disappeared. People became frightened of what would happen to them. I did a research paper my senior year in college about the people in Berlin who hid some of the Jews right under Hitler's nose. It was a fascinating study in courage, both of the Jews and those who hid them.

Answer 4

Denmark had one of the most fully integrated Jewish populations in Europe, this made it far more possible for this to happen than anywhere else. In addition, the Danish custom of using a patronymic (named derived from the father's first name) as the family name made it hard to identify "Jewish sounding" names.

Answer 5

Probably because many of them were just as anti-Semitic as the Germans.

The Poles and the French, who had large Jewish populations were downright enthusiastic about helping their German conquerors kill Jews. Even today they remain largely anti-Semitic.

Answer 6

if that had happened in Germany, I wonder what Hitler would have done with that.
Probably killed off a few thousand Germans to intimidate and it probably would have worked.