During World War II, why were most Jewish survivors from Denmark and Finland?

Answer 1

Denmark. Like in Norway, also in Denmark there was resistance to the Nazi’s whish to deport the Jews. Unlike in some of the occupied nations, the Germans decided to respect the political sovereignty of Denmark, in exchange for cooperation with the occupation. This created a unique situation that allowed the Danish to help their Jewish population escape north to neutral Sweden. The successful rescue of the Danish Jews can therefore be contributed to the will and ability of the independent Danish government and people to defy the German commands to deport the Jews, and to rescue them. As well as the proximity of Neutral Sweden, and its willingness to absorb the Danish Jews.

Finland is a whole other story. After a war of independence with the Soviet Union, know as the Winter War (1939-1940) an armistice between the two was reached. When the Germans attacked Russia in 1941, the Russians feared that Finland would become involved in the war. They arranged massive bombardments of Finnish cities. This lead to an alliance between Finland and Germany, allowing the latter to station troops in Finland. Germany delivered arms as well to Finland and several operations against the Soviets where successful, yet one main objective, taking Murmansk, was never achieved.

In 1944 the war was going disastrously for the Finnish and an armistice was signed. The Russians, now more interested in taking Berlin, than Helsinki, agreed to stop military action, if the Finnish would expel the Germans. This in turn, led to a war between Germany and Finland, the so-called Lapland war.

As you can see, due to the alliance, Finland stayed independent entirely from Germany. Requests to deport Jews from Finland into Germany where refused by the independent Finnish government.

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Answer 2

Denmark was the only nation to officially protect its Jewish population from German genocide. With the help of the Danish police and the Danish people, Jews were evacuated from Denmark to Sweden after Denmark was occupied by the Germans. The Danish government compensated the Swedish government for any expenses. After the war, Denmark was declared "righteous among the nations" by the new Israeli government, and remains the only nation so honored.

Answer 3

Danes and Swedes protected Jews from the Nazis. Wish there had been more like them.

Today, these countries have problems because they also took in large numbers of Moslems. Now the moslems want to take over those countries.