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A Conspiracy Of Decency: The Rescue Of The…
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A Conspiracy Of Decency: The Rescue Of The Danish Jews During World War II (original 2002; edition 2004)

by Emmy E. Werner (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
474537,674 (4.38)5
This book took me so long to read because I was crying. All the time. In joy, mostly. This is the type of book that reaffirms your faith in humanity. Denmark was close to neutral Sweden, held all its citizens in high regard, and had a low population of Jews - less than ten thousand. All of these factors - and more - play into the last chapter, where Werner talks about why such a huge rescue effort, and why they were able to save such a large percentage of its Jewish population.

Much of the book is, however, tales of how Jews were saved, and why the people saved them. It's backed up with quotes from memoirs, other books about this same phenomena, and various articles - from magazines and newspapers, the former from a retrospective stance and the former mostly from articles written when this was happening. It's a narrative based on interviews the author conducted himself, and backed up by a lot of outside sources. It's broken up into neat chapters that go over one particular aspect of the war and the rescue attempt. It's written in a smooth, comprehensive manner. It was brilliant!

It's highly moving, to the point that I cry when even thinking about this. It does have some editing issues in the e-book version - ends of sentences are repeated, and links for footnotes are in the middle of some sentences, but that's the only complaint I have about this book. Otherwise, it's brought me some peace about the Holocaust, and... I'm going to go cry in joy until it's time to meet my friends for brunch. I highly recommend this book. ( )
  All_Hail_Grimlock | Oct 25, 2015 |
Showing 4 of 4
This book took me so long to read because I was crying. All the time. In joy, mostly. This is the type of book that reaffirms your faith in humanity. Denmark was close to neutral Sweden, held all its citizens in high regard, and had a low population of Jews - less than ten thousand. All of these factors - and more - play into the last chapter, where Werner talks about why such a huge rescue effort, and why they were able to save such a large percentage of its Jewish population.

Much of the book is, however, tales of how Jews were saved, and why the people saved them. It's backed up with quotes from memoirs, other books about this same phenomena, and various articles - from magazines and newspapers, the former from a retrospective stance and the former mostly from articles written when this was happening. It's a narrative based on interviews the author conducted himself, and backed up by a lot of outside sources. It's broken up into neat chapters that go over one particular aspect of the war and the rescue attempt. It's written in a smooth, comprehensive manner. It was brilliant!

It's highly moving, to the point that I cry when even thinking about this. It does have some editing issues in the e-book version - ends of sentences are repeated, and links for footnotes are in the middle of some sentences, but that's the only complaint I have about this book. Otherwise, it's brought me some peace about the Holocaust, and... I'm going to go cry in joy until it's time to meet my friends for brunch. I highly recommend this book. ( )
  All_Hail_Grimlock | Oct 25, 2015 |
When Germany occupied Denmark during WWII, the king told his people to “behave like good Danes”. A 17-year-old schoolboy asked himself, “How does a good Dane behave in a situation like this, when his country is occupied?” He came up with these ‘Ten Commandments’
“Ten Commandments for the Danes”

  1. You must not take work in Germany or Norway.

  2. You must do worthless work for the Germans.

  3. You must work slowly for the Germans.

  4. You must destroy important machines and gear.

  5. You must destroy everything useful to the Germans.

  6. You must delay all transports.

  7. You must boycott German and Italian newspapers and films.

  8. You must not trade with Nazis.

  9. You must deal with traitors as they deserve.

  10. You must defend everyone persecuted by the Germans.

JOIN IN THE FIGHT FOR DENMARK’S FREEDOM


The Danes resisted the occupation. Some of the resistance was passive, Danes would leave a store if German soldiers came in. They would leave a streetcar if the Germans sat down in one. The Germans were disconcerted by this. They ridiculed the soldiers, making jokes at their expense. Children were instructed to say “I don’t understand” and nothing else to the soldiers.

There was also active resistance and acts of sabotage. Underground newspapers were printed. Through all this the Danish government protected the Danish Jews. This all ended in September 1943 when martial law was proclaimed by the Germans after taking over the government and neutralizing the army and navy. Hitler ordered all Danish Jews be deported.

What happened next is nothing short of amazing, word was gotten to the Jewish people to go into hiding, arrangements were made for them to live in Sweden, and the Danish people cooperated in getting them there under the noses of the Germans. The Danish people when asked simply said, “It was the right thing to do.”

This is a fascinating account. The book is not big but Ms. Werner manages to include all the important details. The was enough historical information about the people involved to understand what happened but not so much that the book was dragged down. She also included a brief lesson about the issue of “Swiss neutrality”, which was something I had often heard about, but never had it explained so clearly.

For the reasons explained above I recommend this book. ( )
  BellaFoxx | Feb 14, 2015 |
An incredible book. It makes you wonder, if so much good exists, how does evil continue to thrive?

I loved the way in which this book was told - a blending of chronology and topic. The last chapter was a bit of the let-down as far as style goes, but the rest was amazing. ( )
  benuathanasia | Jan 25, 2015 |
Ms. Werner's "A Conspiracy of Decency" is a well-written and engaging history of the Danish rescue of their Jewish countrymen and the Swedish support of the Danish refugees. The chapters are arranged chronologically: occupation, rescue, refuge in Sweden, Theresienstadt, resistance in Copehagen, liberation, and finally a summing up of the circumstances that contributed to the rescue and what kind of people become rescuers ( )
  cataclysm | Sep 12, 2009 |
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