Showed the world and Europe that monster can be stopped no matter who you are. Under nazi occupation like the Dens and Norwegians; an ally of the Nazis like the Fins and the Bulgarians, or the poor of the poor, like the Albanians. 5 nations of Europe, where were the rest?

This is a story I've heard before but its always a facinating read. An amazing and almost unique people in this way. I have no family experience of their help but as a Jew I express sincere and heart felt thanks. Its just a shame that countries with significant; 100,000+ Jewish populations couldnt step up to the mark; Poland, Soviet territories, Hungary, Romania, France, Romania etc Even neutral countries like Switzerland could have done so much instead of profiting from this persecution. Instead Jews had to reply on individuals who had limited but an important affect.

It is very good to know how many good people are in this world,and that we should avoid judging a people before knowing its history(swedish people - recent Volcano issue).

My both parents are from Romania ,and although they always avoided talking too much about that period on their lives,what I know is that the majority of Jews from there escaped the trains to death camps,because a king,King Carol,I think,got to protect them.

Thanks for the information but also the Romanians also pioneered the moveable gas chamber and tens of thousands of Romanian Jews perished. The non Jewish population of Romania was not half as helful as the Danes Im afraid. Im just glad that my mum's father's family escaped to Britain at the turn of the century from Romania! I appreciate you defending them though.

I am not exacly defending them,because my family did suffered a lot with pogroms,Iron Guards,etc,but ,at least,they,and a lot of other Jews,escaped the gaz chambers. My father tells us,though, that one day he rushed towards a train and succeded to grasp his brother from that fate... Well,as I told you,both of them don't speak too much about that,but one of these days I will check out that history betterly by myself.

Keren -- don't wait to get the story from your father and your uncle. Ask them now. Tape what they say. I can easily imagine that it won't be easy for them to discuss, but impress upon them how important it is -- for people generally and for you and your family to know what others in their family endured. Don't rest until you've extracted the story from them.

Well...I used the verb tense wrongly about my father,since he has already gone,but tonight I will talk to my mother and try to know much about their history in Romania during that period.

unlike the swedes,french,swiss, belgians and others of the future Eurabia, the Danes refused to fall to their knees. In fact, the Danes were exceptional also in their refusal to 'donate' Jews to the nazi cause as the french did. May G-d bless themand keep them safe

While the Danes were the best of the bunch, they were good only up to point. While they saved "their Jews" they regularly turned back Jews from Northern Germany trying to flee into Denmark. A turn around that sent the Jews to the camps and their deaths.

During the WW2 Finnish Jews fought in the Finnish army as other citizen did , too. Finland was allied with Germany to avoid Russian occupation but on the other side our government maintained distance with Germany. The Nazis asked the Finnish government to send the Jewish population to KZ camps in Germany, the Finns denied this. Unfortunately, 7 Finnish Jews were deported to Germany. Even one is too much.

Romania's involvement in the Holocaust was a wholesale slaughter. See the links below for more details: http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/carp/carp.pdf http://yad-vashem.org.il/about_yad/press_room/press_releases/11.11.04.html http://yad-vashem.org.il/about_yad/press_room/press_releases/pressrelease%20of%20commissoin.pdf

As promissed,I made some questions to my mother,but ,first I want to thank Logic for the sites;he is right. My mother was very young then ,and her memories are very faded... But anyway...she reminds bombs falling in Bucharest and they had to rush to a bunker everytime they started... She reminds paramilitar nazist ,Iron guards,who terrorized Jews,one day entering her house and asking for books...She was child,and wandered if they wanted german or russian books... My grandfather treated them very,very well-because was very scared- and they asked my grandfather to follow them...my grand father started wearing his coat,and they said that didn´t wan t to take him anymore;it was just terror! My mother reminds that Jewry wandered what was going on because Jews were required to go to city hall and gather there.Many disapeared... She reminds they listening to the forbiden radio,to find out what was going on,very scared not to be caught.... She reminds King Carol(Habsburg ) being exiled to Spain,and then his son Mihai taking his place,and after exiled too... She reminds Gereral Ion Antonescu,who brought the Iron guards into Romania but after regreted..... She reminds Jews were longing for russians to take over ,thinking it would be better than germans,but when they took the country,after war,every body saw they were thugs... She reminds ,already in russian hands,she had to work in a burocratic bureau,in statistics... Thy could not do whatever they wanted with their lives... Well...after,in 1949 (or 1950,not sure) they managed to live the country... They went to Israel,both worked there for a while,lived in a moshav (and some tents too..not remember very well) and came to Brasil ,where my father´s family was already... My mother´s father decided to stay in Israel along 2 of my aunts;my other aunt -sister´s mother- could´t get to live Romania,staying there until the 70ths when left to USA. So...here I am in Brasil...result of a difficult history;one more of so many other Jewish histories...

I just wrote my comment in brief, perhaps too brief. Be sure I have no grievances against the Fins, nor does any other Israeli who knows the story.

"Its just a shame that countries with significant; 100,000+ Jewish populations couldnt step up to the mark; Poland, " In the years 1939-1945 there was no Poland. The country was occupied in its entirety. From the beginning of the occupation - mass executions, planned extermination of the country's elites. How could it "step up to the mark"? Poland had no collaborationist government. But Denmark had one. No Polish unit fought on the Nazis side. But The Great Danes produced their own, and entirely voluntary, Danish SS Brigade [SS Freikorps Danmark]. From: http://tinyurl.com/l43c2 <>

Good reading on the topic: Discussion of Danish Rescue and King Christian's Moral Leadership held on the discussion list January -- March 1995 http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/danish-rescue.html

The Polish story is more complex then of any other country during the Holocaust. Both sides, Jews and Poles carry a tremendously heavy emotional burden, most of it the fault of the Germens. With huge Jewish population prior to WW2 and a long and complex history of relationships between Jews and Poles, the war had shown wide scale collaboration with the Nazis, wide scale apathy, and the largest number of people who risked their own lives saving Jews then in any other country. Three that add to the complexity of this issue, which single article, let alone talkback can resolve.

"A conversation with the historian Gunnar S. Paulsson who opened up an important historical debate with his book, "Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940- 45", which challenged popular and historical accounts of the plight of Jews in Warsaw during WW2. Paulsson debunked a widely held view that the Jews who were forced by the Nazis into the Warsaw Ghetto found it almost impossible to escape, due to the presence of a largely anti-Semitic Polish population. He says 28,000 Jews did escape the Ghetto - and survived in hiding in "Aryan" Warsaw - and had it not been for the Warsaw Uprising, thousands more Jews would have survived. Since the initial publication of 'Secret City', Paulsson has been working on a number of other remarkable documents from WW 2 Warsaw, especially a series of letters between two Jewish residents of the city." Transcript at: www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2006/1627683.htm

it's horrible that you don't know how the great king karol saved most of his jews. look for the amazing story about him leaving the summit with hitler and musolini and returning home to stop the death trains after he found out about them from the secret messenger who arrived to berlin. my family is thanking him every day, as most of romanian jews.

Take a look on my # 4 comment,please.

And King Carol saved Jews because he had a Jewish lover,whom he loved so much and who followed him into exile.

Take a look on my comment # 4,please. And just to add 2 things:King Carol saved as Jews as he could-before being exiled by Antonescu-because he had a Jewish lover ,whom he loved very much and who followed him into exile in Portugal(I made a mistake before ,when I said Spain).

I did wrote the last sentence incorrectly, I was in a hurry, what I said was that a single article, let alone this talk back, cannot resolve this. How would you look at this, Polish people as a whole or individuals with hard choices? There is no debate between us. We are at the beginning of the unbearable journey of resolving this emotional burden. (I am of a Polish origin) And speaking for myself I haven’t found yet the starting point. Know this Konard, I am looking for better relationships between our too peoples, ones that are rich and fulfilling for us both.

"How would you look at this, Polish people as a whole or individuals with hard choices? " It's always individuals - equipped with free will to assist them in making their choices. I, personally, have a problem with plurals. Danes? Some of them went to the Danish Jews rescue. But some of them joined the SS Freikorps Denmark and so took active part in annihilating other people (Jews among them) outside their own country. And there is a lot of space in between for the whole gamut of less extreme attitudes, motivated by a sense of helplessness, and different shades of fear. And - considering the depth and sheer brutality of the German occupation in Poland - I think I have the right to assume that helplessness and fear were factors that operated much stronger in occupied Poland than in Denmark. "Stepping up to the mark" had to be a matter of extremely difficult individual choice. If twenty thousand Jews hid on the so called "Aryan" side of Warsaw, and if hiding one person necessitated cooperation of five to ten persons, we would have then over one hundred thousand people engaged more or less directly in rescuing their Jewish co-citizens. And the penalty for it was death. Mrs. Irena Sendlerowa and her small ring of social co-workers saved life of around two thousand five hundred Jewish children. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4314145.stm There was quite a number of people who decided to use the lawlessness of the occupation to further their own, highly individual plans, people who would stop at nothing, denunciations, even murder - just to get some money, more than often at the expense of the hiding Jews. The attitudes of the majority? Fear, physical fear and the feeling of utter helplessness. This is what my father tried to describe to me. He was a wise man and he used to tell me that, considering the Polish national mythology and demands for masculine heroism rooted in it, it's extremely difficult to admit that one's own war-time inactivity stemmed from fear or, even, cowardice. [Inactivity, passivity - but not indifference.] But, on the other side, over a quarter million strong Polish Resistance. And over half a million Polish soldiers (more than French) fighting against the Germans and their collaborators on all the fronts of the Second World War. Objectively - by fighting the Third Reich they were fighting also to end the Holocaust. And a lot of them paid for it with their lives Was it not sufficient? Not enough individual choices made in order "to step up to the mark"?

Lets get the facts straight. The Danish government collaborated with the Germans from day 1. Denmark profited from her exports, which were used to feed the Wehrmacht, when the Wehrmacht was killing hundred thousands of Jews. Danish industrialists and entrepreneurs used Jewish slave labourers in their enterprises in the Baltic and Poland. Did they do that to alleviate the pressure on the Jews in Denmark? No, certainly not. Danish collaboration was not practiced with the purpose of saving the Danish Jews. 6000 Danish men joined the Waffen-SS, with the approval of the Danish government. They participated in the murder of Jews in Poland and other countries. 1940-43 the Danish authorities expelled at least 21 Jews to Germany, among them 3 children. 19 of these people were killed in Auschwitz and other camps. The German occupants in Denmark never asked for the expulsion of these people. Already in 1936 the Danish authorities tried to systemize expulsion of mainly Jewish refugees from Denmark. Shortly before the Danish Jews escaped to Sweden in 1943, Danish authorities seriously discussed interning the Jews in Denmark. Such ideas had already emerged in 1942. Duckwitz was a German spy, who had worked for arch-Nazis like Alfred Rosenberg. In Copenhagen he became a close companion of the “Bloodhound of Paris”, Werner Best. Mr. Duckwitz many post-war narratives are self-contradictive and full of discrepancies and many of his alleged endeavours, which were not investigated thoroughly by the Israeli authorities before he was honoured as a Righteous among the Nations, contradict information about him in Danish and Swedish archives. For instance Mr. Duckwitz trip to Sweden was not planned in desperation on September 19 as he himself claimed after the war. He didn’t fly to Sweden as often argued. He took a boat to Molmoe in southern Sweden on September 21 and wasn’t in Stockholm until September 22. He planned the trip and already applied for it with the Danish authorities on September 14. There exist no proofs that he spoke with the Swedish prime minister during this visit to Stockholm. The only thing we know was that he saw Willy Wyler’s “Ms. Minever” in a Stockholm cinema, in a version cut by 78 metres by the Swedish State Film Censorship; The very 78 metres in which Germany and the Nazis were criticized. That’s how “Neutral” Sweden was. The claim that Mr. Duckwitz was the rescuer of the Danish Jews, we only know through his own account and from Danish Social Democrats, many of whom had collaborated with the Nazis and like Hans Hedtoft expressed very little support to Jewish refugees when a bill, which made the hiding Jews a crime, was passed in the Danish Parliament in 1940. In Sweden the Jews from Denmark experienced anti-Semitism. New research shows that it was not expressed by the Swedes, but rather by the other Danes in exile. An interesting finding, when we again and again are being told that the Danes weren’t anti-Semites and that Danish officials expelled Jews to Germany, not because the hated Jews, but because the followed strict Danish laws. P.s. The photographs of the boats that accompany your article are all questionable. The pictures of the refugees in the boats are post-war reconstructions and the boat on display in Yad Vashem was probably never used in the rescue of the Danish Jews to Sweden.

Legends and Myths from WWII Denmark: http://www.diis.dk/graphics/CVer/Personlige_CVer/Holocaust_and_Genocide/Publikationer/holocaust_DK_kap_5.pdf

You stated your case eloquently. I appreciate it and respect it. I brought one angle of the matter, you several angles. This is the best that can be done with talbacks on such an issue. God willing and time allowing better opportunities will come our way, and in the way of others, in dealing with all of this. Easy it wont be! I wish you all the best and thank you. There is a lot to learn for both sides, here.

I don't understand these talkbacks on Romania. I've read countless books about Holocaust and was under impression that the Jews in Romania were treated brutally by Romanians, and most were killed. Is this not so?

Yes ,some 380.000 Jews were dead in Romania,but a great number,mostly in Bucarest,were saved. Iasi was one of the tows where much died and near Hungarian borders too. Logic # 12 suggested interesting sites.Take a look.