Lessons from History: Denmark/WWII
The Power of Courage and Goodness
Tove and Niels Bamberger were both Jewish children living in Denmark during World War II. Along with their fellow Jewish citizens, they were helped to escape to Sweden by the heroic actions of a vast network of Christian Danes, acting on the highest principle of loving their neighbors as themselves. (The rescue of the Danish Jews which inspired the citizens of Billings fifty years later, is included in the play package. See "Tove Bamberger's Story.")
Tove and her older sister, Kate, before the war. Copenhagen.
It should be noted that the united actions of the Christian Danes occurred during the darkest days of the Holocaust, when Jews were being routinely rounded up, tortured and exterminated throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. Yet, there was not a single country in which righteous Christians in varying numbers, did not risk their lives (and often the lives of their families) to resist the Nazis and protect Jewish children and adults. (One such example is the story of the French village of Le Chambon, and the events that occurred there during the war. The story is movingly told by Philip Hallie in his book Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed.)
2nd grade class in Jewish day school in Denmark, circa 1943. Unlike other countries in Nazi-occupied Europe, every child and teacher survived.