ZGram - 4/21/2003 - "Explosive Danish Documentary"
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zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Mon Apr 21 19:26:39 EDT 2003
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!
April 21, 2003
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
Only the tip of the iceberg!
[START]
Explosive Danish Documentary
By Andrew Osborn
The Observer - UK
3-14-3
Stirring tales of wartime resistance have been common currency in
Denmark for 50 years, but an explosive new documentary has
illuminated a darker side to the period and is outraging a generation.
Only a German does not pull any punches, claiming that the Danish
authorities were responsible for the deaths of 7,000 German children
under the age of five between 1945 and 1949 and describing how Danish
doctors denied food and medical aid to a quarter of a million German
refugees seeking sanctuary in Denmark.
Produced by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, the programme has
provoked a storm of controversy. The producer has been called a
traitor and a propagandist, surviving members of the Danish
resistance movement have called it a lie and an affront to the past,
and many elderly people claim it tells a story best forgotten. After
living under Nazi occupation from April 1940 until May 1945, Danes
were anxious not to be labelled as collaborators when the smoke
finally cleared. In fact they were so eager to show their anti-Nazi
credentials, it is argued, that they treated Germans who sought
refuge there from the advancing Soviets like animals.
Mostly women, children and the elderly, the refugees were put in
internment camps, forbidden from fraternising with Danes and refused
both medical care and sufficient food. As a result, some 13,500
refugees died in 1945 alone - 7,000 children.
Dr Kirsten Lylloff, an amateur historian who became curious about the
number of graves of German babies and children near her home, says
they all died of 'perfectly curable' diseases.
Soeren Lindbjerg, producer of the documentary, said the children were
treated abominably. 'They died from malnutrition and ordinary
diseases such as measles and scarlet fever,' he told The Observer .
'These were contagious diseases, but they were kept in overcrowded
camps with scarce food and they died like flies. They were in Danish
care behind barbed wire and totally dependent on Denmark. This part
of our history has been whitewashed.'
Refugees from other countries were separated and provided with more
food and basic medical care, adds Lindbjerg.
But not everyone agrees. Former resistance fighter Leif Larsen,
founder of Denmark's Documentation Centre against Historical
Falsification, claims the Germans had only themselves to blame. 'This
thing that has been called a dark chapter in Danish history wasn't
dark at all. The fact of the matter is that the Germans themselves
rejected the help of Danish doctors.
'A lot of people have called me a traitor and said I am smearing our
country's reputation and should not have told this story, but nobody
has been able to reject my documents. There's a feeling that what the
Germans did to us was far worse, so we shouldn't tell the story.'
Helge Kvam, of the Danish Red Cross, said his organisation couldn't
help because of Danish hostility towards Germans. 'The atmosphere at
the time was very anti-German. Girls who had slept with German
soldiers had their heads shaven and were driven around and spat at.
We would have been considered collaborators if we had helped.'
Lindbjerg said: 'The heroic efforts of Danish resistance fighters and
the rescue of Jews are all we hear about, and they're true. At school
this chapter of history is never talked about. But every country has
to face its past.'
[END]
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