DENMARK AND GERMANY (2)

On 9 April 1940, seventy years ago, the German army marched across the land border into Denmark. Strategically, they weren't that interested in the country, it was really just a stepping stone on the way to Norway and its access to the North Atlantic. Resistance was minimal, and after two hours, the Danish King capitulated. Only 16 Danish soldiers were killed.

As I explained in my blog on 28 March, the "occupation" had a profound effect on relations with Germany. Yet a poll taken recently showed that only about one in two of the Danish population had any idea of the significance of the day; even more worrying, the proportion between the ages of 18 and 25 was only 17%!

History shows that it is a bad idea to forget history. It is not a bad idea to move away from bad ideas; slavery, anti-semitism, religious intolerance. But you need to know what happened, and why it was necessary to change. Residual anti-German feeling, without knowledge of the underlying reasons, is not a good pointer for Denmark's future.

Walter Blotscher