Too many research citations in this one to do them in-text... I'll be using citation numbers to reference:
1) "Denmark 1943" is a song by Fred Small, on his "I Will Stand Fast" album.
2) General historical context from The Holocaust Wikipedia article.
3) Details of the historical event tributed in Fred Small's song from the Wikipedia article on Rescue of the Danish Jews.
Fred Small's song "Denmark 1943" has been running through my head a lot lately... and not just because it's a great song, and great tribute to historical persons and their actions. Elements of that historical event and Small's dramatization of it are striking parallels (and even more troublesome, stark contrasts) with what I see going on around me on a daily basis.
First, a mini history lesson:
The mass execution of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally and physically handicapped, and anyone else that Nazi authorities deemed "unfit" was covered by our childhood schooling (or by the media, for those who were past schooling age when that information became public). Jews constituted roughly half of the 11 million total killed in German eugenics-goaled programs, and only 20-30% of Jews who had the misfortune to find themselves in occupied territory survived the extermination attempt [2].
What didn't get covered (at least in my schooling), is the regional variations in death rates to Nazi death squads/camps, and the reasons behind those regional differences. Jewish mortality was ~90% in Germany, Austria, Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. The survival rate was somewhat higher in Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Romaia, Belgium, and Hungary but still less than half in each of these countries. [2]
The killing was so widespread that few safe-havens were found: "Albania was the only country occupied by Germany that had a significantly larger Jewish population in 1945 than in 1939. About two hundred native Jews and over a thousand refugees were provided with false documents, hidden when necessary, and generally treated as honored guests in a country whose population was roughly 60% Muslim. [2]" I'm sure there's some great stories from there, but I don't have a song or a Wikipedia article educating me about Albania like I do for Denmark's massive short-notice rescue that occurred in the fall of 1943.
What's so special about Denmark?
A sympathetic German diplomat leaked warning of a plan to round up Danish Jews and deport them to the death camps to a Danish political activist on September 28th. By the following day, the news had been relayed through Danish Resistance members to leaders of the Jewish community. Jewish families were warned, concealed, and ultimately transported to safety in Sweden by their non-Jewish compatriots. When the German raid commenced on the evening of October 1st, only one Jewish family was found to be still occupying their previous address. [3]
Christian policemen, shopkeepers, and teachers
Tell their friends of the quickening storm
While students on bicycles race through the streets
Searching for Jews to be warned
Seven thousands of Jews smuggled over to SwedenIncluding interceptions during the following weeks, the occupying Germans managed to capture only 580 of the total ~7,800 Jewish Danes. Most of those captured were sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp (not an extermination camp) where they received packages of food and medication from their Danish sponsors. Only 51 Jewish Danes died at Theresienstadt, with 425 survivors (some of them born in captivity) being liberated in 1945. Death rate for Denmark's Jews: less than 1%! [3]
By fishermen, nurses, and priests
Hitler sends Eichmann to hunt them down
But his quarry have vanished like mist [1]
But there's more to the history lesson than how many and by what means the Danes rescued their Jewish neighbors. WHY was Denmark so different from so many other countries that allowed (or even encouraged) the slaughter of their Jewish citizens? The reason is amazingly simple:
"Although the Danish authorities cooperated with the German occupation forces, they and most Danes strongly opposed the isolation of any group within the population, especially the well-integrated Jewish community. The German action to deport Danish Jews prompted the Danish state church and all [but one of the Danish] political parties ... to denounce the action and to pledge solidarity with the Jewish fellow citizens. For the first time, they openly opposed the occupation." [3]
Or, as Fred Small poeticized it:
"We're not heroes or martyrs," so say the DanesThe difference between the Danes and the majority of other Europeans was that in Denmark, Jews had been socially integrated into the general population such that when German invaders aimed their deadly sights at this minority group their neighbors took action to defend those they considered to be their own kind of people.
"We were just looking after our own" [1]
What does that have to do with events here and now? There's a lot of value judgements still happening based on ancestry, (dis)ability, religion, sexual orientation, and gender expression... and even though we're not facing armed invaders intent on shipping our neighbors off to the gas chambers, there's still an awful lot of social, political, economical, and even physical harm that gets willfully targeted towards those who have the misfortune to find themselves labeled as an unwanted minority.
For far too many, those persecutions still are a matter of life or death. The transgender community holds vigil on November 20th every year to remember those of us who have been murdered solely for being trans within the last year, and to pray that these killings will someday end. LGBT people of all ages face bullying, harassment, unstable employment and housing, and physical violence... sometimes from the very people who are legally responsible for their well-being. [Remember that news story about the mother who beat her toddler to death, thinking that if she smacked him around enough he'd stop "acting gay"? Do you have any idea how many other cases of similar abuse are happening right now, and will probably never be reported or investigated because all of the family members involved think this treatment is normal?] This constant inhumane treatment and lack of security is directly responsible for the high incidence of depression that LGBT people experience. Even when we're not facing threats of physical harm from those around us, suicide and other self-harming behaviors occur at frequencies significantly higher than those of the general population.
They're not your friends or family, what does it matter to you if those dirty queers live and die miserable lives? Or maybe that suffering individual is someone you know, but you think that a brief mention of them in your prayers is all that's expected of you; faith heals all wounds, leave it all in God's hands. And you call yourself a Christian?!?! I'll skip the scriptural quotes, I'm sure you can come up with several on your own.
So what does claiming that alphabet soup of fellow Children of God as our own look like? Jerilyn "Momma" Pool sure is making an impressive effort at it! She also discovered that the need for compassion is much more than she can provide alone, so is soliciting assistance in following through on all those care packages; if you're completely clueless, look through her suggestions for some things you could possibly do to help.
Of course, that's the detached and disconnected type of support... if you want to take up a notch, do something for somebody you know in person. Offer a hug. Invite that person or couple that your ward has rejected over for dinner. Write a note of appreciation for that person's unique strengths and talents. Share their joys and sorrows. Trade skills or knowledge. Let them play with your children. Acknowledge their relationships. Use preferred names and pronouns. Treat all of God's children with compassion and respect. Speak up when you see/hear someone else claiming divine right to persecute. Start in your own family, then expand to your neighborhood and ward.
The difference between heaven or hell on earth is how we treat each other. Which do you want to live in?
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