Context

Today was our first real day of study-tourism, and we started with some background.

Jewish context

We began the day at the Danish Jewish Museum. I’ve been admiring Danish architecture since we got here, and this one is no accident. It’s a mitzvah.

The Hebrew word mitzvah means good deed, large or small. The museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, is inspired by the 4 Hebrew letters that spell Mitzvah. It repurposes a historic galley building built by King Christian IV, the king who originally invited Jews to settle in Denmark in 1622. Modern and historic elements blend, both uneasily and smoothly, and that’s on purpose. The flooring is intentionally unsteady, and the wooden planks suggest the fishing boats of 1943…a national mitzvah. But not without bumps, both literal and symbolic.

Interestingly, Libeskind also designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the exhibit included a comparison of the two – this one inspired by Mitzvah and integration, Berlin’s by absence and void.

As you can see, the museum geek in me had a great day!

Anyway, the museum documents 400 years of Judaism in Denmark – and it doesn’t shy away from the presence of anti-Semitism, even in a country where Jews were invited and legally protected.

The 1943 rescue is explored in an hour long virtual reality film that was the best I’ve ever seen. (And yes, I’ve been on the Avatar ride at Disneyworld!) The technology was good, but the story, a composite of 7 real stories into one fictionalized narrative, was emotional and compelling and more than once I wanted to talk back to the narrator, rowing a boat with me as the passenger. As an old man rowing, he recounts a night of rowing as a young man in 1943. The story personalized history – but the line that has stuck with me all day was that he thought his own story mattered, until it blended with all the other chaos of that night. Maybe when there is so much that is extraordinary nothing can be anymore?

Entrance to museum

Old meets new inside

A nearby church…with the Hebrew word for God over the door. Integration.

This project came about for Lauren in part because Americans don’t learn much if anything about the rescue of 1943 and the important lessons inherent in it. I assumed that Danish schools would teach it proudly – wrong. We chatted with a museum employee who graciously allowed us to record video of him and share it here. Unedited for now, apologies for that! Again, I wondered if an abundance of extraordinary contributes to the reason this heroic chapter is underplayed.

In a crazy stroke of coincidence- his father is from Connecticut, not far from where Lauren lives and teaches!

Resistance context

Next stop, Museum of Danish Resistance. Again, architecture was no accident – this museum is almost entirely underground. We walked by it twice while looking for it. We thought it was an ice cream store and cafe.

It was a very complete history, told through a series of vignettes with audio tours and projections, of the Danish Resistance movement from the moment of occupation in 1940 until the end of the war in 1945.

Here, the 1943 rescue found a lot more context. The 3 week operation was only a tiny part of the exhibition, which answers a lot of questions and left us with more. The movement began because Danes were MAD that Germany was occupying the country, and that their government capitulated so quickly. It was fueled by ideology for some, but also national pride. There was anti-semitism and a Danish Nazi party, but for most the occupation was an attack on all Danes and Jewish Danes were no exception. Anger toward the Germans was much greater than the little pockets of Danish anti-Semitism.

We had a really interesting conversation with a museum employee at the end of the visit, and he allowed us to audio-record and share here. Again, this is unedited and there is some background noise – but he talks a lot about why Danes have mixed feelings about this period of history and their role in it. Perhaps this is another reason it’s not widely taught.

Apologies for the background noise – but worth listening.

This building is very easy to miss – and there is a sign for the cafe near the entrance…so we thought it was a cafe!

Many artifacts of resistance movement, and audio tour used resistance fighters’ own words wherever possible.

And more

We did a little touristing today too – Copenhagen really is a beautiful city and we walked everywhere and discovered humor, creativity, culture and friendly people everywhere. Time to sleep!