the passport of a Danish Jew
This summer I traveled to Israel with Birthright. This isn't the place or format to discuss my many feeling about the trip but I wanted to draw your attention to one artifact, one story that brought me some hope. The Holocaust museum in Jerusalem there is a map of showing the declining population of Jews in European countries, the number of immigrants, and of course the great death toll. Denmark stands out, having no significant change in Jewish population. The story goes that in possibly the largest act of collective resistance against Nazi forces, Danish people resisted orders to turn on their neighbours and instead contributed to a vast effort to smuggle Jews to neutral Sweden. After seeing pictures of emaciated prisoners, hearing stories from survivors, walking around piles of discarded shoes, this passport and the small kindness it represents have stuck with me.
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