Danish police had a difficult role during the
occupation 1940-45! Till 29 August 1943 there were growing problems in the
cooperation between the Danish
government and the German occupation forces. The
police was loyal to the government. On the other hand the Germans did not want
to be so hard on the Danes that Danes in great numbers started sabotage or took
other actions unpleasant for the Germans. The top priority was to keep Denmark as
a quiet country which supplied agricultural products without particular
problems, so that the number of German soldiers in Denmark could be as low as
possible.
- On 12 September 1941
HAM AE300 crashed near Hostrup not far from Vejle. One airman was hard to find.
When
Philson was found after a great effort from Danish
police and the German
Wehrmacht, he was invited by Danish police to a dinner at Daugaard Inn before
he was taken to
German POW-Camps!
Webster had got about 300 km from the south of
Jutland to Helsingør before he was arrested by Danish police on 20 October 1942.
He was handed over to the
German Military Intelligence, which sent a copy of the
interrogation report to the Danish Ministry of Justice. He might have become an
actor!
Some policemen helped airmen. In
May 1943
Donald V. Smith
had new identity papers from Danish police officers, see
First Airman to
Sweden.
On 29 August 1943 the Germans took control over
Denmark, as the Danish government did not want to impose death penalty on Danish
saboteurs!
However, the police continued their work, now directed by Danish civil servants.
There were no ministers, but the ministries carried on.
Most policemen did not want to capture crashed airmen. In a number of cases the
police assisted airmen in their escape!
On 19 November 1943
Mecznik was sailed to Sweden. His voyage was
planned by Danish police officers in cooperation with their contacts in Sweden.
On 17 April 1944 2 American airmen sailed with "Svanen" from Bornholm to
Sweden. A young policeman and a fisherman carried out the dangerous transport.
On
1 June 1944
Ernst Petersen, Ebbe Hasselholt Jørgensen and others chose to stay in Sweden for
the duration of the war. That day they sailed
John Whiteman
and 3 other airmen from
B17 42-31619 to Sverige! And then? Read more at
Bornholm 1998.
On 21 April 1944 a man near Roskilde called the
police, because there were uninvited guests in his nursery. The Danish policemen
found out that they were American airmen - and very soon they had
Gill and Markowicz
taken to Sweden via the resistance movement!
In August 1944 other Danish policemen managed
to have 4 airmen sailed across the Sound to
Sweden.
In September 1944 2 airmen of
LAN PB436 were helped to Sweden. 2 policemen took
them as prisoners across Denmark - see
Air crash, escape and rescue.
On 19 September 1944 Danish police was disbanded.
See
Deportation of Danish police. Of about 10,000 Danish police officers 1,960 were arrested by the Germans
and
deported to
Germany! The rest of them went underground
and quite a number of them joined the
Danish
resistance movement.
In April 1945 a former policeman,
now a member of the resistance movement, helped
Foster on his way to Sweden.
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