Nothing to Speak of: Wartime Experiences of the Danish Jews, 1943–1945 by Sofie Lene Bak (review)

Nothing to Speak of attempts to chronicle the various experiences of Denmark’s Jews by creating a historical narrative from documents, photographs, and oral histories. The book, a companion for a similarly named exhibit created by the Dansk Jødisk Museum, covers a two-year period from 1943 to 1945 when German authorities implemented anti-Jewish policies throughout Denmark. The historical depth of the book is primarily accomplished through the use of documents and photographs, with oral histories used as a way of personalizing the narrative.

Despite the commonly promoted idea that Nazi occupation took a consistent form, the German authorities used a different approach in a number of European countries. Denmark established an unusual cooperative agreement with the Germans to supply exports for the war effort that allowed it to create favorable measures for its citizens, including greater latitude with their Jewish population. Even as the process of identifying, isolating, and eliminating the Jewish populations of other countries across the Third Reich was underway, the Danes acted to keep this progression out of Denmark as long as possible. Because of this, the deportation of Jews did not reach Denmark until late 1943, nearly a year and a half after the Nazis began the program for other European countries. Even when roundups became inevitable, the German Plenipotentiary, the Reich’s representative in the hybrid Nazi-Danish government, was involved in warning the Jewish population beforehand.

The explanation for this stark difference seems to center around the occupying Germans’ commitment to protecting the agreement with the Danish government. Communication between the Nazi officials in Denmark and their superiors in Berlin suggests that the occupiers feared a massive resistance movement if the contract with the Danes was broken. In the summer of 1943, the occupiers met this suspicion as the Danes, inspired by news of Allied victories in Russia and North Africa, embarked on a systematic campaign of sabotage against the Germans. This action brought on a decisive response from Berlin, resulted in martial law, and triggered the implementation of the same restrictions on Jews as the rest of the Third Reich.

Nothing to Speak of is constructed with a neutral third-person tone with quotations supplementing the larger text. The book includes insets of documents and photographs, all presented in a professional way, giving it the feel of a coffee table book; this effect is enhanced by the author keeping each chapter reasonably short and attempting to cover only one specific aspect of the Jewish experience during this time period. Through this process, the author presents an encapsulated history of the treatment of Jews, as well as the Danish response to Nazi occupation.

While the subject of resistance is not the primary focus, the concept of rescue-and-refuge is essential in illustrating the difference between the greater Third Reich and Denmark. It is through this examination that the Danish effort to aid Jewish citizens in fleeing to Sweden and their efforts to hide Jews within Danish society are highlighted. Nothing to Speak of gives equal voice to those who were caught by Nazi policy. The chapter on those who were deported to concentration camps, the majority to Theresienstadt, provides an anchor for readers who are used to equating the Holocaust experience with confinement. Likewise, the chapter on death is significantly striking, as the author uses a fairly long quote from an oral history to illustrate the experiences of those who failed to reach safety while attempting to cross the Øresund to reach Sweden.

Unlike other volumes that use entire oral histories as a framework for examining an event, Nothing to Speak of relies less on long quotes from interviews and instead blends the information into its own narrative structure. While the final product does preclude a critical examination of the oral histories presented, this should not detract from the overall value as...