A Force More Powerful

Narrator: Confined within the walls of a South African jail

the young lawyer from India found no reason to complain

Some say that jail is a palace others look upon it as a beautiful garden

Some others hold that through the jail gates we shall pass from our

present bondage to freedom

The year was 1907

the young lawyer from India was Mohandas Gandhi

Gandhi led his fellow Indians in a nonviolent struggle against racial

oppression for eight years

they marched into forbidden territory they burned

their registration papers

they expected to be arrested and they were not disappointed

Gandhi said nonviolent refusal to cooperate with injustice is the way to

defeat it he gave his nonviolent weapon a name

Satyagraha, holding to truth.

in every decade and on every continent underdogs have taken up Gandhi's strategies

to fight for their rights and freedom

nonviolence means fighting back but you're fighting back with other weapons

the power that Gandhi discovered changed the 20th century

Spring weather comes early in 1940

adding to the illusion the tranquil Denmark can remain untouched by the war

that is spreading across Europe

Danish government has proclaimed neutrality

and reduced its Armed Forces by half

Denmark intends to remain at peace

On the morning of April 9th everything changes

Attacking by air land and sea, the German war machine meets token opposition in

the south but then Denmark orders its troops to lay down their arms

Bruun: we could not imagine that it had anything to do

with the war or occupation or anything like that

we flew out of our beds and looked out of the window.

They were very close. Those Germans they were always so noisy

Suddenly, we realized that this was something very terrible

the invaders capture the headquarters of the Danish army general staff without

firing a shot

disbelieving Danes wander the streets watching helplessly

German leaflets and posters say we come not as enemies but as friends and

promise that Denmark will remain under Danish law and government it's hard to

believe Hitler has occupied an entire country in under six hours

Late that afternoon, Danish Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning asks the

Danish Parliament to officially accept the terms of the German occupation

Stauning: My father felt that his policy was the least harmful

for the people if we had used the military on April 9.

They would've bombed Copenhagen without a doubt

thousands of people would have lost their lives

Narrator: Rather than suffer certain defeat,

Danish political leaders choose not to fight.

Their goal is survival.

They will attempt to hold the Germans to their promises to respect Danish neutrality they will

negotiate the terms of occupation under protest hoping to turn the charade of

friendly relations to Denmark's advantage.

Bundik: The king was in place, the Parliament was

legislating, the police was in charge of the law and order, the Danish courts

were functioning and the Jewish community was functioning

Narrator: At the start, German troops are well-mannered and respectful

but their very presence is a provocation. Danes wonder now that we have capitulated, what next?

They have not prepared for a German occupation.

They have no Gandhi. They have no resistance organization.

Almdal: In most homes the attitude was that we have to accept this and try to make it

work but for goodness sake don't try to have anything to do with them

don't ever speak to a German, oh dear, and be careful what you do

Danish cabinet ministers adopt a policy of resistance disguised as collaboration

Danes will cooperate with the Germans but only as a tactic to preserve self-rule

German demands will be negotiated by diplomats, delayed by bureaucrats and

quietly obstructed when possible

For many Danes it's not enough

Denmark was humiliated and the whole population actually, suddenly felt

that they had lost something something of their thickness, something of their

conscious dignity. What were you to do? What could you do in this situation?

You couldn't go out fighting, the fight was not there

So they gathered in the park

of the city and and sing national anthems

Narrator: Every week the song fests grow

signaling the birth of Danish solidarity against a common enemy

And Danes take new pride in their king who rides alone every morning as always

Bruun: People were very proud that we had a king. It was like a way of demonstrating

against the Germans and we weren't interested in any form of dictatorship

Germans ignore exhibitions of national pride as long as they do not interfere

with German objectives--to use Denmark's farms to feed the German army,

to use Danish factories and shipyards to supply war material

Relations with Germany are handled by Danish Foreign Minister Erik Scavenius,

a man many believe is pro-German.

Nissen: When people argued with him and said

"well, in the long run we are losing our respect

all over the country," he said "well, yes,

that's correct. But...

we might keep our respect and be dead, all of us."

He said, "how many corpses do you want

in order to save your honor?"

Narrator: Scavenius wants the Germans to think they're getting what they want to keep

pressure off Denmark

In November 1941, he goes to Berlin to sign a treaty

justifying the German invasion of the Soviet Union

When his photograph with Hitler is published in Denmark

outraged students take to the streets

Narrator: after five days Danish police restore order but public support for the

Scavenius policies is severely damaged

underground resistance leaders condemned even tactical collaboration as treason

their primary weapon is information

The illegal press reaches two and a half million

Denmark's entire adult population

uncensored news of the war

gathered from the BBC and other sources fuels Danish hopes and the illegal press

also encourages active resistance of all kinds

small-scale attacks, arson

the stealing of weapons from German soldiers, pouring sugar into gas tanks.

All the work of untrained high school students they say "if the adults won't do something we will"

German authorities order local police to crack down but patriotic young Danes are determined.

Ljungquist: I was very angry at the time a lot of

young people were angry and we were angry that we hadn't done more,

resisted more than we had.

We later realized that it was a hopeless situation

but that doesn't change the feeling which I still have that we protected our country so poorly.

Narrator: In November, SS General Werner Best takes charge in Denmark

Hitler tells him

to rule with an iron hand

Best pressures Eric Scavenius, the new Prime Minister

but most Danes have turned against the Scavenius policies

On BBC broadcast from London, a Danish political exile John Christmas Møller

now speaks defiantly against the Prime Minister and calls for active resistance

Møller: Understand that the merciless rule here and it's time for Denmark to take a

stand you're going to join and are you willing to contribute we must ensure

that we do not harm the soul of the nation

Spring 1943, the German occupation is three years old

A facade of cooperation continues

but popular loyalty shifting to the resistance movement

By day the government campaigns against sabotage

By night explosions rock the factories and rail lines, cutting German supply lines at their source

By summer of 1943, reports of German defeats in Russia, North Africa and

southern Europe encourage the Danes to more vigorous resistance

There were strikes in the provincial towns, not only strikes in the factories

but whole centers, where administration, stores, everything was closed

Sabotage attacks more than double in only one month

But those Danes who are unable to carry out sabotage find other ways to resist

even defying their own government

Hoff: First of all, we work really slowly

We never worked at the same speed as before the war.

We received orders to build new ships

but the ships were never finished the construction was sabotaged so in the

end they had to drag them down to Germany to finish them.

Nissen: the Danish Authority did whatever they could to stop the strikes and they found out that

this was impossible, they could not, they had lost the authority

...the authority of leading these masses lay with some local, unauthorized and not elected leaders

and with the illegal press

Narrator: A government in name only, Danish political leaders have one last act to perform.

On the morning of August 28, 1943 they receive an ultimatum from the German occupiers

Strikes must be banned, curfews imposed, saboteurs executed

Denmark must answer by 4:00 p.m.

Parliament debates the demands for six hours

Nissen: Now these were demands they could

not say yes to

and then they told the Germans that they could not accept this ultimatum

Foreign Minister Scavenius and his cabinet resign

Parliament goes home

Denmark is no longer under Danish authority

Direct German rule postponed for three years by the Scanvenius policy of cooperation

descends on Denmark

The Weimar occupies key facilities

gatherings of five or more persons are banned

the new rules are brutally enforced

Almdal: Now we knew where we were, two opposite parties and cooperation had become

impossible so we would have to go out different ways trying to make things

work of course but there was no doubt now that they were the enemy and we were

the occupied country

Narrator: just weeks later they faced their first crisis when

Adolf Hitler orders his commanders to impose Germany's racial laws in Denmark

Pundik: Having survived from the outbreak of the war there was of course kind of, you know,

a belief that things would be alright but the shield which had protected us

against the fate of Jews in the rest of Europe

the shield disappeared we were

standing undefended against the Germans

Narrator: The German gestapo has obtained a list

of names and addresses for the seven thousand Danish Jews but plans for the roundup

have been leaked, the Jews are warned

Thousands of Danes stepped forward to save them

Pundik: I remember the shock I got on the day I went to school and

suddenly the headmaster knocks on door and called me and another Jewish boy out of

the class and told us "you'd better hurry up because your

parents are waiting for you

you have to get out of your flat, the Germans are coming tonight"

Narrator: The roundup begins on the night of October 1st

but the Jews have been hidden in attics and cellars, in the churches and homes of

thousands of Danes who have spontaneously taken them in

Ljungquist: We were sent for example one time to

to pick up some Jews who were arriving by train from Jutland.

We were to help them pass as casually as possible through the German checkpoints

The ferries there were closely guarded by the Germans so it was

necessary for us to pretend that we had a relationship with these people

Narrator: Their refuge will be Sweden

only a few miles across waters patrolled by the German Navy

they hide in forests and wait

Herbert Pundik and his family are picked up by one of the many fishermen who risk

the voyage and save all but a few hundred of Denmark's Jews

Pundik: I look back towards the coast and I saw something which shall never forget in my whole life

I'm not a religious person myself but still however I'm still moved when

I think about it. On this sandy beach, I saw the

three persons that were our savior, his wife and the wife of the fisherman

kneeling on the beach with food that lifting hands towards heaven praying for

our safe passage

Narrator: The rescue of the Jews has united and inspired Danes just as they're coming to