In the fall of 1943, Danish citizens helped more than 90 percent of Denmark's estimated 8,000 Jews escaped Nazi deportation by ferrying them to Sweden. The target date was October 1, 1943, the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Denmark was the first Scandinavian country to permit Jewish settlement. 

This occurred in 1622 when a small group of Sephardic Jews settled from Amsterdam and Hamburg. There are about 8,000 Jews living in Denmark at this time centered around Copenhagen, the capital city, where there are two synagogues, a day school, three kosher butchers, a large community center and library.

Traveling to Denmark can be an enlightening experience ... very much so!  Be sure to visit the Museum of the Resistance on the Esplanaden where much can be learned about the wonderful Danish people and their personal ties to the Jews.

Full size map can be viewed at
http://ddd.sa.dk/kiplink_en.htm

Books 
            

General  
Danish Genealogical 
Information

During WW II, there were a total of 486 Jews in Theresienstadt, the vast majority of whom were "stateless", i.e., they were refugees to Denmark, and had no roots there.

At the outbreak of the war in September, 1939, there were about 8,000 Jews in Denmark.  Of these, 3500 belonged to old, assimilated families, which immigrated during the 15th century from Germany and Holland, whereas about 3,000 had come from Russia and Poland following the big pogroms at the turn of the 20th century.

The old families were well established, well off and conservative, while the Jews from the pogroms were poor artisans leaning towards socialism and Zionism.  After Hitler's seizure of power, these Jews tried to make themselves as scarce as possible.  Between April 9th, 1940 and May 5th, 1945, Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany. Compared to the other occupied countries, Denmark had a unique position that can be summed up in two concepts: Peace Occupation, and (2) the policy of negotiation.

An excellent site to find information about most European countries is at
http://searcheurope.com

and type in the name of the country you wish to research in the search field. 

This site is a great source to find information for almost every European country.  Another valuable site to help find a person, maps, etc.  Type in the name of any country you wish to research. This service is free.
http://www.webhelp.com/home

Global Gazetteer
A great web site. It is a directory of  2,880,532 of the world's cities and towns, sorted by country and linked to a map for each town.  A tab separated list is available for each country. 
www.calle.com/world/

Holocaust History
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?Module
Id=10005209 

Archives

Archives
Rigsarkivet - in Copenhagen  
http://www.sa.dk/ra 

Danish Emigration Archives
http://sydaby.eget.net/swe/emi_ref.htm 

Danish State Archives
Includes the Danish National Archives,
Provincial Archives,
Danish Business Archives
Danish Data Archives
http://www.sa.dk/ 

David Simonsen Archive
At the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen. David Simonsen was a scholar, rabbi, philanthropist and much more.  Site is in Danish and English.
http://www.kb.dk/simonsen/#engelsk

Stanford, California Danish Collection
At Stanford University is the intact collection of the Danish Jewish community.  It includes close to 2,000 works printed in over 115 locations from 1517 to 1939.   A wide range of topics are covered and among them are some publications relating to documents about  the religious life in Jewish communities of Denmark and other Northern European countries

The collection will be available for study in the Special Collections Reading Room in Green Library.   From a posting by Suzanne S. Waxman of Santa Rosa, CA.
http://www.forward.com/issues/2003
/03.03.28/arts4.html

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news
/pr/03/jewish212.html

Danish Jewish Community

The Jewish community of Denmark constitutes a small minority with a known history back to the 17th century. The Danish-Jewish community has been thriving for 400 years and is the oldest in Scandinavia. Today there are about 7,000 Jews in Denmark, the majority of whom live in Copenhagen. Denmark’s Jews range in origin from Spain and Poland to Germany and Russia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the
_Jews_in_Denmark

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource
/vjw/Denmark.html

http://www.kosherdelight.com/Denmark.shtml

http://www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php
?id_article=73

http://momentmagazine.wordpress.com
/2011/02/22/denmarks-jewish-heritage/

Danish Royal Family

http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/Scandinavia
/Denmark.html

Denmark SIG

This SIG is a forum for researchers with interest in Jewish genealogy and history, primarily in Denmark, but, because of the close ties and significant mobility between the Scandinavian countries, Faeroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the Danish West Indies, these areas are also included and discussed.

Denmark SIG might be of interest to you if you have or have had ancestors or
relatives in Denmark.  It might also prove helpful because of the on-line passenger lists for emigrants that passed through Denmark.  They have a list of approximately 1,000 names compiled from books on Jewish history in Sweden and it is now online.  This list gives information about : Emigration to America; Birthplaces and other genealogical information.

At times the Danish shipping lines were cheaper than others, and emigrants therefore chose to go to, or via, Denmark.  All who bought a ticket through one of the Danish shipping lines agents are in the on-line searchable databases of the Danish Emigration Archives: 
http://www.emiarch.dk

Danish Demographic Database
http://ddd.dda.dk/

The Immigration Museum
has on-line searchable database for:
1. Naturalizations
2. Issued Work Permits
3. Persons expelled from Denmark

Immigration Museum
http://www.immigrantmuseet.dk

The above URL is correct, but it is easier for non-Danish speaking to find it at
http://ddd.dda.dk/

Although the name is 'Denmark SIG', it is endeavored to cover as far as possible, the other parts of Scandinavia, because the mobility was very significant.  So you might find someone born in Latvia, married in Sweden, having children born in Norway and later on in Sweden or/Denmark, living in Denmark and the father working in Sweden, etc.

There is also some information on the Northern part of Germany (Schleswig-Holstein) because that it belonged to Denmark for a long time.  The first
Danish Jews were invited to settle there in 1622.

Many of the members of the DenmarkSIG are experienced and knowledgeable genealogists and historians, so if you are in need of help or want some information, please subscribe to the DenmarkSIG discussion group and post your requests for help or information there.  To join, then go to and follow the instructions (be sure to check the box in front of the SIG you want to subscribe to!)
http://www.jewishgen.org/listserv/sigs.htm  

Much of the information above is attributable to Elsebeth Paikin, Coordinator & Webmaster of JewishGen Denmark SIG
http://www.jewishgen.org/scandinavia/

http://home.worldonline.dk/epaikin/index

www.jgs-danmark.dk

There is also a discussion group where you may subscribe
http://www.jewishgen.org/listserv/sigs.htm   

Contact Elsebeth Paikin elsebeth@paikin.dk

http://www.jewishgen.org/scandinavia/

Denmark: Introduction to Danish Research

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search
/RG/guide/Denmark.ASP

Emigrants from Lithuania found in Denmark

There are registers that were found in the Danish Archives as accountancy books for immigrant relief including names from Kovno and Vilna.  Check the Denmark SIG website
http://www.jewishgen.org/scandinavia/

Europages

Business 2 business company directory and business in Europe, yellow pages access, international and European business directory (professional services, addresses and business classifieds)
http://www.europages.net

Fourth of July

Since 1912, Danes have celebrated America's Independence Day to showcase their strong ties with the U.S.

Historie & Genealogie

The Association of European Migration Institutions; 100 Years of Emigrant Ships from Norway; Dansk Genealogi; Judisk Genealogi
http://jcsearch.com/Top/World/Dansk
/Samfund/Religion/J%C3%B8dedom/Historie/

Israel Square

One of the most exceptional sights in Copenhagen is Israel’s Square. The small, centrally located park contains a large memorial stone, erected in 1975 with the following inscription: “This stone from the Holy Land is a gift to the Danish People from friends of Denmark in Israel 1975 – And night fell and morning came”. More than anything, this memorial displays that the positive sentiment that characterized the relationship between Jews and Denmark in the past still exists, and will continue to do so.
http://momentmagazine.wordpress.com
/2011/02/22/denmarks-jewish-heritage/

Jewish Museum

The Danish Jewish Museum gives a good first taste of Jewish Copenhagen. The building was designed by Daniel Libeskind, whose Studio design study was selected in February 2003 as the master site plan for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center Site, and who also designed Berlin’s Jewish Museum. The museum itself is truly a sight to behold—in true Libeskind style, the architecture and décor are ultra-modern, from the sloped blond-wood walls to the interactive screens that provide visitors with additional information and videos.
http://momentmagazine.wordpress.com
/2011/02/22/denmarks-jewish-heritage

To see photos of this new museum go to
www.jewmus.dk

The Foundation of Danish pianist and satirist Victor Borge donated $250,000 toward this Museum.  Borge, born Boerge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen in 1909, performed in several Danish venues and movies

   Maps

Map of Denmark
http://www.europeetravel.com/maps/

Rescue of the Danish Jews

 The rescue of the Danish Jews occurred during Nazi
Germany's occupation of Denmark during World War
 II. On October 1st 1943 Nazi leader Adolf Hitler
ordered Danish Jews to be arrested and deported.
Despite great personal risk, the Danish resistance
 movement with the assistance of many ordinary
Danish citizens took part in a collective effort to
evacuate about 8,000 Jews of Denmark by sea to
nearby neutral Sweden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_the
_Danish_Jews

Royal Danish Library

Has one of the largest Jewish book collections in the world.

Search for Individuals

From the Danish census taking from 1787 to 1916
http://ddd.sa.dk/kiplink_en.htm  

Surname Navigator

Here is one search window for searching the Danish Emigration database, Ancestral File (Mormons), Google genealogy and more at
www.kuijsten.net/navigator/denmark/   

For the surname Cohen, for example, the search returned: the Source, Name, Sex, Age, Marital Status, Birthplace and much more including the last known address - all nicely laid out in 31 pages.

Telephone Directories on the Web

http://www.teldir.com 

Translating

Translating Services - Click Here

Translating
There are many translating services, some for free, available to help with your translating needs in most languages including Danish.  One of these sites is
http://www.dictionaries.travlang.com/

Just in case you didn't think of it, contact a nearby university or college's foreign language department.  They may offer to write letters and translate letters into English.  A nominal fee is usually charged.

Translation Service
A commercial site offering many language translating programs
http://www.worldlanguage.com

Cities and Towns of Denmark

Copenhagen

When visiting this city, walk around the Israelplads (Israel Square) in the center of this clean, lovely city.  A wonderful, larger-than-life statue of Moses on Norregade is the work of a Danish sculptor.

The headquarters of the Danish Jewish community (Mosaik Troesamfund) is at Ny Kongengade 6, and contains a small museum, a library and a Mikvah.

Synagogue
The Copenhagen synagogue is situated in the oldest part of the city, in a building constructed in 1830-1833 based on drawings by Professor G. H. Hetsch, who was also responsible for the design of St. Ansgar’s, Copenhagen’s Catholic cathedral. The synagogue sits behind a high gate—its brown façade blends well with its neighbors, but the gold Hebrew lettering notifies passersby of its Jewish heritage.
http://momentmagazine.wordpress.com
/2011/02/22/denmarks-jewish-heritage/

Jewish Community of Copenhagen
DK-1472 Copenhagen, Denmark

Please let me know if there is a favorite link of yours that is not
included in my site and I will be happy to add it to Jewish Web Index

      Email Jwebindex@gmail.com

more to come ...