A Conspiracy of Decency FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The people of Denmark managed to save almost their country's entire Jewish population from extermination in a spontaneous act of humanity - one of the most compelling stories of moral courage in the history of World War II. Drawing on many personal accounts, Emmy Werner tells the story of the rescue of the Danish Jews from the vantage-point of living eyewitnesses - the last survivors of an extraordinary conspiracy of decency that triumphed in the midst of the horrors of the Holocaust." A Conspiracy of Decency chronicles the acts of people of good will from several nationalities. Among them were the German Georg F. Duckwitz, who warned the Jews of their impending deportation, the Danes who hid them and ferried them across the Oresund, and the Swedes who gave them asylum. Regardless of their social class, education, and religious and political persuasion, the rescuers all shared one important characteristic: they defined their humanity by their ability to act with great compassion. These people never considered themselves heroes - they simply felt that they were doing the right thing.
SYNOPSIS
Werner (developmental psychology, U. of California-Davis) tells how the people of Denmark saved almost their entire Jewish population from extinction by a spontaneous act of moral courage she finds unparalleled in the history of World War II. She draws accounts from Gentile and Jewish witnesses, most of them children and teenagers at the time. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Although it doesn't bring previously undisclosed events to light, this history of the Holocaust in Denmark offers a wealth of first-person material, placed within a factually accurate, well-crafted text. The Danes gave a famously cold shoulder to the Germans when they invaded in 1940, and secretly evacuated 7,000 Danish Jews to Sweden when the Germans ordered them deported in 1943. Werner (Reluctant Witnesses), a developmental psychologist and research professor at University of California, Davis, uses accessible concepts (such as people of "good will") to convey what happened, and gives careful accounts of the roles of the Danish Lutheran church, the universities and the large Copenhagen hospital Bispejberg in speaking out against deportation, and mobilizing when it was imminent. Werner devotes a chapter to the refugees' actual passage northward, and a chapter to their reception in Sweden, where some found employment. More than 450 Jews were captured by the Germans and sent to Theresienstadt (the so-called "show place" concentration camp in Czechoslovakia); they were exempted from extermination as a result of tireless Danish lobbying. Werner includes their experiences, as well as those of Jews hidden in Denmark, and of members of the Danish resistance. She concludes by surveying various studies of rescuers and bystanders during the Holocaust, attempting to distill motivations for action or inaction. (Nov.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
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