Book contents
9 - Denmark
from Part II - The Volunteers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2017
Summary
Denmark’s involvement in the German war in the east was determined by the limits and options of a small neutral, but occupied state. Joining Nazi Germany’s war against the Soviet Union was a political issue that constituted a serious dilemma for the Danish government. There were no significant ideological obstacles to the decision: anti-Communism was widespread in the government as well as in parliament, among Social Democrats and labour unions, business and civil servants, and throughout most of the population. Prior to signing the Anti-Comintern Pact in November 1941, the Danish Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning, who was also the leader of the Social Democratic Party, was asked about his opinion and replied: ‘Communism? I’ve been fighting it for twenty years.’
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- Joining Hitler's CrusadeEuropean Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941, pp. 236 - 259Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2017