One of the more dark chapters of Danish history, the treatment of the German refugees at the end of World War II is very evident at Vestre Cemetery. Here is a total of 5.344 refugees buried out of the 17.209 that died in 1945-49 in Denmark. There's still discussion about the treatment of these almost 200.000 as they were put under guard in camps. Some argue that they were treated well enough, others that the public anger at the Germans due to the occupation of Denmark was the reason why so many died here.
"many died"? Good question - is this many or few? Depends on what you compare the numbers to. Read a little into the months going before their arrival to Denmark - and maybe a little about what happened to the refugees from the East that didn't make it to Denmark.
ReplyDeleteI can recommend reading Günter Grass "Im Krebsegang" to learn about this topic.
With a total of 238.000 refugees and 17.209 dead (most of them within the first few months), the mortality rate was 7%, many of them babies and old people. I know that the mortality rate was higher in many other places, but it was still too high for a civilized country IMHO.
ReplyDelete