Join us at Har El for a fascinating lecture for Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day:

The Rescue of the Danish Jews in 1943, by Norman Gladstone

On April 9th, 1940, Nazi Germany launched a surprise attack on neutral Denmark, forcing the country to surrender within hours. For over three years, Denmark’s Jewish population of approximately 7,000 lived in relative peace, with no ghettos or yellow star requirements. This changed in October 1943 when the Germans attempted to round up the Jews for deportation to concentration camps. In response, thousands of Danish civilians organized a rescue effort, hiding Jews and secretly transporting them to neutral Sweden.
This talk will explore why the German occupation of Denmark was different from that of other occupied European countries,  and more importantly, delve into the motivation and reasons as to why the Danes acted with exceptional moral courage to defy their Nazi overlords.

Norman Gladstone was born and raised in Saskatoon and moved to Vancouver with his wife Birgit and son Yos in the late-1970s.  Norman became involved with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre in 1995 as the chair of the VHEC’s exhibit, Resistance and Rescue: Denmark’s Response to the Holocaust.  The following year he chaired the visit to Vancouver of Thomas Keneally, the author of Schindler’s Ark, upon which the movie Schindler’s List was based.  Subsequently, Norman joined the VHEC’s Board of Directors for a twenty-year period during which the VHEC awarded him a “Life Fellow of the Society.”  Currently, Norman is on the VHEC’s Guardians of the Society/Board of Governors and performs docent and volunteer work.  He holds a B.A. in History from UBC.

The rescue of Denmark’s Jews during the Holocaust is of particular interest to Norman for personal reasons.  His wife Birgit is from Denmark and his father-in-law Preben Westergaard (z”l) was a member of the Danish underground during the Second World War. 

This event is by donation. We kindly suggest a $5 donation.