Some legends that arise sound too good to be true, but we keep telling them because they sound inspirational.
I once heard a great story about the King of Denmark during World War II. The King supposedly thwarted a move by the occupying German forces to compel Jewish Danes to wear a yellow Star of David as a prelude to rounding up the Jews and exterminating them. The story goes that Denmark’s King thumbed his nose at the Nazis and said to fellow Danes, let’s all wear a yellow star and thwart Hitler.
Recently, I thought I should check this story properly. To my consternation, I found nearly every historical source I consulted said the story’s probably not true.
But here’s what I did find. There was a real hero who saved the Danish Jews, but it wasn’t the King. It was actually a German guy called Georg Duckwitz. Georg was an occupation official in charge of shipping Danish goods to wherever the Germans needed them. When he learned the date planned for the roundup of the Jews, George passed the news to Danish political leaders who spread the warning.
That night, when Nazi squads went to every Jewish address, the vast majority of their prey was not at home. They were hiding with non-Jewish neighbours in churches, attics, and ordinary homes. Most made it safely by boat to Sweden. Hundreds of people spontaneously acted to organise or assist with the escapes in a move started by a German.
I think that’s a better story than my original one.