Occupation of Denmark - German Refugees

German Refugees

In the final weeks of the war, between 9 February and 9 May, several hundred thousands German refugees fled across the Baltic Sea, fleeing the advancing Soviet Army. For the most part, the refugees were from East Prussia and Pomerania. Many of the refugees were women, children, or elderly. Many were malnourished, exhausted, anxious or seriously ill. A third of the refugees were younger than 15 years old.

The German authorities had given the refugees a privileged status, seizing Danish schools, assembly houses, hotels, factories and sports facilities for refugee housing. At the same time, thousands of Danes were deported to German prisons and concentration camps. German terror against Danish resistance fighters and civilians increased in these final months. The general sentiment among Danes saw the arrival of refugees as a new, violent German occupation.

At the time of the German capitulation there were about 250,000 German refugees in Denmark. Already at the end of April, the German military authorities seemed to have lost control of the situation; many refugees had no food, the sick were not treated, mortality was high, and unburied dead bodies were stored in warehouses and cellars. Though, this was rather caused by different priorities in negotiations on aid between German and Danish authorities. The Danish negotiators, lead by secretary of state Nils Svenningsen, would only agree provided that approximately 4,000 Danish citizens, mainly policemen, who were detained in German concentration camps, were liberated. The German authorities on the other hand would only agree, if those policemen would take an active part in defeating the Danish resistance.

At the capitulation, the refugee administration was handed over to Danish authorities. Refugees were gradually moved from over 1,000 smaller locations to new-built camps or previous German military barracks, some of which held over 20,000 refugees. The largest camp, located in Oksbøl, on the west coast of Jutland, held 37,000 refugees. Camps were placed behind barbed wire and guarded by military personnel, as to avoid contact with the Danish population.

In some of the camps, food rations were meager and medical care was inadequate. In 1945 alone, more than 13,000 people died, among them some 7,000 children under the age of five. The situation was worst in the months right before and after the capitulation, when Danish hospitals and doctors were reluctant to treat German refugees. The reason for this was not only anti-German resentment, but also lack of resources, the time needed to rebuild administrative structures, and the fear of epidemic diseases which were highly prevalent among the refugees. Instead, Danish authorities established a camp-internal medical system with German medical personnel, which took some time to work adequately. In the camps, there was school education for children up to the upper secondary level, work duty for adults, study circles, theatre, music and self-issued German newspapers. After initial inadequacy, food rations became more sufficient.

On 24 July 1945, the British occupation force, contrary to Danish expectations, decided that the refugees must stay in Denmark until the situation in Germany had stabilised. The first refugees were returned to Germany in November 1946 and the last ones in February 1949. Only very few stayed in Denmark for good.