It was the nearness of neutral Sweden, whose lights beckoned for five years to an occupied and blacked-out Denmark, that made the Rescue possible and converted this coast into an escape hatch. Leo Goldberger, author of The Rescue of the Danish Jews, explains “before the majority of Danish Jews were ferried across to Sweden, that country on October 2, 1943, issued a proclamation welcoming all Danish refugees.”

October 1943
In October of 1943 the city of Copenhagen, the countryside, and the coast were patrolled by the Gestapo. Once the round up of Jews was announced, a few families were able to make their way as normal travelers on the ferries that – under observation – still sailed to Sweden. But the majority had to be hidden over a period of days before they could be smuggled out of the city to the fishing ports. And the refugees had to remain out of sight until fishermen could be recruited to help, and until funds could be raised to compensate them for their risks or meet the price which some demanded.

The successful smuggling of human cargo was accomplished by inventive and intrepid plans hatched in the minds of Danish resisters. In this phase of the rescue, Danish doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel played an important role, registering refugees into their hospitals and clinics under assumed names, transporting them in ambulances and even in mock funeral corteges.

The "grove of remembrance"
As the place to start retracing the Rescue, we suggest Mindelunden, the grove of remembrance, a reminder of the human price Denmark paid for resistance. Here, a stone’s throw from the execution ground on which they were shot, lie 106 members of the Resistance in a lovingly landscaped garden, around a central monument sculpted in 1949 by Axel Poulsen. Carved into its stone is a verse by one of those killed by the Nazis, the poet Kaj Munk:
 
Boys, you boys who died,
You lit for Denmark
In her darkest gloom
A brightening dawn.

Behind the monument are the graves of 31 patriots who died in concentration camps. In the pergola facing east, there are 151 commemoration plaques for some of those who disappeared without a trace.

The escape ports
The route then shifts to the coast road, Strandvejen. Then come the escape ports, small villages such as Nivå, Sletten, Humlebæk and Snekkersten, from which courageous Danes carried refugees in everything from rowboats and sailboats to fishing vessels past German patrols to safety in Sweden. They did so at great risk: one of the prime movers, H.C. Thomsen, a Snekkersten innkeeper, was captured and sent to a concentration camp. He did not survive. His monument on the shore describes him as “the refugees’ courageous helper.”

Many of the refugees arrived in the town of Nivå by train, often sitting uncomfortable in the same compartments as German soldiers, sweating until their arrival. Upon disembarking, they were hidden in the local tileworks, waiting until dark, when they could sneak across the fields and in the shelter of a small grove of trees, down to the Sound. That path is still visible today: the tileworks still stand and the landscape is the same.

From Sletten harbor, one can also observe how closely the coast could be watched, both from land and by navel patrols. The refugees flowed out of all these coastal towns, including the villages of Hellebæk, Hornbæk, and Gilleleje.

Main sources:
Jewish Points of Interest by VisitDenmark (out of print)
Gilleleje Museum