Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz
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Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz (September 29, 1904, in Bremen - February 16, 1973) was a German attaché who warned the Danish Jews about their intended deportation in 1943. It is estimated that he saved the lives of 99% of Denmark's Jews.
In the 1930s Duckwitz was a businessman trading with Scandinavian countries. He joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and worked for Alfred Rosenberg's foreign policy office but eventually left to work for a private shipping company Hamburg-America. In 1939 the Third Reich assigned him to the German embassy in Copenhagen as a maritime attaché.
After 1942, Duckwitz worked with the Nazi Reich representative Karl Rudolf Werner Best. On September 11, 1943, Best told Duckwitz about the intended roundup of all Danish Jews on October 1.
Two weeks later Duckwitz flew to Stockholm, ostensibly to discuss the passage of German merchant ships. While there, he contacted Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson and asked whether Sweden would be willing to receive Danish Jewish refugees. In a couple of days, Hansson promised them favourable reception.
Back in Denmark on September 28, Duckwitz contacted Danish social democrat Hans Hedtoft and notified him of the intended deportation. Hedtoft warned the head of the Jewish community C.B. Henriques and the acting chief rabbi Dr. Marcus Melchior, who spread the warning. Sympathetic Danes in all walks of life organized a mass escape of over 6000 Jews over the sea to Sweden.
Duckwitz, apparently assuming that he had done everything he could and possibly fearing exposure to Gestapo, went back to his official duties.
After the war, Duckwitz remained in the German Foreign Service. In 1955-1958 he served as West German ambassador to Denmark. On March 21, 1971, the Israeli government named him Righteous Among the Nations and included him in the Yad Vashem memorial.
External links
Yad Vashem honouring of Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz as Righteous among the Nations (http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/bycountry/germany/duckwitz_georg_ferdinand.html)de:Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz