Talk:Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz

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A Brief History of Duckwitz

Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was born on the 29th of September 1904 in Bremen, northern Germany. Up until 1932, Duckwitz’s life revolved around trading with Scandinavian countries as a businessman. It is likely that Duckwitz’s strong relations with the Danish began here, which would prove influential in his later life. In November, 1932, Duckwitz became a member of the German Nazi party. From 1933 to 1935 he was am expert in Scandinavian trade and worked for the German Foreign Ministry. There, he worked for Alfred Rosenberg’s foreign policy but eventually he left to work in a private shipping company. In 1939 he was posted in the Copenhagen embassy in Denmark where he worked in the intelligence unit of the High Command of the German Armed Forces. It was here that German Reichsbevollmächtiger, Werner Best, sent a telegram to Berlin on the 8th of September 1943, about the deportation of Danish Jews. This was just ten days after the resignation of the Danish Government and the implementation of German Marshal Law in the area. After hearing of the contents of the telegram, Duckwitz tried to resign and be transferred saying that he did not wish to be apart of such a bureaucracy that would be judged by history as being responsible for such an inhuman action. However, after consulting his friends and Best, he was convinced that he could do more good in Denmark than anywhere else to help his adopted homeland.

The Efforts of Duckwitz

Duckwitz began giving messages of the on coming deportation through conversations with his Danish friends; however, he could not give a specific date until the 19th of September where Duckwitz was informed by Werner Best that the deportation was to occur during the current state of emergency in Denmark. Duckwitz immediately contacted his Swedish Niels Ekbald as well as receive a visa from the Swedish Ambassador to Denmark. On the 21st of September, Duckwitz travelled to Sweden accompanied by Ekbald where he met with the Swedish Prime Minister, Albin Hansson. Hansson promised to convince the Germans to allow passage of the Danish Jews into Sweden. From here, Duckwitz attempted to convince Paul Kanstein, chief of the civilian administration, to protest to his superior officers in the German Army not to assist in the deportation as it was not in their “sense of honour”. However this attempt failed as the superiors in the German Army dismissed the protest.

However, knowing that the German Admiralty was not keen on the deportation of the Danish Jews, Duckwitz contacted the German harbour commanders of Copenhagen and Aarhus, two friends of Duckwitz who agreed to risk their lives and careers by helping with the planned escape. In the last week of September, harbour commander of Copenhagen, Richard Camman, made sure all of the coast guard ships in his command were under repair. This allowed for the escape of some 7,100 Danish Jews in fishing boats of 14-15 for the duration of the next week. Meanwhile, the commander of Aarhus, Friedrich Lübke, assisted by staling the launch of the Monte Rosa, a hospital ship to be used to deport the Danish Jew, by claiming the engines were badly damaged. By the time two other ships were launched from Stettin to deport the Danish Jews, it was too late. 93% of the Jews had been evacuated to Sweden. However, the deportation still took place on October the 1st. With that, the Swedish Government granted the entrance of the Danish refugees for the duration of the war.

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--A source for the claims in ragard to Richard Camman can be found in: Werner, Emmy E.{"A Conspiracy of Decency"}.Westview Press, 2002--2001:16B8:6795:C00:3D51:B9FA:EFE0:9481 (talk) 23:44, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Error in text
"From the 1930s until its military defeat in 1946" - presumably should be 1945??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.123.52.227 (talk) 18:47, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Criticism of Duckwitz
The Danish article has a section which says that there is evidence, that Duckwitz has massively embellished his on biography, that he long retained his Nazi convictions, he later changed his own reports to construct a consistent heroic narrative and, worst of all, that after the war he facilitated the escape of Nazi office holders to Latin America. --Johannes Rohr (talk) 10:31, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

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Operation Monsun
It seems Ferdinand Duckwitz remained in his position as an informant for the Danish resistance after the rescue of the Danish Jews. It's documented this newspaer article of 1955 http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-31968959.html, that he informed the Danish resistance of a planned artillery strike on protesting Danish civilians (Operation Monsun) in Summer 1944.--2001:16B8:6795:C00:3D51:B9FA:EFE0:9481 (talk) 23:29, 7 August 2018 (UTC)