Countrymen by Bo Lidegaard

Author:Bo Lidegaard [Lidegaard, Bo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-35016-7
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2013-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

The ongoing trade negotiations gave Nils Svenningsen an opportunity to test Best’s standing directly with other high-ranking German representatives. The action against the Jews had shaken Svenningsen’s trust in Best, all the more so as Best claimed that he had tried to stop it. If that was true, the obvious conclusion had to be that Best and his people at Dagmarhus did not have the influence with the Nazi leadership that had been previously assumed by the Danish side. Svenningsen used the presence in Copenhagen of a senior German diplomat, Hilger van Scherpenberg, as a back door to explore Best’s standing in the German Foreign Office. At the same time Svenningsen was sending a clear warning to Berlin that a continuation of the action against the Jews would have direct consequences for the Danish supplies. Scherpenberg first completely refused to deal with the action, let alone to discuss it, but as a dutiful officer he then noted carefully everything Svenningsen said in their confidential conversation, and sent the report to his superiors in Berlin—exactly as Svenningsen had expected.

According to Scherpenberg, Svenningsen pulled no punches. From now on Germany must expect to meet rejection and resistance, even from circles that had previously been willing to cooperate. Scherpenberg asked if that meant strikes or work stoppages. Svenningsen could not say; the situation had not yet stabilized. But even if he did not consider strikes to be likely, one could expect increased sabotage in the future. Deportation of the Communists posed a particular problem. While the Germans were solely responsible for what had happened to the Jews, the Danish government felt directly accountable for the arrest and deportation of the Communists.

Svenningsen made it clear that this situation undermined the efforts of the permanent secretaries to establish an administration. To avoid further problems, quiet now had to prevail: No further intervention in Danish conditions! According to Scherpenberg, Svenningsen repeatedly came back to this last point “in the most forceful way.”

At the end of the conversation Svenningsen launched a trial balloon, though it is hard to say whether it was sincere or rather intended as an indirect warning to both the German Foreign Office and Dr. Best: Would it be possible, Svenningsen ventured, that there might be an opportunity in the near future to get the status of Denmark further clarified by a direct discussion with the competent German authorities—be it at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin or at the headquarters?33

Svenningsen was playing with fire. All of the special arrangements for Denmark stood or fell on Ribbentrop’s success in keeping Denmark in the foreign policy domain—with Best as his local representative. Svenningsen’s implicit message was that a continuation of the action against the Jews could tear apart the whole fragile construct of cooperation. It would be hard for Denmark—but likely even tougher for the leading Nazis, whose positions depended on the continuation of a peaceful occupation. Probably part of Svenningsen’s bet was that the top Nazi echelon in Berlin would consider the meager results of the night’s action as a failure.

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