Danish concentration camp guards

And only with Dennis Larsen’s book publication “Repressed Cruelty – Danish SS Guards 1941–45” has the subject been attempted to be addressed. DL did extensive and in-depth preliminary work. But not without problems, as source material analysis is often difficult and can be misinterpreted, and the book went to print before an additional assessment was available.

Regrettably, as the book is otherwise quite excellent and groundbreaking.

Among other things, it can be mentioned that the photo used for the book’s cover is NOT Danish concentration camp guards, but with certainty from the Neuengamme transit camp, where ordinary Danish volunteers from Regiment 24./Danmark were gathered before being handed over to the Danish authorities. Several of the individuals have been visited and interviewed after the war, and documentation of their participation in the war is known. And they have NOTHING to do with concentration camps.

Dennis Larsen writes in his concluding remarks that they “have not prompted the Danish authorities or Danish politicians to take up the issue of the in every respect insufficient legal reckoning with the Danish concentration camp guards. In practice, both the legal system, historiography, and the public debate have suppressed that Denmark, in the form of some of the concentration camp guards portrayed here, produced criminals who in cruelty can match the worst of Nazism, and that a considerable number of SS volunteers – among both those convicted and those who went free – have been able to live long and comfortable lives in Denmark without being held accountable……”

This is a claim, as the court rulings clearly state whether Danish volunteers served as concentration camp or prisoner guards, and this is included in the sentencing. They were not acquitted, but received additional penalties in the verdicts, as is also seen with service within the SD and the Schalburg Corps.

I have not heard of people who have lived a “long and comfortable life” after the war (and who went through the legal reckoning); on the contrary, there are countless examples of people who, even after having served their sentence, were persecuted and excluded from Danish society.

The issue here is that a person who is sentenced and serves their sentence, precisely in the case of the volunteers, did not subsequently become free individuals again. Society, and in many cases local communities, continued to condemn and exclude those convicted from returning to a normal life.

Sentencing has solely been based on whether it can be documented that a person was assigned to and served in or at camps as a guard. The issue here is how a person (against their will), for example, who served as a kitchen assistant in a camp, should be judged in relation to those who performed active service as guards within the perimeter. Likewise, those who were only administratively assigned to a camp (i.e. placed on personnel lists), but were never physically transferred to the camp.

At the time, no distinction was made, and everyone was judged in one sweep. There is no doubt that those who actively participated in human rights-violating acts should have been/should be sentenced for this. /FJL.

Documentation from the SS Führungshauptamt
The official documents testify that the Danes (it is not known who) had negotiated that they would not have to serve as concentration camp guards, and this dates all the way back to 1941.

One of the largest sources of documentation for how many/which individuals may have served in guard duty at concentration camps is the approximately 35,000 records in the National Archives concerning who received field mail and which unit they belonged to.
A review carried out some years ago (by P.v.S) showed that 25 Danish citizens had served in or at camps classified as concentration camps or labor service (including SS-Baukommando).
Without wanting to downplay it, even 25 may be too many, but it should be noted that this is 25 individuals out of approximately 12,000.