The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia

by Michael Booth

There was little resistance to German occupation for the first three years or so; indeed, both the Danish king and prime minister at the time criticized the nascent Danish underground when they occasionally carried out minor acts of sabotage. Unlike the Norwegians, who resisted with great courage and ingenuity (greatly aided by their mountains and climate, admittedly), Denmark had little choice but to submit to life as a pliable German satellite. Some have gone as far as to categorize the Danes as German allies, as they supplied much-needed agricultural produce and even troops to fight on the Eastern Front and in Berlin during the Second World War. Churchill called the country “Hitler’s pet canary.”