laststandonzombieisland

80 years ago today. And then they came for the cops.

Amid an uptick of sabotage operations that saw no leads when investigated by the locals, and with the country’s army, navy, and air forces already disbanded in 1943, on 19 September 1944, the German occupation government in Copenhagen dissolved the Danish police, as the force was seen as a potential threat, was ineffective in putting down strikes and civil unrest, and an outright ally towards the growing and increasingly active Danish resistance movements.

Of the organization’s 10,000 members, the Germans were able to arrest upwards of 5,000 and eventually deport 1,960 high-ranking officers to Buchenwald– where no less than 60 died that winter under horrible conditions. This group was “upgraded” to POW status in December and 200 sick coppers were repatriated home while the other 1,700 were transferred to Stalag IV-B in East Prussia, where they would be liberated by the Soviets in April 1945. In all, almost 200 Danish police would perish in German custody during the war.

Other members of the Danish police managed to skip the country to nearby Sweden while many who stayed behind, typically under watch by the local Germans and subject to work details, moonlighted in the Danish resistance outright.

In early May 1945, they once again took to the streets in their uniforms, and resumed operations, with the first order of business: arrest local sympathizers– in particular the hated Schalburg corps and HIPO-korpset auxiliary police– and disarm German occupation troops.

With the Germans having disbanded the King’s Lifeguards (Livgarden) the previous year, the local Copenhagen police also immediately set up a picket around Amalienborg Palace and secured the grounds.

They would remain the King’s ersatz personal bodyguard unit for six weeks until the reformed Livgarden, on 10 June 1945, marched in and relieved the bluebacks.