Danish Police who Saved Jews in Denmark

Note:  +arrested; †tortured; *killed; ●Righteous Among the Nations (honored by the State of Israel)

Knud Dyby, Policeman, Sailor, Copenhagen.  Knud Dyby was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 2004.

Knud Dyby was a Danish policeman stationed in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a soldier and a member of the Royal Guard at the palace of the King of Denmark. Escorted Jews to the harbor in Copenhagen and hid them in a local facility. Dyby saw to it that they were put on fishing boats for Sweden.

Dyby recalled, “Naturally we had to be on guard not to run into any Gestapo or German soldiers, but fortunately Denmark had a coast guard that was manned by the Danish police force. So being a policeman myself, I could approach colleagues of mine, and every time a German patrol boat would go north, we would send out boats south, and vice versa.”

(Dyby, Boats in the Night; see quote p. 65; Knud Dyby, interview (San Francisco: Holocaust Center of Northern California, Holocaust Oral History Project, June 6, 1991; Loeffler, Martha, 1999 Boats in the Night. Blair, Nebr: Lure Publications; Werner, 2002)


Erik Bennike+†*, First Lieutenant, Rescuer, Lyngby Rescue Group.  Killed by Gestapo in Nyhaven, April 18, 1945.  (Bertelsen, 1954, pp. 156-159)