Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz

Trade Attaché to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1943

Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was a member of the Nazi Party and was sent as a Trade Attaché to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. When Duckwitz learned that the Nazi occupying government was planning to deport Danish Jews, he alerted the Danish government. In addition, he made a clandestine trip to the Prime Minster of Sweden to arrange for safe haven for the Jews. For these actions, he could have been killed. The Danish underground in turn implemented the rescue of more than 7,000 Danish Jews. As a result, 99% of Danish Jews were hidden and smuggled into neutral Sweden, where they survived the war. After the war, Duckwitz became the German Ambassador to Denmark.