[PKeating]

Overall, Denmark did quite well out of her collaboration with Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1945. Naturally, the country suffered some hardship, as did all European countries during that war. There were a few show trials of wartime black marketeers and profiteers but most of those accused of such activities escaped justice. They were in the main members of the Establishment. Danes who fondly recall Danish resistance groups and imagine that Denmark made a significant contribution to the war against Nazi Germany and that Denmark was a victim of Nazi Germany are deluding themselves in the face of the facts.

When German forces crossed the border in the early hours of 9.4.1940, the Danish government surrendered after two hours and the deaths of just sixteen Danish soldiers and sought to make a deal with Berlin. The armed forces were for the most part demobilised by the predominantly Social Democratic government led by Thorvald Stauning, who was, admittedly, anti-Nazi. There again, Philippe Pétain was also anti-Nazi but it did not prevent him from coming to terms with France's new 'partners'.

However, Stauning and his colleagues rapidly implemented measures to protect their new alliance with Germany and their status as a German protectorate. The press was forbidden to publish anything that might endanger the status quo. Following the German invasion of the USSR, Denmark signed up to the Anti-Comintern Pact and banned the Communist Party. Many Reds consequently formed the cadre of the Danish Resistance.

Industrial trade and relations were redirected to the benefit of the Germano-Danish alliance, a measure supported by most ordinary Danes and their politicians as necessary for the maintenance of social order as wartime shortages and privations were blamed on the Germans by leftists with the intention of stirring up the people and creating the disorder necessary for them to function and benefit.

It was against this backdrop that young men - like former Waffen-SS officer Søren Kam, whom the Germans have now agreed to extradite to Denmark for the murder of newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen in 1943 - enlisted to do their bit for their country. Kam and his comrades doubtlessly felt entirely justified as they - allegedly - turned the Red editor into Swiss cheese. In fact, Clemmensen's killers were probably encouraged in their enterprise by the Danish authorities. They may even have been acting under orders.

This kind of national hypocrisy when it comes to current attitudes towards the WW2 era is nothing new. The Danish government was quick to accuse young Danish veterans of the German armed forces of treason after the war and to persecute and punish them in spite of the absolute legality of their enlistment in the German armed forces.

The one issue on which the Danish authorities refused to bow before their German masters was that of Danish Jews. They declined to hand Danish Jews over to the Germans although the famous story about the King of Denmark threatening to don the yellow star if a single Danish Jew were touched has no basis in fact.

The Danish establishment was even more collaborationist than France, willingly contributing an estimated seven billion Krøner to their "partners" and their war effort under the terms of their "special relationship". The resistance was seen as a motley crew of communists, criminals and the socially disaffected. Many shared the German view of them as terrorists. Of course, the timeworn maxim that today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter turned out to be apposite in this case.

Søren Kam became a German citizen after WW2 and West Germany's policy was always anti-extradition in the case of alleged "Nazi" war criminals. After all, many of the Germans responsible for the BRD's "economic miracle" had questionable pasts and the country might have imploded had they been extradited by former enemies. The USA, building up the BRD as a buffer state against the Soviet Empire, could not allow such a thing to happen.

Things have changed now, however. The New Germany apparently finds it expedient to bow to external pressure and hand over a decorated war veteran who was accorded German citizenship because of an allegation of murder. It should also be pointed that Søren Kam's enlistment in the German armed forces was, whether one likes it or not, absolutely legal under Danish law at the time.

Of course, mainstream Danish politicians are keen to make examples of so-called "Nazis" and "Neo-Nazis" at a time when the Dansk Folkeparti and other nationalist parties are gaining ground in the face of increasing immigration. So are German politicians. So, regardless of the merits or otherwise of the allegations against Søren Kam, it's time to throw someone to the wolves to make a political point.

The persecution of Danish veterans of the Wehrmacht just after the war and the persistent efforts to bring expatriate Søren Kam back to Denmark for a show trial are simply part of the general attempts to paper over the cracks in that country's carefully constructed postwar image of wartime victim. In terms of victimhood, Denmark would appear have more in common with Austria than, say, Poland.

PK