Lecture and Discussion | Denmark 1943: When Society Decides to Help
Date: 4 November 2026 at 4:00 PM
Venue: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, nám. Jana Palacha 1, Prague 1, Great Hall P131
In autumn 1943, thanks to civic solidarity, approximately 98% of Danish Jews were saved from Nazi deportation to concentration camps. However, around 470 of them were deported to the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto. Among them was the then two-year-old Ib Katznelson, who survived the Ravensbrück and Terezín concentration camps with his mother.
The event will connect a historical perspective on the rescue of Danish Jews with the personal testimony of a survivor, offering an opportunity to reflect on the role of civic courage, solidarity, and assistance to the persecuted under National Socialism. At the same time, it will highlight lesser-known connections between Danish and Czech wartime history. Attendees will have a unique opportunity to contrast historical analysis with first-hand testimony of someone who personally lived through the deportation to Terezín.
The event also includes an exhibition on the rescue of Danish Jews displayed on the premises of the Faculty of Arts.
Programme:
- 16:00 – Denmark 1943: When Society Decides to Help – lecture by Prof. Therkel Stræde
- 17:00 – Between Historical Experience and Personal Testimony – meeting with Ib Katznelson
The programme will be held in Danish with simultaneous interpretation into Czech. Admission is free, no registration required.
Prof. Therkel Stræde
Danish historian, Associate Professor Emeritus of Contemporary History at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense (Syddansk Universitet), and expert on the history of National Socialism, the German occupation, the Holocaust, Jewish history, and memory culture.
He has long been dedicated to Holocaust research and education. He is the author of the exhibition Denmark in October 1943: The Rescue of the Jews from Annihilation, which has been presented in thirty countries since 1993 and visited by more than 500,000 people. In 2023, he served as historical consultant for the exhibition Courage to Act at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York. For his contributions to Holocaust research and education, he received a Congressional Citation from the United States House of Representatives in 2001. He is the author and co-author of numerous scholarly publications; his recent work includes the book Diese unglücklichen verfolgten Menschen. Hilfe für verfolgte Juden im deutsch besetzten Dänemark 1940–1945 (These Unfortunate Persecuted People: Assistance to Persecuted Jews in German-Occupied Denmark 1940–1945), forthcoming from Lukas Verlag in Berlin.
Ib Katznelson
Danish Jewish survivor and author of an autobiographical publication, who experienced deportation to Nazi concentration camps as a young child.
In November 1943, at the age of two, he was deported from Denmark with his mother to Terezín via the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where he became gravely ill and was separated from his mother. In April 1945, one month before the end of the war, the family and other Danish prisoners were evacuated from the Terezín ghetto to Sweden as part of the Swedish Red Cross “White Buses” rescue operation. He recounted his memories and his mother’s testimony in the book Lad ham dø: 2-årig i Ravensbrück og Theresienstadt (Let Him Die: Two Years Old in Ravensbrück and Theresienstadt), published in 2017. In 2019, through further research, he uncovered new connections in his story involving two Czech fellow prisoners, Zdenka Nedvědová and Hilda Synková, who helped him escape death in Ravensbrück. This led him to further investigate their fates and revise his book, which was published in English as Let Him Go (2019) and in an updated and expanded German edition as Lass ihn sterben (2025). In 2023, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded him the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse) for his long-standing dedication to Holocaust remembrance and contribution to German-Danish reconciliation. He has long been actively engaged in public Holocaust remembrance and passing on his testimony and experiences to younger generations.
The event is organized by the Terezín Initiative Institute in cooperation with the Department of Germanic and Nordic Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, with financial support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.
