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12 Years That Shook the World explores stories of real people, the choices they made, and specific moments in Holocaust history from 1933-1945. Listen below or on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Send us your feedback with this quick survey or via email to podcast@ushmm.org.

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12 Years That Shook the World explores stories of real people, the choices they made, and specific moments in Holocaust history from 1933-1945. Listen below or on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Send us your feedback with this quick survey or via email to podcast@ushmm.org.

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"This is London! The BBC, broadcasting to Denmark!"

"At this moment, it is being announced that Montgomery has stated that the German troops in the Netherlands, northwest Germany and Denmark have surrendered. This is London. We repeat: Montgomery has just now announced that the German troops in the Netherlands, northwest Germany and Denmark have surrendered."

With those words, the BBC's Danish presenter Johannes G. Sørensen cut into regular programming to inform the Danish people that their five years of German occupation were over. The message came at 8.35pm on May 4th 1945.

British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery had just accepted the surrender of German forces at Lüneburg Heath, east of Hamburg.

Denmark would have to wait another 12 hours until the liberation officially took effect at 8am on May 5th 1945, but the radio broadcast brought happy Danes out into the streets, many of them using the occasion to burn the hated black window shades that had been used during bombing raids.

Danes welcome British troops at Rådhuspladsen, Copenhagen at the end of the Second World War. Photo: Ulf Nilsen/Ritzau Scanpix

Over seven decades later, Danes continue that tradition by lighting candles in their windows every May 4th as a reminder of the five years when Danish cities spent their nights in total darkness.

Immediately after the invasion, Denmark was able to keep its government and monarchy in place with a mix of democracy and totalitarianism until Germany dissolved the government in 1943 following strikes and upheaval.

Although some 6,000 Danes are estimated to have joined the corps of Danish Nazis known as Free Corps Denmark during the war, the Danish resistance movement is estimated to have included well over 20,000 Danes who worked to actively undermine the German occupation.

Some 3,000 Danes died as a direct result, with another estimated 4,000 Danish volunteers killed while fighting alongside the Germans and 1,072 sailors gave their lives for the Allies.

Danish fishermen also put themselves at great risk by ferrying Denmark's Jews to safety in Sweden.

Scandinavian concentration camp prisoners were rescued in so-called White Buses. Shown here are interned police officers. Photo: Poul Petersen/Scanpix

Denmark publicly apologized for collaboration with the Nazis for the first time in 2003. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called the co-operation "morally unjustifiable" in a speech for the 60th anniversary of the end of the 1940 to 1943 collaborationist government.

Although the May 5th, 1945 liberation brought joy across Denmark, the day was also marked with Danish citizens publicly humiliating women who had known relationships with German soldiers.

People are arrested in Copenhagen shortly after Denmark's liberation in 1945. Photo: A. E. Andersen/Ritzau Scanpix

The first Allied forces arrived in Denmark on the afternoon of May 5th, greeted by throngs of people celebrating in Copenhagen. When Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery came to the capital a week later, Danes honoured him with a victory parade throughout the city.

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was given a hero's welcome as he drove through Copenhagen a week after the liberation. Photo: Public domain

While Danes were celebrating in the days following liberation, those living on the island of Bornholm were being bombarded by Soviet forces. According to historian Børge Kure, news of the destruction of hundreds of homes in Rønne and Nexø was not allowed to reach the rest of Denmark lest it ruin the liberation celebrations.

After two days of bombardment, Soviet troops came on land on May 9th, leading to a German surrender of the island. The Soviets would remain on Bornholm until April 5th, 1946.

A previous version of this article was originally published on May 4th, 2015.

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How Denmark was liberated at the end of World War II

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"This is London! The BBC, broadcasting to Denmark!" "At this moment, it is being announced that Montgomery has stated that the German troops in the Netherlands, northwest Germany and Denmark have surrendered. This is London. We repeat: Montgomery has just now announced that the German troops in the Netherlands, northwest Germany and Denmark have surrendered."

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Denmark during World War II (1940 – 1945)

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Armoured car at Nørrebrogade

Here is a short summary of the German occupation of Denmark:

DENMARK IS OCCUPIED
On the morning of 9 April 1940 Denmark was attacked by Germany. There was sporadic fighting between the Danish and German armies. However, the government in Copenhagen decided that the German military superiority was too great to justify further resistance. At the same time heavy bombardment of the Danish cities and towns was feared. Therefore after only a few hours it was decided to surrender. Denmark thus became an occupied country controlled by Nazi Germany.

COOPERATION WITH GERMANY
The Danish government then began to cooperate with the German occupiers. The political leaders' strategy was to preserve as much self-determination as possible for Denmark whilst still accommodating the wishes of the Germans. In pursuing this course the large Danish political parties also sought to protect Danish society from harsh measures which might be introduced by the occupiers and from the Danish Nazis (the National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark).

DAILY LIFE CONTINUES
One consequence of the policy of cooperation was that most Danes could continue their daily lives much as before the German occupation. Eventually, however, the war meant shortages of goods, rationing, air-raid warnings, blackouts and closed national borders. However, although there were shortages of certain goods in Denmark, the Danes had one of the highest standards of living in Europe during the war years.

RESISTANCE
Even if most Danes supported the strategy of their political leaders, active resistance against the Germans and the policy of collaboration emerged, and became increasingly popular. The resistance movement was involved in an illegal press and carrying out sabotage operations. Such operations involved the destruction of German property, railways and companies that cooperated with the Germans.

THE MOOD CHANGES
During the course of 1943, however, the mood began to change amongst Danish population. Over the summer, as people heard about various German military defeats, numerous fights erupted between young Danes and German soldiers. Meanwhile, the resistance movement added to the turbulence with sabotage activities. In August the situation exploded with strikes taking place in Odense and Esbjerg, which then spread to many other towns. The workers at large workplaces lead the way, and soon there was large-scale unrest involving demonstrations and street battles with the Germans and Danish authorities.

THE END OF THE DANISH GOVERNMENT
To stop the August unrest the Germans demanded that the Danish government should impose the death penalty for sabotage. The government refused to agree to this. Therefore, the German occupiers imposed a state of emergency and on 29 August 1943 the government ceased to function. Meanwhile the Germans disarmed the Danish army and also tried to take over the navy. This led to fighting between Danish and German soldiers and the Danish navy sinking several vessels to prevent them falling into German hands.

INCREASED RESISTANCE AND GERMAN REPRESSION
After the August unrest the situation in Denmark was characterised by increased German repression. Arrests and executions became more common. The German occupiers used such repression in order to maintain control in Denmark and to respond to the sabotage activities of the resistance movement. Another consequence of the increase in German repression was the persecution of the Danish Jews. In October 1943 the German police were deployed to arrest the Jews, so that they could be sent to concentration camps. However, in a unique rescue operation more than 7000 Danish Jews were helped to neutral Sweden, where they could live in safety for the rest of the war. 485 Danish Jews were arrested though, and then sent to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia.

THE FINAL PHASE OF GERMAN OCCUPATION
In the summer of 1944 sabotage operations were carried out in the Copenhagen area, and strikes and civil unrest broke out in Denmark. On 19 September 1944 the Germans dissolved the Danish police, which was seen as a potential military threat. By 1945 Denmark was a run-down country characterised by shortages of goods, fear and conflict.

LIBERATION
On 4 May 1945 at 20.35 it was announced on British radio that the German troops in Holland, North-West Germany and Denmark had surrendered. This was without a single English, American or Russian soldier setting foot on Danish soil. The period of occupation thus ended reasonably peacefully, and in most places people could take to the streets and celebrate the new freedom. An exception to this, however, was the island of Bornholm, which was subjected to heavy Soviet bombardment at the time of Denmark's liberation.

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Denmark was subject to German occupation during World War Two (1940-45). The Danish government cooperated with the occupiers to start with, but a resistance movement grew and civil unrest occurred. On 4 May 1945 it was announced on British radio that the German troops in Denmark had surrendered.