Her er London, BBC sender til Danmark...

[a_belladonna]

Among the things that give me goosebumps and a lump in my throat, the message of the Danish liberation the evening of May 4th 1945 ranks fairly high on that list.

To a degree where it almost annoys me seeing some of my Danish friends being more occupied with celebrating Star Wars Day. Celebrate pop cultural phenomena all your want - just not on a day such as today. It is a day of remembrance and gratitude towards the British troops who liberated us.

And listening to the message today, at the time it originally aired, felt particularly special seeing as it was the 75th anniversary of the Liberation.

Give it a listen - even if you don't understand exactly what the speaker is saying, I'm sure you can spot the exact moment where the excitement in his voice reveals that he's realising what message he just read out loud.

Watch on YouTube

What also feels special is looking out at the darkening, blue sky, seeing all the candles in people's windows* - and feeling that the past is at the same time very far away, yet very close.

*That evening people tore down their blackout curtains and lit candles in their windows to celebrate that they no longer had to obey the German blackout order, which was issued at the beginning of the war.

Comments

[sonofgodzilla]

this is absolutely wonderful. I've never heard this recording before, but it made me feel very emotional even though I don't speak Danish. The act of lighting candles and having them displayed in the window is super important, it reminds me of our instruction to do this every Shabbat to remind people of the importance of the day and that feels kind of apt to mention here.

[a_belladonna]

Yes, it's a very powerful recording, isn't it? Some thing just trancends language barriers. :)

that feels kind of apt to mention here

Indeed it does! I wasn't aware of that but it is a very fitting coincidence that we celebrate the end of the war doing just that thing.

[sonofgodzilla]

It absolutely is.

Ahh, things like this get me sort of tearful.

[dr_zook]

I must admit that I actually know absolutely zilch about the German occupation of Denmark, I'm very sorry for that. Thank you for reminding me of that.

The candles in the windows sound very touching, the past is at the same time very far away, yet very close, yes indeed.

[a_belladonna]

The short version is: it was a very mild occupation compared to what happened in the other European countries. We were nicknamed the "Sahnefront" because of that and because we had a lot of dairy products. (One of the less glorious details of that story is that Denmark made a lot of money exporting agricultural produce to Nazi Germany)

They are very touching, actually, and I'm happy to see that people of my generation and younger are keeping the tradition alive. It's an instance where I'm reminded why I studied history to begin wtith.