Duckwitz Georg

Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was born on September 29, 1904 in Bremen to an old patrician family in the Hanseatic city. During the Weimar republic Duckwitz belonged to right wing student circles, and even joined the Nazi party in 1932. However once the Nazis came to power, he was soon disillusioned with the regime. In 1935 he resigned from his position in the Nazi party’s foreign service. “In view of my experience over the past two years concerning almost all aspects of the National Socialist experience, I must consider that the reasons which in 1932 prompted me to devote myself entirely to the party no longer apply.”, he wrote to Alfred Rosenberg, “This simple statement summarize the profound disappointment of a believer and one who was full of trust.” Duckwitz went to work for the Hambur-America Line shipping company and traveled to many places as their representative. In 1939, however, he decided to return to Germany and applied for the position as maritime attaché at the German embassy in Copenhagen. As Duckwitz was intimately acquainted with local conditions and enjoyed good connections with Danish leaders, after 1942, he became a close confidant of the new Nazi Reich Representative for Denmark, Werner Best. A former deputy chief of the Gestapo and a hard-core Nazi ideologue, Best nevertheless chose to stick to the moderate policies of his predecessors, seeking to create a collaboration with the Danes, rather than provoke them to oppose the German occupation. In summer 1943, following a sharp increase in strikes and sabotage against the occupation, the German policy changed and preparations were made to rid the country of its 7,800 Jews.On September 28, 1943, Best, who feared a deterioration of the situation if the Jews were to be forcefully deported to the east, tipped off his confidant about the plan for the deportation of Denmark’s Jewish community. At great risk to himself, Duckwitz proceeded to inform his DanishSocial-Democratic friends, who, in turn, alerted the leadership of the Danish Jewish community. This made it possible for the Danes to carry out their great rescue operation, during which some 7,000 Jews were transported within three weeks in ships and boats across the sea to the safety of neighboring Sweden. By October 2, when the Gestapo set out to implement their plans and arrest the Jews, most of the Jews had gone, and only 500 Jews, mostly elderly and sick, were caught and deported to the camp of Theresienstadt.. Duckwitz’ remained committed to the policy of cooperation with the Danes, and tried to mediate and negotiate a peaceful solution to the general strike the Danes declared in the summer of 1944. To this end he acted together with Werner Best, the Plenipotentiary in Denmark, and even stood by his side after the war, when Best was accused for his involvement in crimes of the Nazi security services. Duckwitz’ remained committed to the policy of cooperation with the Danes, and tried to mediate and negotiate a peaceful solution to the general strike the Danes declared in the summer of 1944. To this end he acted together with Werner Best, the Plenipotentiary in Denmark, and even stood by his side after the war, when Best was accused for his involvement in crimes of the Nazi security services. After the war Duckwitz served in the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany and was sent as ambassador to Denmark. He rose in the ranks of the Ministry and was nominated as State Secretary by Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, who was later elected German chancellor. On March 29, 1971, Yad Vashem recognized Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz as Righteous Among the Nations.