The Grey Truth: The Danish Rescue in Israeli Holocaust Memory

The rescue of thousands of Danish Jews in October 1943 is one of the most persistent myths in the memory of the Holocaust in Israel, together with the fishing boat that became the symbol of that rescue, during which the Jews were smuggled to neutral Sweden. However, from the 1940s until today, there have been considerable changes in the Holocaust memory in Israel, and these reshaped the attitude toward the Danish people, the Resistance fighters, and the survivors themselves. This chapter examines how the myth that was formed around the rescue not only helped to bridge the gap between the past and the present, between the horrors of the Holocaust and the morality of the rescuers, but also contributed to the shaping of the Israeli national identity.