[78-L] Svend Asmussen [was An AMAZING Jzz DVD by a guy you (probably) never heard of]

[Kristjan Saag]

Julian Vein wrote:
> I recall reading/hearing that some Danish people, including the royal 
> family,
> demonstrated against the treatment of Jews.
---
Some...
Immediately before the Danish government was dissolved in August 1943 there 
was an open election - yes, during the occupation - where the democratic 
parties got 94 % of the votes, the Nazi Party 2.1 %.
After August 1943 Danish fishing boats managed to bring most of the Jewish 
population into safety in Sweden.
But WW II wasn't just a Jewish question. It was a huge suffering for 
millions of civilians on both sides. During the entire war a few hundred 
Danish soldiers were killed and a couple of hundred civilians. In 1943 a few 
hundred communists were arrested and about a hundred of them were taken to 
concentration camps. 22 of them died.
The real tragedy was this: at the end of the war hundreds of thousands 
refugees from East Prussia, Pommern and the Baltic provinces fled over the 
Baltic Sea, trying to escape the advancing Soviet Army. Most of them landed 
in Denmark and were put in concentration camps. Tens of thousands of them 
died, 37 000 of them in 1945 only.
Meanwhile Svend Asmussen was free to record any jazz tune he wanted, 
including the ones by Gershwin and Ellington.
Back on topic, aren't we?
Kristjan