Memorial Grove in Ryvangen

Mindelunden i Ryvangen

The grounds of the former barracks in the Ryvangen district of Copenhagen were used by the German security police as an execution site for Danish resitance fighters. After the war, the state of Denmark set up a national memorial at the site which was dedicated in 1950.

History

Between April 9, 1940 and May 5, 1945, Denmark was occupied by Germany. The government felt compelled to cooperate with the occupying forces.
At the same time, a resistance movement developed and gained in strength beginning early 1943. The propagation of illegal writings as well as strikes and acts of sabotage led to tensions between the Danes and the Germans. New demands of the occupying authorities prompted the Danish government to finally resign on August 29, 1943.
That same day, the German Wehrmacht disarmed Danish soldiers stationed in the barracks in the Ryvangen district of Copenhagen and occupied the drill grounds. After that, the German security police used a part of the firing range to execute resistance fighters. The victims were tied to wood beams and shot.
In all, around 900 Danish resistance fighters were executed, lost their lives in acts of sabotage and raids or targeted murder campaigns or perished in German camps during the Second World War.

Copenhagen, 2003, Sculpture by Axel Poulsen in the Memorial Grove in Ryvangen, Stiftung Denkmal, Christl Wickert

Victims

The German security police executed 95 people at the firing range in Ryvangen. In all, the remains of around 200 people were discovered in Ryvangen after the war. Many of those buried here were murdered in other parts of the city or died under unknown circumstances.

At the start of the German occupation in April 1940 there were 7,500 Jews living in Denmark, of whom 1,500 were refugees. The government in Copenhagen saw no choice but to cooperate with the German occupying forces and sections of the population also collaborated. However, the German occupiers assured the Danes that they would refrain from attacks on the Jewish population. The number of Danish volunteers in the Waffen SS was initially much greater than the number of Danish resistance fighters. A quarter of these volunteers were members of the German-speaking minority in North Schleswig. The Danish underground movement increasingly gained strength from spring 1943 onwards. Strikes and acts of sabotage led to tension between Danes and Germans. Faced with fresh demands from the occupation administration, the Danish government resigned in August 1943. Werner Best (1903–1989), German Plenipotentiary in Denmark, declared a state of emergency and proposed to the leaders in Berlin that the Danish Jews be deported. The Danes became aware of these plans. With broad support from the population, 7,000 Danish Jews subsequently managed to escape to Sweden between September and November 1943. Around 480 Jews who were unable to flee were arrested by German police and deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. 52 of them did not survive. A total of 116 Jews died as a result of the German occupation. From 1944 onwards, members of the resistance were deported primarily via the Frøslev detention camp in southern Denmark to the German concentration camps at Neuengamme, Sachsenhausen, Dachau and Ravensbrück. Around 900 Danish resistance fighters were executed, lost their lives during acts of sabotage, raids or targeted killings, or died in German camps. Around 6,300 Danes out of a then population of around four million died as a result of the war. For a long time, Danish memory of the Second World War was dominated by the resistance and a unilateral hostility towards the Germans. This is still reflected in the culture of remembrance. The main sites of memory are the »Frihedsmuseet« (Liberation Museum) in Copenhagen, founded in 1957 and dedicated to the resistance; the museum established in 1965 on the site of the former Fröslee detention camp; and the national Memorial Park to the »The Fallen Danish Resistance Fighters« in Ryvangen, inaugurated in 1950. Holocaust remembrance was initially a matter for the Jewish community, but attitudes changed in the 1970s as a result of international interest in the rescue of the Danish Jews. The culture and politics of remembrance in Denmark continue to be characterised by conflicting attitudes towards resistance and collaboration.

Remembrance

Already in 1946, the Danish state began remodelling the former military drill grounds in Ryvangen into a national memorial to the Danish victims of German occupation. The »Memorial Grove in Ryvangen« (Danish: »Mindelunden i Ryvangen«) was dedicated on May 5, 1950, on the fifth anniversary of Denmark's liberation.
A sculpture by Axel Poulsen stands at the centre of the memorial park. Along both sides of the monument there are 105 graves of those executed in Ryvangen or of freedom fighters who died in action. Another field of graves close to the front of the monument names further 91 victims of executions in Ryvangen and freedom fighters whose bodies were recovered.
There are another 31 graves for prisoners who died in German concentration camps, and who were laid to rest in the area of the »Rotunda«. A memorial plaque in the »Pergola« adds the names of another 151 murdered freedom fighters whose bodies were never found.
A memorial plaque and bronze castings of the wood beams to which the victims were tied mark the former site of mass shootings. Today, the original beams are located in the Museum of Danish Resistance.
The »Memorial Grove in Ryvangen« is the central Danish memorial to the victims of German occupation. The central commemorative ceremony on May 5 takes place annually at this site.

Possibilities

Tours by prior appointment, memorial ceremony with government representatives and members of the royal house of Denmark takes place annually on May 5

Open

November to January daily 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
February, March and October 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
April to September daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
May to August 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Contact

http://www.mindelundenryvangen.dk/

vagtmindelunden@gmail.com

+45 22 80 04 67

Tuborgvej 33
DK-2900 København

Copenhagen, 2003, Pergola and plaques with the names of missing victims in the Memorial Grove in Ryvangen, Stiftung Denkmal, Christl Wickert

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