OCCUPIED!

Denmark was occupied by Germany on the morning of 9 April 1940. The Danish government chose to collaborate with the German authorities, hoping to be able to govern internal Danish affairs. The policy of collaboration meant that life continued undisturbed for the vast majority of Danes for the first few years of the war.

But the consequences of war started to bite, and the constant shortages of food, rationing, air raid alarms, blackout and closed borders gave many people the feeling of being imprisoned in their own country. The growing dissatisfaction triggered the start of the organisation of an active resistance movement in Denmark, which grew slowly in strength through 1941/42.

The German Plenipotentiary in Denmark, Werner Best, believed that the resistance movement should be fought by legal means. The overriding principle was that resistance fighters sentenced to death could be pardoned if the movement ceased operations. He hoped that in that way, the German authorities could blackmail the resistance into passivity.

PROCLAMATION! was a German leaflet dropped over Denmark on the morning of 9 April 1940 during the German invasion. The leaflet was signed by general Leonard von Kaupisch. The leaflet set out how the Germans expected the population to behave under occupation. It also attempted to explain why it was necessary to occupy Denmark.