Danish Holocaust hero David Sompolinsky turns 100

• Author: BENT BLÜDNIKOW
• Published date: 13 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Many Danes demonstrated their resistance to the German occupation and the Nazi ideology by standing by their Jewish compatriots and participating in the rescue efforts. Jews, of course, were also active and one of the heroes of those endeavors is David Sompolinsky. He has lived in Israel since 1951, and celebrated his 100th birthday in Bnei Brak in August.

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The epithet "hero" is very apt for Sompolinsky. One of the most important escape routes to Sweden during the war was organized by the Lyngby resistance group, which ferried about 700 Jews across the strait between Denmark and Sweden. The leader of the group was Aage Bertelsen, who in his book October '43 wrote: "In some regard, this young Jew was the actual founder of the aid work in Lyngby […] unwavering, literally day and night, David was active in helping with absolutely no concern for his own safety."

The Danish-born student was the son of a religious Jewish family, which immigrated to Denmark from Eastern Europe in 1914. His contribution to the Lyngby group was only one out of many activities he undertook to safeguard his co-religionists. In 1942, a Danish Nazi had attempted to set fire to the main synagogue in Copenhagen. In response, young Jews formed a security guard, patrolling the synagogue at night. In Sompolinsky's memoirs, available at the Yad Vashem archives in Jerusalem and on YouTube, he recounts: "The only weapons available to us were batons and a direct phone line to the police."

In her dissertation on the plight of the Jews during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, "The Jews of Denmark during the Holocaust," Israeli researcher Leni Yahil highlighted Sompolinsky's efforts and wrote that he was active in hiding Jews from early in the German occupation and organized both aid and escape for them along with the staff at the Copenhagen Municipal Hospital.

Following the German invasion, Sompolinsky began working with the Cecilia Pels group. Pels fled to Denmark from Hamburg as a refugee and lived in a Jewish retirement home in Copenhagen. From there, she organized distribution of aid parcels to desperate Jewish refugees all across Nazi-held territories. Sompolinsky was intensely involved in this highly dangerous activity. The Pels group's activity has been documented by Yad Vashem.

On September 29, 1943, Sompolinsky and his family were tipped off to the planned roundup of Jews. He contacted Jews outside of Copenhagen who were in danger. In the Danish capital, he warned groups of...