On September 28, 1943 Duckwitz leaked the information to people who then contacted Rabbi Marcus Melchior - the acting chief rabbi in Copenhagen. His first reaction was not to believe the news. The Germans had a policy of laissez faire over the Danes, allowing them to continue to lead their own occupied country. A purge of the Jews simply could not happen in Denmark.

The Copenhagen Jewish community dated back as far as 1622. In 1690 a Danish police commissioner was removed from office because he merely suggested the idea of a Jewish Ghetto. The Danish Parliament rejected the plan and called the idea an "inhuman way of life." In 1814 the Danish government declared the racial and religious discrimination illegal.

Denmark is one of the world's oldest democracies. Education and diversity of thought were cultural values. The long history of Danish Jewry had resulted in significant numbers of intermarriages between Jews and Christians in Denmark. Many Christian Danes had close Jewish relatives. At the least, almost everyone had some close Jewish friends. Danish Jews never voluntarily kept to themselves. They integrated themselves fully into business and society.

But in late August of 1943 the Germans began to clamp down on the Danes. In an act of violent resistance, the Danes destroyed the Forum Exhibit Hall in downtown Copenhagen. The Nazis used the hall as an army hospital and barracks. That act of violence resulted in the declaration of martial law.

So on Wednesday September 29, the day before Rosh Hashanna Rabbi Melchior told the slightly more than 100 people at a shul to leave their homes behind. He told them to be sure to not be in their homes when the raids and arrests happened. And he told that 100 people to be tell other Jews, and to make sure those Jews told still more Jews. And to do so quickly because time was running out.