There are hundreds of statues and monuments in the United States and around the world to people who abetted or took part in the murder of Jews and other minorities during the Holocaust. As part of an ongoing investigation, the Forward has, for the first time, documented them in this collection of articles. For an initial guide to each country’s memorials click here. In a grove just off the road in the small town of Ans on Denmark’s Jutland peninsula stands a memorial stone inscribed with the sun cross (a pagan symbol often associated with neo-Nazis) and dedicated “To the memory of the 4,000 Danish volunteers 1939–1945.” The memorial commemorates fallen Nazi collaborators of Free Corps Denmark (Frikorps Danmark) a volunteer formation that fought in the Waffen-SS (the military arm of the Nazi Party) against the Soviet Union. The Free Corps, which eventually totaled 7,000 men, was created and recruited for by the National Socialist Workers’ Party of Denmark (DNSAP), the country’s largest Nazi party, together with Nazi Germany. It’s a small, pro-Nazi relic from a nation famous for saving its Jews. A Free Corps veteran organization created the Ans memorial in 1969. The “justification” given for honoring these soldiers is that they fought against Communism. A week after its unveiling, the memorial stone was detonated by veterans of the Danish resistance. “We could easily have blown up the entire memorial park, but we wanted to leave something for the other resistance groups from the region who have stated that they will launch similar operations,” a saboteur told a local paper, according to “The Battle for the Nazi Memorial,” a fascinating article by the Danish Broadcasting Company (DR).
via forward: Nazi collaborator monuments in Denmark