OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2019-20, Retsudvalget 2019-20, Udenrigsudvalget 2019-20
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 4, REU Alm.del Bilag 71, URU Alm.del Bilag 27
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COUNTRY VISIT: DENMARK
Visit of the OSCE Personal Representatives
Alexey Avtonomov, Rabbi Andrew Baker, Professor Talip Küçükcan
September 10-11, 2014
CIO.GAL/26/15
9 March 2015
OSCE+
ENGLISH only
Danish Institute for International Studies
The Danish Institute for International Studies houses the small staff responsible for
Holocaust education and awareness in Denmark. Although the annual “Auschwitz Day”
programs started as a national initiative, they now focus primarily on education and are
largely undertaken on the municipal level. While the rescue of Danish Jewry during the
Holocaust is a rare and remarkable story, those Jews who were unable to flee found
themselves deported by the Nazis to the concentration camp in Terezin. This tragic chapter
serves as the basis for a new film produced by the Institute. Their programs reach some
6,500 students and 200 teachers annually, with another 300,000 visits to their website.
In 2006, the Institute conducted a study on anti-Semitism in Denmark. While it was
determined to be a relatively “marginalized” phenomenon, the study did find present some
degree of “unconscious” anti-Semitism. The report also determined that anti-Semitism was
an unaddressed problem among immigrants from Arab and Muslim backgrounds.
Researchers based this assessment on interviews conducted with teachers and school
administrators, which included two predominantly-Muslim schools. Today, they note, there
are fifteen such schools, and a new survey is badly needed.
Additional activities in the planning stage at the Institute include one project that focuses on
the challenges of teaching about different forms of intolerance in Danish schools. In visits
with teachers and students at schools around the country, they sought information on
prejudice and the treatment of various minorities. Based on their experience they will
prepare material for educators that will provide historical background, discussion material
and recommendations designed to engage students on questions of inclusion and exclusion,
majority and minority languages, hate speech and discrimination. To illustrate these points,
the material will offer examples from four target groups—Jews, Muslims, Roma and LGBT
communities.
The total budget for the Auschwitz Day staff at the DIIS is 2.4 million Kroner (about
€400,000) which is subject to further budget cuts.
Jewish Community
The Danish Jewish community counts some 2,000-2,500 official members with an additional
two or three times that number, all residing primarily in Copenhagen and vicinity. They
maintain a community building, the central synagogue, an old age home and a Jewish day
school. There are also independent Chabad and Reform Jewish congregations, for which the
community umbrella looks after security. In all there are some thirty-five Jewish
organizations and associations active in the country.
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