Hitlers spisekammer? En kildekritisk undersøgelse af de danske fødevareleverancers betydning for ernæringstilstanden i Tyskland 1940-1945

Resumé

Hitler’s Larder? A Critical Examination of the Importance of Danish Exports to German Food Supplies, 1940-1945The article is based on a paper presented at the World War II session of the national conference of the Danish Historical Association in August 2006. In recent years Danish historians have emphasized the importance - in relative as well as absolute terms - of German import of fresh fish and agricultural produce from Denmark. According to a widespread version - which in the present article is repudiated as a myth - Denmark even functioned as ‘the larder’ of Germany, being next to indispensable to the NS war economy. This opinion is primarily based on the interpretation of reports written by the German plenipotentiaries in Denmark, Cecil von Renthe-Fink (1940-1942) and Werner Best (1942-1945), ignoring that both of these had a major political interest in exaggerating the significance of Danish exports. The German Foreign Ministry did not oppose it, and little by little the myth began to circulate in the German administration’s internal correspondence. After the war Danish historians have kept the myth alive by quoting the same correspondence - and, not least, one another!There is every reason to challenge this opinionated interpretation based on highly biased material before it irrevocably becomes settled as orthodoxy. By pointing out and systematically comparing the relevant statistical source material it is demonstrated that Danish exports never constituted a significant share of the small German food rations, and that France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary all had greater separate shares than Denmark in German overall import during World War II.