Nation branding og Den Lille Havfrue i eksil

Resumé

During the Second World War, London hosted several exile movements, including
the Danish Council, each campaigning for their own nation and goals. In November
1944, the Danish Council organised the exhibition “Fighting Denmark” to showcase
the Danish resistance. The aim of the exhibition was twofold: to achieve Allied recognition
for the Danish effort and to highlight the Council’s work. The exhibition presented
the Danish resistance as a united force that rose against the Nazi occupation, with resistance
taking various forms, ranging from active sabotage to passive resistance. The
exhibition was organised thematically, with a particular emphasis on the last year and
a half of the occupation, highlighting events such as the August Uprising in 1943 and
the Peoples’ Strike in 1944. Thus, the narrative of the exhibition was part of the Danish
myth of the occupation, deeply ingrained in the collective memory of the war years.
Here, the narrative was presented to the Allies in order to portray the democratic and
proud Danes united in the heroic rise against the Nazi occupation.