​(Communicated by the President's Spokesperson)
 
President Reuven Rivlin will be the guest of the prime minister of Denmark, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the Gribskov local council and the Gilleleje Church at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the rescue of over 7000 Danish Jews from Nazi persecution and their safe transfer to Sweden in October 1943. The ceremony of memorial and commemoration will take place on 11 October in the Gilleleje Church where hundreds of Jews were hidden. Members of the Jewish community and others will take part in the ceremony. The president will be accompanied by Dan Katznelson, who along with his family was taken to Sweden by the Danish underground, and thus saved. Dan was born in 1941 in the outskirts of Copenhagen and was taken to Sweden in the rescue mission when he was two years old.
 
Earlier in the day, the president and the prime minister will lay a wreath at the port of Gilleleje, from where many Jews sailed to Sweden. Afterwards, the prime minister will host the president at his official residence of Marienborg for lunch. In the evening the two will take part in a special event to mark the rescue of the Jews of Denmark at the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen, attended by HRH Crown Prince Frederik.
 
The president expressed his thanks for the invitation to participate in the anniversary events and said, “the relations between Denmark and Israel have a unique historical basis, and the rescue of the Jews of Denmark by the Danish people is particularly significant. We will be paying tribute to an act of unprecedented heroism on this visit. The supreme efforts to rescue the Jews of Denmark during the holocaust was an act of true grace and humanity that will echo for generations. The good relations between the two countries grow even deeper as we find new issues on which to cooperate.”
 
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said: “We must not forget the horrors of the Second World War. The rescue of the Jews of Denmark is a key element of our shared history. It is important to remember and to learn from the past, and so I see great importance in commemorating the Jews of Denmark who lost their lives during their escape, and those who were murdered at Theresienstadt. At the same time, we should admire the humanity that inspired the rescue of over 7000 Danish Jews. The courage of the Danish people 75 years ago moves me even now. 75 years later, we must see each other as fellow humans and never forget the basic values that are the heart of human society.”