My parents were originally from Poland. My father was from Lodz, my mother from Piotrkow.  During WWI my father was conscripted to serve in the Russian army.  His parents said no. They wanted to send him to the United States but they did not have enough money.  My father had a friend who had immigrated to Copenhagen, Denmark.  

My mother's oldest sister, her husband and some of their children moved to Copenhagen to escape anti-semitism they experienced in Poland.  My mother was visiting her sister in Copenhagen and met my father.  They fell in love and married in Copenhagen.  

In 1940, the Germans invaded Denmark.  The Danish people resented the German invasion of their country.  The Danes were sympathetic to the Jewish population.  I looked different from typical Danes.  I had dark hair; they mostly had blond hair and blue eyes.  On the bus, I was asked if I needed a place to hide or if I needed money.  My Danish girlfriend offered to hide me from the Germans. 

Apparently, at that time, Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist, was in Sweden attending a conference.  The American government was working on the Manhattan project to develop an atomic bomb.  They had a submarine waiting to take him from Sweden to America.  Niels Bohr's mother was Jewish.  He said he would help but he wanted the American and British governments to help rescue the Danish Jews to Sweden.  

So the rescue of the Danish Jews took place in 1940.  My girlfriend had wanted me to stay with her but I wanted to be with my parents and family.  I was 16 years old.  So my parents and siblings and my girlfriend with some others went in a large rowboat to Sweden. There were about 15 of us in the boat.  There were two Danish men who rowed.  Halfway over the channel between Denmark and Sweden we were met by the Swedish Navy.  We transferred to the Swedish boat and went to safety in Sweden.