Underground Press

Because of the German occupation in Denmark, the Nazi officials doctored and put pressure on presses to print favorable information. Instead of open censorship, the Germans declared, "We won’t stop you from printing anything you want, we’ll just put you out of business if your printing doesn’t meet our approval" (Werstein 23). As tighter restrictions were forced onto the press, they moved underground. The first successful anti-Nazi papers Land og Folk and Arne Sejr’s Student’s Service began to print the harshness of the war caused by the Nazis. News at it really happened, not as the Germans wanted people to think it happened, spread all over the country as more illegal presses such as Frit Danmark arose. Circulation over the five-year occupation was about twenty million copies printed at all the presses (Werstein 25).
Borje Outze created a agency called Information (map of distribution) that linked and gained intelligence for almost all the underground papers in Denmark. Information created illegal presses all over Denmark. It provided the people with daily news and increased unity by keeping people informed. It also became a big tool in providing information to get the Jews out of Denmark during the Danish Exodus (Thomas 86). Due to support by the British and sabotage groups stealing printing supplies from the Germans, the illegal presses in Denmark lasted throughout the war to spur on resistance activity with resistance stories and news of German defeats while maintaining peace within the Danish communities and bringing the people together after the Nazi’s fled (Thomas 91).

Link to Collage showing some underground papers.
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