how ernst mørch fooled the nazis and saved thousands of jews

Ernst Morch, born in 1908,  was an important doctor in the field of anesthesiology (using gases or drugs to lessen pain, especially before surgery). He became interested in this when he was 5 years old and had his tonsils removed without any anesthesia, which was incredibly painful. He developed medical equipment, learned new techniques, and administered new drugs that helped advance medicine and make surgeries far less painful.

World War II activities

Ernst Mørch

During World War II, when the Nazis occupied Denmark, newspapers were censored (not allowed to print anything negative about the Nazis), so Dr. Mørch and some others started an underground newspaper in their hospital. Those who worked against the Nazis in Denmark were part of a movement known as the Danish Resistance. They even stole a typewriter, ink, paper, and a copy machine to write and copy their newspaper. Dr. Mørch then distributed the newspapers when he made house calls. Any one of these actions could have gotten them shot by the Nazis.

The Nazis didn't want news about what was really happening in the war to get out to the public, so Dr. Mørch and his colleagues set up a receiver on the roof of the hospital so they could listen to the BBC—the British Broadcasting Company that was a radio station reporting on the war. They then reported what they heard in their underground paper. They also snuck out information they learned about the Nazis to authorities in England.

Saving Danish jews

When the Danish Resistance learned that the Nazis were going to take the 8,000 Jewish people living in Denmark to the concentration camps, Dr. Mørch and other hospital workers hid many of them by admitting them to the hospitals under fake names. They also hid them in homes and churches until they could be evacuated.

The Jewish people were evacuated, a few at a time, in fishing boats. The boats took them five to fifteen miles across the Kattegat Sea (and elsewhere) to Sweden where they would be safe. The people were hidden under false bottoms in the boats. When the Gestapo (a police organization of the Nazis) began searching the boats with dogs, Dr. Mørch and a pharmacist friend developed a powder using rabbit blood and cocaine that was sprinkled on the decks of the boats. The rabbit blood attracted the dogs and the cocaine numbed their noses so they couldn't smell.

Denmark is colored in green and Sweden is colored in orange.

His second life-saving formula

After the war, Dr. Mørch rode on one of the buses sent by the Danish government to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany to bring home the Danish citizens who were held there. The prisoners there had been starved for a long time, so when they were given food and milk, they quickly died because their bodies couldn't handle suddenly eating and drinking like normal. Dr. Mørch figured out that small shots of beer, given every 30 minutes along with injected vitamins over the slow ten-day drive back to Denmark, could save thousands. These buses ended up transporting more than just the Danish people and ended up saving 280,000 concentration camp victims.

Bessette, Claire. “Son of Danish WWII Hero Relays Events to Norwich Students.” The Day, 24 Feb. 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20160225093140/www.theday.com/article/20160223/NWS01/160229657.

Rosenberg, Henry, and Jean K. Axelrod. “Ernst Trier Mørch: Inventor, Medical Pioneer, Heroic Freedom Fighter.” Anesthesia & Analgesia, International Anesthesia Research Society, https://journals.lww.com/anesthesia-analgesia/fulltext/2000/01000/ernst_trier_m_rch__inventor,_medical_pioneer,.43.aspx.
January 2000 - Volume 90 - Issue 1 - p 218-221