A 34-foot, 20,000-pound wooden fishing boat named Thor, which was used to sneak Jews out of Denmark during World War II, will soon be on display at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.
After Denmark was invaded by Germany in 1940, the Danish government resisted any anti-Jewish laws. But in the fall of 1943, the Germans announced that all Danish Jews would be deported. Over the next couple of days, the Danish resistance movement, with the help of Danish citizens, managed to evacuate 7,220 Jewish people, plus 686 non-Jewish spouses, to nearby neutral Sweden by boat.
Thor was one of the boats used in that effort. Instrumental in finding and recovering Thor were two Tampa Bay residents, Margot Benstock and Irene Weiss. Both women’s parents escaped Denmark by boat, and believe bringing the vessel to Florida will provide a chance for younger generations to feel empowerment and optimism.
Those being snuck out of Denmark during WWII would hide below deck to escape the Nazis. Weiss recalls her father telling her they put fish over him, “to disguise what they were doing,” she said to Bay News 9. “My father, when he went on the boat to Sweden, he’d already lost his whole family. I can’t even imagine what was going through his head.”
“All my mother said was that she was very claustrophobic,” Benstock added. “She was petrified the whole time.”
Both women hope that the exhibit reminds others they can make a difference and aid in the perils of other people. Currently, Thor is in a warehouse in Largo, but the museum hopes to open the exhibition this year.
