How an Afro-Jewish band rocked Nazi-occupied Denmark
How an Afro-Jewish band rocked Nazi-occupied Denmark
Anne Dvinge, University of Copenhagen
It seems an impossibility: in Nazi-occupied Denmark in the 1940s, one of the hottest jazz orchestras around was the interracial Harlem Kiddies, with two white and three black band members – and a Jewish singer in front. The story of how the band came to be so popular is one that uncovers the great role that jazz and race played in the occupied territories during the Second World War.
Several factors contributed to the social and political atmosphere that enabled their success. In the occupied territories in the Second World War, Denmark was known as the Sahnefront – the cream front – due to the co-operative government and the relative leniency of the occupying forces.…
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