Meet Danish Holocaust survivor Steen Axel Metz from Odense
By Professor Jeff Hancks –
Over seventy years have passed since Allied and Soviet forces liberated Nazi Germany’s concentration camps and exposed their horrors to the world. But one Danish-American has dedicated his life to making sure that we never forget what happened in those notorious camps during World War II’s darkest days.
Chicago-area resident Steen Axel Metz, an Odense native, was one of 472 Danish Jews who was arrested and deported to the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia. “Almost all Danish Jews lived in the Copenhagen area, and it was much easier for them to escape across the Øresund to safety in neutral Sweden,” Metz explained. “Unfortunately, this was not the case in Odense and the rest of Denmark.” On October 2, 1943, three years after the German occupation began, eight year old Metz, along with his parents, were arrested by German authorities. They were loaded onto crammed cattle cars for the grueling 550 mile, seventy-two hour long journey to Thereisenstadt.
Living conditions at Thereisenstadt, which the Nazi propaganda machine dubbed the “model” concentration camp, were anything but model. Inmates were forced to work long hours supplying the German war machine, but they were only provided minimal food and medical care. Metz’s father, Axel, an attorney, was unable to survive the hard conditions, and he died of starvation about six months after arrival, one of 51 Danish adults who died in the camp. “My father was used to office work, not the hard labor the Germans forced him to do,” Metz said. Danish officials worked hard behind the scenes to help their imprisoned citizens, and in 1944 the Red Cross began delivering packages of food from Denmark, improving greatly the health and living conditions of the Danish inmates. Finally in April 1945, after eighteen months in captivity, Danish and Swedish officials successfully negotiated the release of Thereisenstadt’s Danish Jews, and they were transported in a caravan of white buses to safety in Sweden. After Germany’s capitulation in May 1945, Metz was finally able to return home to Odense.
After the war, Metz continued his education in Odense, and later at a business college in Copenhagen. Metz took work with the Danish food company Plumrose, and his career led him overseas to England and Canada, where he met his British-born wife Eileen, and later to New York. A different food industry job brought Metz to Illinois where he and Eileen raised two daughters, Annalise and Christina. “I signed a three year contract to work in North America, thinking we would return to Europe,” Metz explained. “We decided to stay in the United States because my career was going well and because we liked the lifestyle here. Those three years abroad have turned into fifty-five and counting.”
Now Metz, who splits his year between Chicago and Sanibel Island, Florida, spends his time talking about his experiences in Thereisenstadt and teaching all who will listen about the Holocaust. “I am particularly interested in reaching students,” he said. “In 15 or 20 years none of us survivors will be left, so it is very important that we tell our stories while we still can.” Since Metz began speaking about the Holocaust in 2011 he has held over 190 events, primarily for students, but also for the general public. “I estimate I have told my story to over 19,000 people,” he said. “This has become my life’s work, and I intend to keep doing it as long as I possibly can.” Metz believes he is the only Danish Thereisenstadt survivor living in the United States, and that gives him a unique perspective on the entire Holocaust story that he is passionate about sharing. “I carry my Danish roots with me wherever I go,” he said proudly.
Schools, universities, churches, libraries, and other organizations located in the Chicago and southwest Florida areas interested in inviting Mr. Metz to speak about his Holocaust experiences can contact him via his Website, http://www.steenmetzneverforget.com.
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