Was Denmark an ally or axis?

Answer 1

The simple answer would be both, but WWII was not simple at all. The Danish being of Skandinavic ethnicity and the Danish royal family being historically connected to most all the royal families in Europe did favor the Danish at the time as they were seen as "ethnically superior and of moral character". At this time the Danish had no army to talk of but a small resistance did sink their own vessels so they could not be used by the Germans. As for the Jews in Denmark, it is documented that many of them were pressured or made to leave Denmark. In some ways the Danish saw the actions of the Germans as a necessary evil to clean society and more importantly to finally unify Europe under one central government though they always opposed the German occupation of Denmark.

Answer 2

It depends on who you ask. According to the national interpretation of events neutral Denmark was occupied by Germany in April 1940 and remained so until may 1945. From 1943 (starting after the Stralingrad battle had shown to the world that Germany could be beaten) there was even a resistance movement who fought the German occupation and sabotaged industrial companies supplying the Germans. Contrary to this, the Soviet Union saw Denmark as an ally - although reluctant - of Germany, since the latter in 1941 successfully threatened the former into signing the Anti-komintern treaty - a treaty uniting Germany, Japan, Italy and a number of other fascist regimes against the Soviet Union's international activities. The Danish government only signed the treaty's political dimensions - specifically not the military, but this kind of diplomatic hair splitting was unfortunately lost on the Soviets who bombed the Danish island of Bornholm in the very last days of the war and held it occupied for a year after. (In May 1944 the western allied offered to recognize Denmark as an allied nation, but the Soviets were against.) Adding to the Soviets perception of Denmark as a hostile nation was that fact that the Danish government - again under pressure from the occupying Germans - allowed volunteers to join the German SS on the eastern front. Estimates very, but at least 8.000 volunteered (half of which were killed) - which was at least twice as many as had joined the Allied forces (mainly Great Britain) or the armed part of the Resistance movement (which, however, is not an entirely fair comparison, since it was quite difficult to join the resistance or to escape over sea to England, whereas it was extremely easy to join the German forces who had several recruiting offices where you could just walk in from the street!). The Danish SS-volunteers can probably only be understood in a local Scandinavian context where both Denmark, Norway and Sweden saw the Soviet Union as the most threatening of the two dictatorships (the other one being Nazi-Germany) on the Scandinavian door step. This was due to the war(s) between the fellow-Scandinavian country of Finland and the Soviet Union. Citizens from all the three other Scandinavian countries had experience volunteering on the Finnish side against the attacking Soviets already from 1939, i.e. before the German occupations of Denmark and Norway. The Soviet attack on Finland was part of the execution of the Molotov-Ribbentrop secret protocol, which classified Finland (together with other new states like the three Baltic states that had been separated out of the Russian Empire in 1918 as a consequence of Russia's defeat in WWI) as lying within the Soviet sphere of influence (read : power).