Sæby Havn

Historie

Byens grundlæggelse skyldes havnen. Sæby er formentlig opstået som et fiskerleje ved Sæby Å’s udløb i Kattegat. Muligvis har der lidt længere inde i landet været lidt bebyggelse.

I første omgang kom fiskere til det store sildefiskeri omkring 1400.

Den katolske Børglumbisp, som var den største godsejer i Vendsyssel, havde behov for et udskibningssted. Hans blik faldt på åmundingen som en velegnet havn.

Biskop Jakob (Jep) Friis anlagde havn og kirke i Sæby og var i høj grad med til at anlægge Sæby som købstad.

Åen løb oprindeligt direkte mod øst, ud gennem havnen, og det var på åens bredder, der byggedes moler - den nuværende sydlige havnekaj og mole.

I løbet af 1600-tallet førte åen så meget sand med ud, som aflejredes i havnen. Ligesom sand og revler lukkede havnens indsejling.

Havnen var i flere århundreder ubrugelig for større skibe. Et stort problem for Sæby, der stort set gik i stå med hensyn til handel og udvikling.

I 1870'erne byggedes en dæmning tværs over åen, hvor værftbygningerne (de sort/hvide træhuse) i dag ligger. Herved blev åen ledt uden om havnen. Dette, og en udbygning i 1900-tallet skabte igen en god havn i Sæby.

Nu blev det fiskeriet, der igen kom til at fylde havnen. Her var auktion, fiskeeksport, røgerier og fiskeindustrier.

I dag er der intet fiskeri eller maritimt erhverv tilbage i Sæby Havn - bortset fra et par fiskerestauranter!

Men en af verdens største producenter af fiskekonserves - makrel i tomat ligger stadig i Sæby, nemlig Sæby Fiskeindustri.

History

The city was founded on the harbour. Sæby probably originated as a fishing village at the outlet of the Sæby Å into the Kattegat. There may have been some settlement further inland.

Fishermen first arrived for the great herring fishery around 1400.

The Catholic Børglumbisp, who was the largest landowner in Vendsyssel, needed a shipping place. His eye fell on the estuary as a suitable harbour.

Bishop Jakob (Jep) Friis built the harbour and church in Sæby and was instrumental in establishing Sæby as a market town.

The river originally ran directly east, out through the harbour, and it was on the banks of the river that piers were built - the present southern harbour quay and pier.

During the 17th century, the river carried out so much sand, which was deposited in the harbour. Just as sand and reefs closed the harbour entrance.

For several centuries the harbour was unusable for larger ships. A major problem for Sæby, which came to a virtual standstill in terms of trade and development.

In the 1870s a dam was built across the river, where the shipyard buildings (the black and white wooden houses) are today. This diverted the river around the harbour. This, and an expansion in the 1900s, again created a good harbour in Sæby.

Now it was fishing that again filled the harbour. There were auctions, fish exports, smokehouses and fish industries.

Today, there is no fishing or maritime industry left in Sæby Harbour - except for a few fish restaurants!

But one of the world's largest producers of canned fish - mackerel in tomato - is still located in Sæby, namely Sæby Fiskeindustri.

Flugten til Sverige

Forhistorie (kilde Wikipedia):

Den 9. april 1940 blev Danmark besat af tyske tropper.

I første omgang fik besættelsen hverken større konsekvenser for danske kristne eller jøder. Som følge af den danske regerings forholdsvis velvillige indstilling over for den tyske besættelse, var tyskerne også lydhøre over for danske indvendinger, og regering og konge fik lov til at blive siddende. Danmark var et meget uproblematisk land; det muliggjorde visse danske krav til tyskerne. Da den danske regering forklarede, at Danmark ikke havde noget "jødeproblem", lod de tyske nazister derfor danskerne om det, da de ikke ville ødelægge forholdet landene imellem.

Under den danske udenrigsminister Erik Scavenius' besøg i Nazi-Tyskland i 1941 blev temaet taget op af de tyske myndigheder. Et dansk antisemitisk blad benyttede lejligheden til et frontalt angreb på danske jøder, og kort efter forsøgte nogle at sætte ild til synagogen i København. Det danske retssystem straffede både bladets udgivere og ildspåsætterne med bøder og fængsel. De tyske nazister tog det som et klart tegn på, at forholdet til mønster-staten Danmark ville blive ødelagt, hvis de pressede på for at få gennemført diskriminerende love mod og deportering af jøder.

I løbet af 1943 blev det klart for den danske befolkning, at Tyskland sandsynligvis ville tabe krigen, og at den tyske besættelse ikke ville vare ved. Fra Esbjerg spredte der sig fra den 10. august 1943 strejker og uro over det meste af landet. De næste par uger var præget af stor civil uro, og da den tyske øverstkommanderende krævede indførelsen af strejkeforbud, tysk censur og dødsstraf for sabotage, gik regeringen af. Med Danmarks nye status under tysk magt blev jødeproblemet aktuelt.

De danske jøder var heldige. Langt størstedelen af dem overlevede Anden Verdenskrig i modsætning til de 6 millioner jøder, der mistede livet rundt omkring i Europa under nazisternes rædselsregime.

7.500 jøder fra Danmark nåede i sikkerhed i Sverige i oktober 1943, da nazisterne besluttede, at turen var kommet til at sende danske jøder i kz-lejre. De fleste af de 470 danske jøder i Theresienstadt overlevede, kun omkring 100 danske jøder omkom.

Størsteparten af jøderne boede i København og blev sejlet til Sverige derfra, men flere steder i landet var der også transporter, herunder Sæby.

Kystpolitiet i Sæby havde base i gødningslagret på havnen, hvor restaurant Franks nu ligger.

Kystpolitiet skule kontrollere varer og papirer på skibe, når de kom ind og ud af havnen og de gik vagt sammen med tyske soldater.

Flygtninge var allerede fra begyndelsen af 1943 blevet roet ud fra kysten nord for Sæby, men det var besværligt at ledsage flygtningene til stranden og ikke mange slap afsted. Så transporten blev flyttet til Sæby Havn.

Flygtningene blev gemt i pakhusene og når betjentene gav et signal med en lommelygte, mens de gik patrulje med de tyske soldater på havnen, blev flygtningene taget om bord i ly af mørket.

Kutterne seljede ud på fiskepladserne om morgenen og kom hjem igen om aftenen. Der var ikke brændstof og tid til at sejle helt til Sverige - det ville være blevet opdaget.

I stedet rekvirerede modstandsbevægelsen hver gang via London et modtagefartøj fra Sverige, som tog flygtningene ombord på en position mellem Læsø og Sverige.

Alle slap levende igennem.

Sæby and the WW2 Escape Route

(kilde til den engelske tekst nedenfor: Bent Ejner Thomsen, lokalguide)

Occupation

Nazi Germany occupied Denmark from April 9, 1940 to May 4, 1945. Within the first hours, Denmark surrendered and engaged in what was later known as the collaboration period that lasted until August 1943.

Life went on

WW2 did not make a special impact on Sæby the first years of the war. Already on April 9 1940, the first Nazi German soldiers arrived in Sæby on their way north to Frederikshavn and Skagen – the strategic targets of the first days of occupation.

Since Sæby did not pose any strategic threat or importance to the Nazi regime, life went on as untouched by the world tragedy as possible. Everything was scarce except work because the unemployment rate went down. Winters were exceptionally hard with idle fishing boats as ice prevented them from leaving the harbor.

No more cooperation

Kilde: https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/the-rescue-of-denmark-jews.html

The rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943 is a unique story. In the first years of German occupation no anti-Jewish legislation was enacted and the situation of the Danish Jews did not change much. Nazi Germany wanted to encourage the cooperation of Denmark and knew that singling out the Danish Jews and persecuting them would result in wide opposition. However in the fall of 1943, following a sharp increase in strikes and sabotage against the occupation, the German policy changed and preparations were made to rid the country of its 7,800 Jews. News of the planned roundup was passed and the Jews were warned, moved to hiding places and to fishing ports, from where they were transported to Sweden.

However, things changed in August 1943 when the Nazi regime – pressed as they were on all fronts - wanted the Danish government to introduce death penalties for any resistance work. The Danish government finally said no and resigned leaving Denmark to the mercy of the German martial law. Danish military was interned on August 29, 1943.

Already in March 1943, the first voyages across the Baltic Sea to Sweden with refugees and resistance fighters having to go into hiding took place. From Frederikshavn, the cutter FN101 Stanley made app 20 voyages the next 6 months saving around 100 people.

Operation Seagull

On September 14 1943, Danish police was interned by the Nazi regime in what was called “Operation Seagull”. However, warnings had been sent out in advance, and only 1000 of 8000 were taken. On October 2, 1943, the Nazi regime went into action against the Danish Jews in order to arrest them and deport them to the German concentration camps.

The Jews were rescued

The Nazi commander-in-chief in Denmark, Werner Best, had however told marine attaché, Herman Duckwitz, about the operation – probably knowing that he would leak the plan to his Danish network of parliament members. Within 48 hours, an enormous rescue operation all over the country managed to save all 7000 Danish Jews except 450 who either stayed at home or got caught when they tried to escape.

Escape route in Sæby

The major escape routes were North Zeeland and Strandby, Skagen – and Sæby in Northern Jutland. Since Sæby was a quiet small town not at all interesting for the Nazis, it was a perfect place to plan a route to Sweden. 3 fishing boats were involved – each with a crew of 2-3 people, FN298 Musse (Otto Isaksen), FN359 Karen (Kalle Moss) and FN366 Laura (Aså Jens). In addition, the small cargo vessels, Elise and Marie, on route between Sæby and Copenhagen, transported many illegal refugees as well.

The crew members were actually the minority among helpers. People ashore – from resistance people to transporters and owners of hide-away places – outnumbered them greatly. Also German soldiers and officers helped either actively like Rittel in Frederikshavn or passively by looking in the other direction when refugees were boarding at night right under the nose of the German patrols.

The voyages started in October 1943 and ended in January 1945 when Gestapo arrested the crewmembers after Poul Larsen, a Danish central person in the organization gave up after three days of torture and dropped the names. In March 1945, he was executed in Copenhagen.

In total app 700-800 people escaped the Nazis via Sæby. The exact number is not known. Returning from Sweden, the boats brought with them app 20 tons of explosives, machine guns, hand grenades and other equipment for the resistance movement. All of it needed to be stored close to the harbor – often in the private homes of the crew.

Gestapo arrests the crew members who helped the Jews

On January 25, 1945 in the night, Gestapo struck. All crew members were arrested in a joint operation with hand grenades as door openers followed by soldiers firing their machine guns into the house. Children witnessing these arrests had nightmares the rest of her life over the horrors experienced when their fathers were arrested.

12 people were arrested that night and taken to the local Gestapo headquarters at “Rolykke”, the former residence of Gustav Wied. After interrogations, they were taken to Aalborg and finally interned in the Frøslev Camp until the war ended on May 4. Five of them, including the skippers of the 3 cutters, were actually sentenced to death but luckily the RAF bombed the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Shellhuset, on February 25 1945 destroying all the incriminating documents against Danish resistance fighters and escape route operators in Nazi custody.

Of all the people involved in the Sæby escape route, Poul Larsen was executed and Jørgen Blæhr was seriously wounded when Gestapo struck on January 25. All others survived the war physically unharmed – many however, with psychical wounds the rest of their lives.

The mink coat

The stories from the escape voyages are many. One of the more positive ones was the wife of a Danish colonel arriving in the boat in a mink coat. When confronted with the fact that she had to hide in a small berth with two men, she replied that with her and two men in the same bed, she wanted to be on top and as to her mink coat, she said that saving her own skin was the issue, not the skins of the mink.