When the devastating wave of Nazism engulfed Europe, none of the states subjugated and occupied by Germany offered any concrete resistance to the horrors of the racial laws. Except for Denmark, under King Christian X (1870–1947).

Lacking a strong and adequate army, the small monarchy offered little resistance to the Germans, paving the way for their occupation. Denmark became a protectorate of the Reich, but maintained its own traditions in exchange for support through the production of resources for the German war effort.

The elderly King Christian X, who seemed destined to go down in history solely for his imposing Viking stature (2 meters tall) and a failed attempt to expand his power at the expense of Parliament (which had instead reduced his power), took a highly unexpected stance in the face of the German occupation. Unlike other monarchs who went into exile after the German occupation of their country, King Christian X chose to remain in his homeland, Denmark, and tour the capital, Copenhagen, daily on his horse (never accompanied by a personal escort), politely responding only to Danes' greetings, purposely ignoring the Germans. Furthermore, the king pushed the Danish government not to enforce the racial laws in their entirety and with cruelty, thus relegating German support within the country and among local political parties to negligible percentages.

Despite his precarious health and ageing age, King Christian X (he died just two years after the war, in 1947) was seen by Danes and abroad as a symbol of silent resistance—visible and charged with inner strength and symbolism—to aggression by a foreign people and the implementation of the racial laws. King Christian X himself was then the protagonist of the so-called "telegram crisis" with Hitler, which caused a further setback for the Reich.