Daniel J. Goldhagen, an associate professor of government and social studies, shared his views on the Holocaust Wednesday at an opening reception for an exhibit at Hillel.

The collection of photographs by Judy Ellis Glickman, entitled "Resistance and Rescue in Denmark," portrays Danish citizens who helped transport Jewish residents to safe havens in Sweden during the German occupation in World War II.

Goldhagen said the efforts by Danish citizens and government officials, which helped save the lives of 99 percent of Danish Jews, serve as a sharp contrast to the dark picture of German citizens he painted in his controversial 1996 book, Hitler's Willing Executioners.

"The Danes give us insight into the potential for change that could be instituted by average people around Europe in this era, given the proper circumstances," Goldhagen said.

In a lecture entitled, "Resisting Evil: the Rescue of Danish Jewry and Beyond," Goldhagen outlined the conditions of the Danish occupation that allowed the rescue efforts to take place.

He said the Danes seized on Hitler's more lenient attitude toward Nordic peoples--what he termed "the least Draconian occupation in Europe."

Unlike in Germany, Jews constituted a mere 8,000 of Denmark's four million people and, according to Goldhagen, were primarily viewed as Danish citizens rather than as a separate element of the population.

Goldhagen said he sees such an all-inclusive concept of the citizen as a missing link in World War II German culture that allowed ordinary citizens to become "active executioners" in Hitler's regime.