Schalburgtage was the popular name for the retaliation which

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

and their Danish collaborators carried out as revenge for resistance activity in the last part of the

occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself Neutral countries in World War II, neutral, but that neutrality did not prevent Nazi Germany from Military occupation, occupying the country soon after the outbreak of ...

between 1944 and 1945. The word is partially a reference to

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

and partially to the

Schalburg Corps The Germanic SS () was the collective name given to paramilitary and political organisations established in parts of German-occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945 under the auspices of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The units were modeled on the ''A ...

who carried out most of the actions. The occupying power called it counter-

, but the Danes quickly adopted the name schalburgtage. In fact, most of the schalburgtage was carried out by the

Peter group The Peter group ( Danish: ''Petergruppen'') was a paramilitary group created in late 1943 during the occupation of Denmark by the German occupying power. The group conducted counter-sabotage, also known as Schalburgtage, in response to the Danish ...

, most of whose members were also members of the Schalburg Corps. Schalburgtage was directed against both the

Danish resistance movement The Danish resistance movements () were an underground insurgency to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the initially lenient arrangements, in which the Nazi occupation authority allowed the democratic govern ...

and Danish society in general. This introduced killings of esteemed Danes which occurred when a German soldier or a Danish

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...

was killed. These killings were called clearing murders.

See also