Later, Knud Dyby served as a Danish state police officer during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. When he received word of the Nazi plan to round up all of Denmark’s Jews and ship them off to concentration and death camps, he went to work. He found temporary shelter for them in hospitals, pretending they needed medical care. A sailor by hobby, he was also familiar with the waterway that separated Denmark from neutral Sweden. Knud Dyby managed to book these Jewish “patients” passage in the cargo holds of ships, taking them to safety in Sweden. Largely because of his efforts, nearly one hundred percent of Denmark’s Jewish population was saved from almost certain death. Those Jews would never forget the name of Knud Dyby, a Gentile who risked everything for their sake. The state of Israel considers Knud Dyby to be one of the "Righteous among the Gentiles."
Knud Dyby didn’t describe himself as a deeply religious person. He was a Lutheran, a member of the state church of Denmark, but he found the formality of the church not to his liking. Later on, however, he admitted that what he learned from the church about the value of human life was the source of his actions on behalf of others.
Aside from being an inspiring story, Knud Dyby's heroic activity provides our world with some serious food for thought. We often hear from various sources about the supposed negative things that Christianity has brought to the world. Certainly Christians have not always behaved in the best way. But we rarely hear about the ways that Christian culture has influenced the world for the better, the way its concern for the value of human life has influenced even those outside of the Church or those on the periphery of it, such as Knud Dyby. Would our world have turned out in the same way were it not for Christianity? In ancient Rome, for example, life was cheap. Practices such as infanticide, gladiatorial games, and other dehumanizing practices were the norm. After Christian influence became established, such practices all but disappeared. I read a book a while back about this topic, and I found it to be eye-opening. I commend it to you: Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization by Alvin J. Schmidt.