Little Danes experiment facts for kids

The Little Danes Experiment was a sad event in 1951. The country of Denmark took 22 children from Greenland and sent them to live with Danish families. The idea was to teach them Danish ways and language, hoping they would become "little Danes."

Even though the plan said the children should be orphans, most of them still had families. Six children were adopted in Denmark. The other sixteen went back to Greenland, but they were placed in special Danish-speaking orphanages. They were not allowed to live with their own families again.

This experiment caused a lot of problems for the children. About half of them had serious mental health issues. Sadly, half of them also died when they were still young adults. In 2020, after many years of requests from Greenland, the Danish government finally said sorry for what happened.

Why the Experiment Happened

After World War II, some Danish government officials and groups thought that Greenlandic society needed to be improved. They worked with the Red Cross and Save the Children to create this experiment.

Their goal was to bring Greenlandic children to Denmark. There, the children would learn Danish and live with Danish families. The idea was that these children would then return to Greenland as "little Danes." These children were meant to become a new group of leaders in Greenland.

The children were supposed to be chosen carefully by priests in Greenland. They were meant to be around six years old, healthy, and without parents.

The Experiment Begins

Queen Ingrid visiting Fedgaarden in 1951. The children did not understand why she was there.

Even though the rules said the children should be orphans and about six years old, it was hard to find enough children who fit these rules. In the end, only six of the children were orphans. One child was even nine years old when the experiment started.

In May 1951, 22 Greenlandic children – thirteen boys and nine girls – left Nuuk on a ship called the MS Disko. They soon arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the children, Helene Thiesen, later said she "had never previously heard of" Denmark.

The children were taken to a holiday camp called Fedgaarden, run by Save the Children. They were immediately kept separate from others because people worried they might carry diseases. This separation lasted all summer. Helene Thiesen even got a skin rash called eczema during this time.

The Queen of Denmark, Ingrid, visited the camp and took pictures with the children. Helene Thiesen remembered that she "didn't understand a thing" about the Queen's visit. She also said that her discomfort with the experiment showed in the photo, where "none of us is smiling."

After this, the children were placed with Danish foster families for more than a year. They learned the Danish language and forgot their own language, Kalaallisut. They were supposed to return to Nuuk after about six months. However, the building of the orphanage for them in Greenland was delayed. During their long stay in Denmark, six of the children were adopted by Danish families.

What Happened Next

Sixteen of the children returned to Greenland. The other six were adopted by Danish families. The children who returned to Greenland were considered "top class" by the program. However, none of them ever lived with their own families again. Even if they wanted to, they could no longer speak the same language as their families.

They were placed in an orphanage where they were only allowed to speak Danish. This rule was meant to make sure they kept the "benefits" of Danish living. By 1960, all the children had left the orphanage. Sixteen of the 22 children lived outside Greenland for most of their lives.

About half of the children suffered from mental health problems. Sadly, half of them also died when they were still young adults. They felt very alone and disconnected from their culture. Helene Thiesen said they "lost their sense of purpose in life." Similar, but shorter, experiments also happened in the 1960s and 1970s. These also had bad effects on the children involved.

Apology and Compensation

In 1996, a Danish record keeper told Helene Thiesen for the first time that she had been part of an experiment. In 1998, the Danish Red Cross said they were "sorry" for their part in it.

In 2009, the Prime Minister of Greenland, Kuupik Kleist, asked the Danish government to apologize. He called the experiment a "classic colonial case." The Social Democrats in Denmark also asked for an apology and an investigation.

However, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who was the Prime Minister of Denmark at the time, refused to apologize. He said, "History cannot be changed. The government regards the colonial period as a closed part of our shared history. We must be pleased with the fact that times have changed."

Save the Children did apologize for the experiment. They also said they might have destroyed documents about it on purpose. They apologized again in 2015, saying they would "never enter into a cooperation of this nature with the authorities" again.

Other Danish prime ministers after Rasmussen also refused to apologize. Helle Thorning-Schmidt even refused to take part in an investigation. In 2019, two Greenlandic members of the Danish Parliament, the Folketing, made new demands. Aaja Chemnitz Larsen asked for an apology, and Ineqi Kielsen asked for an investigation. Because of Kielsen's request, Rasmussen agreed with Greenlandic Prime Minister Kim Kielsen to create a commission to look into the experiment. But he still refused to apologize.

The next year, after the commission's report was ready, the Danish government and its prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, officially apologized for the Little Danes Experiment. Only six of the children from the experiment were still alive, including Helene Thiesen, who was 76 years old. She had worked hard for the experiment to be officially recognized.

In December 2021, the surviving members sued Denmark. They asked for 250,000 kroner (about USD$38,000) as payment for "violation of current Danish law and human rights." Astrid Krag, the Danish minister for social affairs, said the government was talking with their lawyers. She also said that the most important thing for Denmark was the official apology.

In March 2022, the government announced that the six survivors would receive a face-to-face apology from the prime minister and the 250,000 kroner they asked for. Prime Minister Frederiksen traveled to Nuuk to give the apology in a speech.