White Buses: Difference between revisions

White Buses was the term used for a humanitarian effort spearheaded by the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte under the auspices of the Red Cross that by the end of World War II saved thousands of Norwegian and Danish prisoners from German concentration camps. The term "white buses" originates from the practice of painting the buses used for transportation in white with red crosses on the sides and roof in order to avoid confusion with military vehicles.

In March and April 1945 some 15,000 Scandinavians and other nationalities were removed from German imprisonment and confinement and driven to Sweden. The programme continued after the German capitulation, repatriating another 10,000 through Sweden.

In Denmark and Norway, the operation is remembered as a huge humanitarian success that saved many lives. It has, however, also been subject to some criticism for favouring Scandinavians over victims of from other countries.

The Norwegian White Buses Association organises excursions to Sachsenhausen and to the sites of other concentration camps, for school classes, in cooperation with time witnesses.

Denmark and Norway were invaded by Germany on April 9 1940, and just two months later the occupying force established the first prisoners' camp at Ulven outside Bergen. As the resistance against the occupation gained force more Norwegians were arrested. Most were kept in camps in Norway but for various reasons thousands of Norwegians were also sent to camps and prisons in Germany, the first already in the autumn of 1940. The arrests in Denmark started with the resignation of the coalition government on August 29 1943.

The Scandinavian prisoners in Germany were divided into various categories, from the so-called civil interned who lived privately and had a certain freedom, to the Nacht und Nebel prisoners who were destined to work to death. As the number of Scandinavian prisoners increased various groups organised relief work for them. The Norwegian seamen's priests in Hamburg, Arne Berge and Conrad Vogt-Svendsen, visited prisoners, helped them with food and brought letters to their families in Norway and Denmark. Vogt-Svendsen also made contact with the civil interned at "Gross Kreutz", the Norwegian families Hjort og Seip. Together with other Scandinavians the group at Gross Kreutz compiled extensive lists of prisoners and their location. The lists were then sent to the Norwegian government in exile in London through the Swedish embassy in Berlin. In Stockholm the Norwegian diplomat Niels Christian Ditleff engaged himself heavily in the fate of the Scandinavian prisoners. By the end of 1944 there were around 8000 Norwegian prisoners in Germany, in addition to some 1125 Norwegian prisoners of war.

On the Danish side admiral Carl Hammerich had long worked with secret plans for an expedition code-named the "Jyllandskorps" to save Danish and Norwegian prisoners from the German camps. Hammerich had good connections with both the Norwegian seaman's priests, the Gross Kreutz group and with Niels Christian Ditleff in Stockholm. By the beginning of 1945 there were around 6.000 Danish prisoners in Germany. During 1944 the Danes did extensive planning efforts, including registration of prisoners and plans for transporting resources and making available food and shelter and quarantine for the prisoners, if they were to reach Denmark. Hammerich visited Stockholm in February, April and July 1944 and discussed the plans with Ditleff.

As the allied forces by the end of 1944 approached Germany SHAEF decided what should be done regarding allied prisoners. Within the Norwegian exile government major Johan Koren Christie wrote a memorandum September 23; the Norwegian prisoners should "stay put", wait until they were liberated by the advancing allied forces. The Gross Kreutz group got to know about this policy the month after and reacted swiftly, with Johan Bernhard Hjort writing a report advising against the proposal. His arguments were that the prisoners risked being murdered and that they had to be rescued from Germany before the country was occupied, and wrote:

"It is therefore strongly suggested that the Norwegian government considers the possibility that the Swedish government could be induced to intervene to help at least the Norwegian and Danish civil prisoners in Germany, including those in prisons, with the aim of transporting them to Sweden, where they if feasible may stay until the war has ended."

The October 1944 report from Hjort is the first time a Swedish operation for the Scandinavian prisoners is mentioned; the proposal was however initially unfavourably received. Rescuing the prisoners was seen as a Norwegian responsibility and the Norwegian exile government was reluctant to give the Swedes any chance to distinguish themselves at the end of the war.

The energetic diplomat Niels Christian Ditleff in Stocholm refused to accept the guidelines from the Norwegian exile government in London and kept on influencing both single influental Swedes and the Swedish foreign office to have Sweden rescuing Scandinavian prisoners. In September 1944 Ditleff raised the question with count Folke Bernadotte who immediately was positive to the plan. On November 30 Ditleff handed over his memorandum "Reasons for a Swedish operation for rescuing prisoners" to the Swedish foreign office, but still on his own initiative. On December 29 the Norwegian exile government changed its position and instructed its embassy in Stockholm to discuss the possibility for a Swedish operation targeting the Scandinavian prisoners.

While Ditleff tried to influence the Norwegian exile government the Danes obtained a German permit to retrieve prisoners. The first ones transported back to Denmark were Danish policemen from Buchenwald and the first transport started December 5. Until the end of February 1945 the Danes transported home 341 prisoners, most of them ill. These transports gave the Danes valuable experience that later on would benefit the "White Buses".

Sweden was the only Nordic country that remained neutral during the second world war, but its neutrality fluctuated with the war. Until the German defeat at Battle of Stalingrad Sweden was accommodating towards Germany, after Stalingrad Sweden altered its policy gradually closer the allied forces.

The Estonian Felix Kersten was Heinrich Himmler's personal masseur, lived in Stockholm and acted as an intermediate between the Swedish foreign department and Himmler. Himmler and his trusted subordinate Walter Schellenberg had long had the view that Germany would lose the war and they were examining the possibility of a separate peace treaty with the Western powers; in this Sweden could be a useful intermediary. With the assistance of Kersten the Swedish foreign department was able to free 50 Norwegian students, 50 Danish policemen and 3 swedes in December 1944. An absolute condition for the release of the prisoners was that it should be hidden from the press; if Hitler got to know about it further extraditions would be impossible.

Ditleff sent a new memorandum February 5 1945, this time as an official Norwegian request. Sweden is solicited for sending a Red Cross delegation to Berlin to negotiate regarding the Scandinavian prisoners, and if successful to send a Swedish relief expedition. The Swedish foreign minister Christian Günther was in favour, and the Swedish government gave permission for count Folke Bernadotte, qua second in command of the Swedish Red Cross,

"to attempt to obtain permission in Germany for the transport to Sweden or Denmark of the interned Norwegian and Danish prisoners."

Folke Bernadotte flew to Berlin on the February 16 and had meetings with several Nazi leaders; the foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the Sicherheitsdienst, Walter Schellenberg and Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS. Himmler, as Hitler's next in command and the second most powerful person in Nazi Germany, was initially negative to the transportation of prisoners to neutral Sweden. The prisoners could be trained as police troops, as Sweden already did with other Norwegians and Danes. Bernadotte had to fall back to his secondary proposal, that the prisoners should be assembled in one camp so the Swedish Red Cross could support them. Bernadotte told Himmler he estimated the number of Scandinavian prisoners to be around 13,000, while Himmler held it could not be more than two or three thousands.

During a second meeting with Schellenberg on February 21 Bernadotte got word from Himmler that he had accepted the proposal to assemble the Scandinavian prisoners in one camp. During the visit in Berlin Bernadotte also had several meetings with the Gross Kreutz group, Didrik Arup Seip, Conrad Vogt-Svendsen, Wanda Hjort and Bjørn Heger. Bernadotte's secondary proposal to Himmler, that he accepted, was prepared by Heger.

The foundation for the White Buses expedition were several years of planning and information collection by Danish and Norwegian's and this was used by the Swedes without much changes. The Swedisk Red Cross contacted the Swedish Army that supplied the needed transport capacity. In reality this was

"the swedish state's expedition - the personnel was almost entirely volunteers from the armed forces, the equipment was supplied from the armed forces stockpiles and the expenses were covered by the state's coffers."

• 308 personnel, among them about 20 medics (doctors, nurses), the rest were volunteers from the supplyregiments T1, T3 and T4; the commander was colonel Gottfrid Björck as he was the inspector general for the swedish supply forces.
• 36 ambulance buses
• 19 trucks
• 7 passenger cars
• 7 motor bikes
• rescue trucks, workshop trucks and field kitchen
• all needed equipment (food, fuel, spare parts), nothing could be had once in Germany
• The vessel Lillie Matthiessen to Lübeck with 350 tons fuel and 6,000 food parcels to the prisoners, later on also Magdalena, both from the Salèn shipping line

The force was divided into three bus platoons (each with 12 buses), one truckplatoon (with 12 trucks) and one supply platoon. The total transport capacity for the force was 1,000 persons for longer distances, 1,200 persons for shorter distances where the trucks also could be used.

The buses were using Motyl (a mixture of 50% gasoline and 50% alcohol), had eight stretches or seats for 30 passengers. The buses used 0,5 litres per kilometer, all filled they could cover 100 kilometers. Each bus had two drivers that were driving it.

To avoid publicity in the newspapers the Swedish state informationbureau distributed so called "grey notices" where the editors were instructed to avoid stories about the expedition.

The Danish ambassador in Stockholm had offered a larger force (40 buses, 30 trucks, 18 ambulances and other vehicles). Even though Folke Bernadotte earlier had thought about a mixed swedish-danish expedition, this offer was turned down on 23 Februar, due to the germans the expedition force had to be swedish.

The first section of the expedition departed Hässleholm on March 8 and boarded the ferry from Malmö to Copenhagen. Due to security the Danish resistance movement was informed, but no problems were experienced - on the contrary, the Swedish Red Cross expedition was very well received. On March 12 the first part of the expedition had reached it's headquarter, the castle Friedrichsruh situated 30 km southeast of Hamburg. The castle was close to the Danish border and near the concentration camp Neuengamme, where the scandinavian prisoners were to be assembled. The castle Friedrichsruh was owned by Otto von Bismarck, a friend of Folke Bernadotte and married with a swedish woman. The expedition staff were lodged on the castle and in a nearby pub, while the men established a tent camp in the park surrounding the castle.

The expedition had German liason officers, the most prominent of them was Himmler's communications officer, SS Obersturmbannführer Karl Rennau while Franz Göring was liason officer with the Gestapo. The expedition had around 40 german communication officers, SS officers and Gestapo officers, the germans demanded that every second vehicle should have a german officer onboard. The "White Buses" expedition was totally dependent on cooperation with the germans as Germany under nazi rule was a police state, with liason personnel from Gestapo and SS the expedition could move without restrictions.

Bernadotte had promised Schellenberg to have the expediton in Warnemünde on March 3, but it was delayed with more than a week. The main reason for this was the difficulties in having guaranties from the allied forces so the expedition would not be attacked. At this time of the war the allied planes had total control of the airspace and regularly attacked transports on German roads. The "White Buses" expedition would mainly move within areas controlled by the British RAF. On March 8 the British government informed the Swedish foreign department that it was informed about the expedition but that it could not give any guarantee's against attacks, the Swedish expedition was on its own within Germany. Some of the transports were hit by allied aircraft who were strafing the roads, killing one Swedish driver and 25 concentration camp prisoners.

On March 6, 1945, Folke Bernadotte arrived in Berlin by plane from Stockholm and continued his negotioations with the German authorities. Heinrich Himmler's masseur Felix Kersten had allready arrived and the Swedish foreign department instructed the Swedish ambassador, Arvid Richert to support Kersten so he could influence Himmler. Parallel with this, the Danish authorities, especially the Danish ambassador in Berlin, Otto Carl Mohr, tried to secure the release of more Danish prisoners. The Swedish and Danish aims were somewhat different. The Swedes negotiated with Himmler/Schellenberg and concentrated on gathering the prisoners in Neuengamme. The Danes negotiated with Kaltenbrunner and tried to secure permission to have the prisoners released, or possibly interned in Denmark.

On March 12 the Danes got permission for three transports and until March 21 a total of 262 Danish prisoners of various categories were transported back to Denmark with Danish vehicles. From March 21 there were a break in Danish transports and the Swedes took over.

The expedition in Friedrichsruh were divided into two groups, the first troop were assigned the responsibility transport of prisoners from Sachsenhausen (north of Berlin) and to Neuengamme. The transports started March 15, the distance was around 540 kilometers and during seven tranports 2.200 Danes and Norwegians was transferred to Neuengamme. Sven Frykmann who commanded one of the transports wrote about the prisoners and the drive:

"In general they were in relative good shape compared to other prisoners I have seen and one could not complain regarding their personal hygiene. They related that the foodpacks they had received from Norway and Denmark had kept their spirits up and recently the treatment had been noticeably better. They were all touching thankful and happy. I believe that all of us that have had the option of helping these poor people in Germany have experienced such a overwhelming gratitude that it is enough for the rest of our lives"

As the prisoners were picked up in Sachsenhausen the names were checked with the group from "Gross Kreutz", to make sure no one were left behind.

The other group got the resposibility to collect prisoners from the south of Germany. It was Dachau, north of Munich, Schönberg 80 kilometer south of Stuttgart and Mauthausen 12 kilometer east of Linz. The distances were longer, just Munich were 800 kilometers and the transports were delayed due to lack of fuel. The first column started March 19; 35 vehicles under colonel Björck, and they were back in Neuengamme on March 24. The tour back was difficult as most of the prisoners were in a bad shape, the Swedish nurse Margaretha Björcke wrote:

"I have never in my twelve years practice as a nurse seen so much misery as I here witnessed. Legs, backs and necks full of wounds of a type that an average Swede would be on sick leave for just one of them. I counted twenty on one prisoner, and he did not complain."

This first transport collected 550 prisoners while 67 very ill prisoners were left behind. A huge problem during the transports were the prisoners cronical diarrhoea, after a while this was remedied by the Danes supplying portable closets of a type they had used during their transports.

Due to the Swedish transports Neuengamme received ever more prisoners and the concentration of Scandinavian prisoners that Himmler had promised did not materialize. The Swedish health personnel was not allowed to enter the camp. During the first transports the buses was not allowed to enter the camp, the prisoners had to march the last distance as the Germans would not let the Swedes see the camp.

• Heger, Wanda Hjort (1984), "Hver fredag foran porten", Gyldendal, ISBN 82-05-14937-2 ("Every Friday at the gate", in Norwegian), German edition (1989) "Jeden Freitag vor dem Tor" Schneekluth, ISBN 3-7951-1132-3
• Persson, Sune (2002), «Vi åker till Sverige», De vita bussarna 1945. Bokförlaget Fischer & co. ISBN 91-85183-18-0 ("We go to Sweden. The white buses in 1945", in Swedish)
• Persson Sune (2000), Folke Bernadotte and the White Buses, J. Holocaust Education, Vol 9, Iss 2-3, 2000, 237-268. Also published in David Cesarani and Paul A. Levine (eds.), Bystanders to the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation Routledge, 2002.
• Lomfors, Ingrid (2005), Blind fläck: minne och glömska kring svenska Röda korsets hjälpinsats i Nazityskland 1945. Bokförlaget Atlantis. ISBN 91-7353-051-4 ("Blind spot: remembrance and forgetfulness of the Swedish Red Cross humanitarian aid in 1945 Nazi-Germany", in Swedish)
• Regev, Ofer (2006), Prince of Jerusalem (Porat pub.) Template:He icon

• The Danish Red Cross report about the "White Buses" (in Danish)
• A Swedish Red Cross report about the "White Buses" (in Swedish)
• The Norwegian Hvite Busser Association (in Norwegian)
• M. Friedman: The road to freedom. An essay by survivor of the holocaust. From "The memory project", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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