On this day, 80 years ago on April 2nd 1945, Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg met Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler at the Hohenlychen sanatorium in Lychen, Germany; Himmler was unsuccessful in convincing Bernadotte to help seek a peace between Germany and the Western Allies.

In 1943, Bernadotte was appointed head of Sweden’s Red Cross.

He wasted no time using his contacts and his humanitarian platform to try to help some of those most in need: prisoners of war (POWs) held by Germany.

By the beginning of 1945, Bernadotte had managed to secure the exchange and safe passage to Sweden of thousands of Allied POWs. But rather than withdrawing after a mission successfully accomplished, Bernadotte dramatically upped the ante. Contacting Heinrich Himmler, he proposed that the Swedish Red Cross be allowed to bring concentration camp inmates to Sweden, too.

It was a brazen suggestion, but it worked. Himmler gave Bernadotte permission to retrieve some 8,000 inmates, primarily Danes and Norwegians, from German concentration camps. To ensure that Allied bombers didn’t target the evacuees, Bernadotte secured permission for the inmates to travel in 36 buses (donated by Volvo), which had been painted white with a red cross on their roofs. Because incarceration had left the inmates in perilous health, the buses also carried medical equipment. Some 250 Swedish Red Cross helpers accompanied Bernadotte and the concentration camp evacuees in what soon became known as Bernadotte Convoys.

With these evacuations underway, Bernadotte presented Himmler with another humanitarian rescue scheme: he wanted permission to free non-Scandinavians; Jews and others, from concentration camps and bring them to Sweden. On April 21st, Himmler agreed. Bernadotte Convoys managed to bring some 12,000 other concentration camp inmates to Sweden, including 7,000 women from Ravensbrück, around half of whom were Jewish.

When the war ended, Bernadotte had rescued at least 15,500 concentration camp inmates

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