1945 rescue operation of concentration camp inmates
Swedish white buses gathered in their field headquarters at Friedrichsruh
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On 19 April 1945, the White Buses started driving prisoners from concentration camps in Germany. As a young citizen, Stig Svensson was a volunteer driver on one of the white Red Cross buses (not the one in the picture). "I'll never forget what I've seen", he said in a 1992 interview.
White Buses was a Swedish humanitarian operation with the objective of freeing Scandinavians in German concentration camps in Nazi Germany during the final stages of World War II. Although the White Buses operation was envisioned to rescue Scandinavians, one-half of those taken from the camps to Sweden were of other nationalities. The buses used to transport the prisoners were painted white with red crosses painted on the roof, side, front and back, so that the buses would not be mistaken for military targets by Allied air forces. Those allowed by the Germans to be freed from the concentration camps were transported by the white buses and trucks to the port city of Lübeck, Germany. Swedish ships took them onward to Malmö, Sweden. Danes continued on by land on the white buses to Denmark.
Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte and others negotiated the White Buses operation with German officials, especially Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. Although estimates of those rescued vary, the Swedish Red Cross estimated that about 300 Swedish volunteers, mostly military personnel, removed 15,345 prisoners from concentration camps in March and April 1945. 7,795 were Norwegian and Danish prisoners and 7,550 were other nationalities.[1] After the German capitulation on 8 May 1945, another 10,000 people were rescued in May and June 1945 by "White Boats."
The operation was a humanitarian success and saved the lives of many who would have died of deprivation or execution in the concentration camps. The operation has been criticized for being too one-sided a rescue operation for Scandinavians, for not helping prisoners of other nationalities to the same extent, and for cooperating with the German Gestapo. The number of Jews among those rescued cannot be determined as the former prisoners were registered by nationality and not ethnic group or religion.
^"Specifikation över antal räddade/transporterade med de Vita bussarna ("Specification of the number of rescued/transported by the White Buses" (PDF) (in Swedish). Swedish Red Cross. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
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