The publisher has a knack of releasing military and social history books that cover subjects which have been largely neglected by others but are important histories. The story of how a Swedish count and the Swedish Red Cross managed to negotiate the release of large numbers of Nazi prisoners during the chaotic closing stages of WWII is important and moving. – Most Highly Recommended
NAME: Escape From The Third Reich, Folke Berndotte and the White Buses FILE: R2896 AUTHOR: Sune Persson PUBLISHER: Pen and Sword, frontline Books BINDING: soft back PAGES: 274 PRICE: £16.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Nazi, concentration camps, Holocaust, death camps, SS, GESTAPO, Himmler, Swedish Red Cross, Count Folke Bernadotte, Whit Buses, WWII, World War II, World War 2, Second World War, genocide, extermination
ISBN: 1-52676-071-1
IMAGE: B2896.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/y6rsw98r LINKS: DESCRIPTION: The publisher has a knack of releasing military and social history books that cover subjects which have been largely neglected by others but are important histories. The story of how a Swedish count and the Swedish Red Cross managed to negotiate the release of large numbers of Nazi prisoners during the chaotic closing stages of WWII is important and moving. – Most Highly Recommended The Nazis began by robbing and expelling Jews and others they considered undesirable in the perverted Germany that they were building. Alongside this was casual violence and the killing of mental patients and the disabled. As war began, the German cruelty to fellow Germans and the people of Occupied Europe escalated into a huge genocide programme that was to kill on an industrial scale. Exactly how much the Allies knew about this terrible situation at the time is unclear. Certainly there were those who just could not believe that a developed nation could possibly do such things. Those who knew and accepted the stories were unsure how they could do anything positive, other than to take every measure to bring the Germans to unconditional surrender. There were people inside Nazi Germany who took some steps to help the victims. Schindler was one who protected numbers of Jews, and Goering's brother was involved in the escape of Jews and political opponents of the Nazis, and in working with Resistance groups, but circumstances heavily limited what they were able to achieve. Against this background, it is amazing that the work of Swedish nationals, to secure the release and evacuation of more than 17,000 prisoners, has become largely invisible to history. This book marks a worthy attempt to correct the serious omission. The story of the White Buses is sad, moving, exciting and inspirational. Count Falke Bernadotte and the Swedish Red Cross, at considerable personal risk, negotiated with Himmler and members of the SS for the release of prisoners from concentration and extermination camps. We may never know the exact number of people they helped or the larger number of their descendants, but the figure was more than 17,000 freed, possibly many more.