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In Stockholm's Northern Cemetery (Norra begravningsplatsen) there is a Jewish Cemetery. At the Jewish area of the cemetery, not far away from Alfred Nobel grave lie the derelict and all-but-forgotten graves of the victims of the Holocaust. These were mostly young girls and women, who died not long after arriving in Sweden for medical treatment in 1945. Both the victims and their graves have been overlooked for 74 years. In this particular area at the 3rd row there the graves of Lily, Eva, Flora, Sari, and Regina.
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In Stockholm's Northern Cemetery (Norra begravningsplatsen) there is a Jewish Cemetery. At the Jewish area of the cemetery not far away from Alfred Nobel and Nelly Sachs's graves lie the derelict and all-but-forgotten graves of victims of the Holocaust. These were mostly young girls and women, who died not long after arriving in Sweden for medical treatment in 1945. Both the victims and their graves have been overlooked for 74 years.
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| British Field Medical Card, (usually used for the wounded and sick soldiers) of Sari Grûnberger from the British Emergency Hospital in Bergen-Belsen. Sari was 11 years old when WWII started. She died on January 16th, 1946, only months after arrival in Sweden. |
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| DP-2 card belonging to Sari Grünberger was issued in Lübeck in July 1945. Sari was 11 years old when World War II broke out. She died in Sweden and is buried in the third row within the J block at the North Jewish Cemetery. Her tombstone was among the 50 tombstones that were lifted from the underground in the fall of 2018. It was completely illegible. The artist and stone conservator Justyna Bamba from the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association - SHMA, obtained the original text after several days of work. Her parents Mariska (age 55) and Salomon (age 60) were murdered in the Auschwitz gas chambers. Sari Grünberg's sisters Regi (26), Iren (24), and Therese died in concentration camps, i.e. in Bergen-Belsen, and were buried in mass graves there. |
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| Swedish Medical Card of Sari Grünberger from the Emergency Hospital in Sigtuna. Sari was 11 years old when WWII started. She died on January 16th, 1946. Six months after arrival in Sweden. |
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| Sari Grünberger died in Sweden in January 1945 and is buried in the third row within the J field at the North Jewish Cemetery. Her tombstone was among the 50 tombstones that were lifted from the underground in the fall of 2018. It was completely illegible. The artist and stone conservator from the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association - SHMA, Justyna Bamba obtained the original text after several days of work. Her parents Mariska (age 55) and Salomon (age 60) were murdered in the Auschwitz gas chambers. Sari Grünberg's sisters Regi (26), Iren (24), and Therese died in concentration camps, i.e. in Bergen-Belsen, and were buried in mass graves there. |
In this particular area on the 3rd row, there are five graves of Lily, Eva, Flora, Sari, and Regina.
The location in the 3rd row indicates that these Holocaust victims died in the beginning of 1946 and were fighting for their lives 8 months after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. Directly after the liberation, they were treated at the British field hospital at the concentration camp site and thereafter at the Swedish field hospital in Lübeck with British, Swedish, and German doctors.
Though they managed to survive until the liberation, they were seriously ill. Several survivors died at the field hospitals in Germany or when they boarded the S/S Kastelholm, one of the UNRRA and Swedish Red Cross' "White Boats" that transported survivors from Germany to Sweden starting in June 1945.
During the summer of 1945, S/S Kastelholm did five crossings from Lübeck to Sweden. Three of the crossings likely went to Stockholm's Frihamnen port.
Lily, Eva, Flora, Sari, and Regina were about the same age as Anne Frank. They were in the same camp, Bergen-Belsen, and they died due to the same causes, malnutrition, typhus other diseases like TBC at Bergen-Belsen. So Lily, Eva, Flora, Sari, and Regina's lives lasted only a few months longer, dying of complications from malnutrition and typhus in Sweden.
Lily, Eva, and Sari were all buried in January 1946. Flora and Regina in March 1946. Flora Ferenc died like Viola Horvath at Ribbingelund TBC Hospital. Both Flora and Viola were earlier patients at an emergency hospital in Sigtuna. Although there are only 13 days between the date of death of Flora (March 9, 1946) and Violas (March 21, 1945) no one knows where Viola is buried. We, in the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association (SHMA, in Swedish Föreningen Förintelsens Minne - FFM), call her, "The girl without a grave"!
When WWII started on September 1st, 1939, "the girls in the third row" were between 10 and 14 years old. All of them have been in the ghettos, concentration camps, ammunition factories, and slave labor camps.
The location in the 3rd row indicates that these Holocaust victims died in the beginning of 1946 and were fighting for their lives 8 months after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. Directly after the liberation, they were treated at the British field hospital at the concentration camp site and thereafter at the Swedish field hospital in Lübeck with British, Swedish, and German doctors.
Though they managed to survive until the liberation, they were seriously ill. Several survivors died at the field hospitals in Germany or when they boarded the S/S Kastelholm, one of the UNRRA and Swedish Red Cross' "White Boats" that transported survivors from Germany to Sweden starting in June 1945.
During the summer of 1945, S/S Kastelholm did five crossings from Lübeck to Sweden. Three of the crossings likely went to Stockholm's Frihamnen port.
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| During the summer of 1945, the UNRRA White Boats, S/S Kastelholm did five crossings from Lübeck to Sweden. Three of the crossings likely went to Stockholm's Frihamnen port. |
What happened in Sweden is known mainly from their Medical Cards. To start with, all were transported from Frihamnen to the Ropsten sanitary facility [where a Tunnelbana Ropsten station now stands], and from there to the Epidemic Hospital at Roslagstull [present-day Roslagstull Hospital] in Stockholm or the field hospital (Beredskapssjukhuset) located in school buildings in Sigtuna. In those places, many of the survivors died as early as only days or weeks after arrival. These survivors are buried in rows 1 and 2 and in the other area of the cemetery called "Kvarter K". There, the burials of Holocaust victims started in July 1945.
Lily, Eva, Flora, Sari, and Regina were about the same age as Anne Frank. They were in the same camp, Bergen-Belsen, and they died due to the same causes, malnutrition, typhus other diseases like TBC at Bergen-Belsen. So Lily, Eva, Flora, Sari, and Regina's lives lasted only a few months longer, dying of complications from malnutrition and typhus in Sweden.
Lily, Eva, and Sari were all buried in January 1946. Flora and Regina in March 1946. Flora Ferenc died like Viola Horvath at Ribbingelund TBC Hospital. Both Flora and Viola were earlier patients at an emergency hospital in Sigtuna. Although there are only 13 days between the date of death of Flora (March 9, 1946) and Violas (March 21, 1945) no one knows where Viola is buried. We, in the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association (SHMA, in Swedish Föreningen Förintelsens Minne - FFM), call her, "The girl without a grave"!
When WWII started on September 1st, 1939, "the girls in the third row" were between 10 and 14 years old. All of them have been in the ghettos, concentration camps, ammunition factories, and slave labor camps.
