Om de hade tillfrisknat skulle de ha den 27 februari 1947 kommit till Eretz Israel

We have to leave before 4.06 PM - before Sabbath - S/S Ulua - S/S Haim Arlosoroff - Who was the Swedish Quisling at Dagens Nyheter and TT?

04.06 PM was the start of Sabbath on January 24th, 1947. It was used to explain the hurry to leave the harbor of Trelleborg for the port authorities, to leave Sweden. Haganah and Bet Aliyah ship, SS Ulua left quickly Sweden as they were afraid to be stopped by Swedish authorities. Just before the dusk 550 young women and 94 men started their long trip to the Eretz Israel. Their common history, related to Sweden, starts, however, at the end of the WWII when in April 1945 numerous concentration camps, a.o. Bergen-Belsen were liberated. The green stamp April 28, 1945 is the day the Holocaust survivor entered Sweden - most likely survivor from the concentration camp Ravensbrück and the red one is indicating when the survivor left Sweden. The cities Malmö and Trelleborg are both in the Southern Sweden.

Who was the "Swedish Quisling" that wanted to stop Holocaust survivors to go to Eretz Israel? All the plans, special trains schedules, places where the survivors were waiting before the ship arrival and other information were kept secret. However, someone betrayed this mission and reporters and photographers from the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter appeared at the Stockholm Central station just before the midnight and the story about Jews leaving Sweden appeared five ours later in all three biggest Swedish cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. At the same time the train reached the Trelleborg port. SS Ulua left quickly Sweden as they were afraid to be stopped by Swedish authorities. Just before the dusk 550 young women and 94 men started their long trip to the Eretz Israel. Above the first page of Dagens Nyheter from July 24, 1947, the day when 644 Holocaust survivors left Sweden for Eretz Israel. More information was published on the last page also from the the Swedish news agency TT (Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå).

Above, an article from the last page of Dagens Nyheter from July 24, 1947, the day when 644 Holocaust survivors left Sweden for Eretz Israel. Here the information from the Swedish news agency TT (Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå) gives further details about the destination of the ship and the number of passangers. This short info was also published on the last page of Dagens Nyheter.

The message to all five Swedish White boats that prior to the first voyage to Lübeck. The ships were assembled at the shore of Trelleborg on June 22nd, 1945 and shortly after they sailed for Lübeck escorted over the Baltic by German, ex-Kriegsmarine minesweepers, still sailing with their original crews hut flying the allied control flag.

Summer 1946 - Numerous Holocaust survivors were working at the fields in the Southern Sweden.

The Prologue - From Germany to Sweden On May 30th, 1945, a telegram from the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) to the Swedish Committee for International Charity stated that the UNRRA had decided to accept the helpful offer of your government to welcome same 10 000 DPs - displaced persons to Sweden. Was that part of the Swedish "unknown war reparation" contribution that UNRRA required from Sweden? It is likely that so was the case.

The formal decision to undertake this mission was taken by the King in State Council on the June 1st, 1945. There is no information when and how this offer was made. In any event, the telegram was submitted by the Committee to the Social ministry on May 31st and became the official trigger for the formal decision. This very quick process indicate that the mission, in fact, had already been prepared for a long time before the telegram arrived. The Kings decision, stated that Sweden was to receive for rehabilitation, at most 10 000 displaced persons who were under repatriatian by the UNRAA. The Royal Board of Civilian Defense was given the task of organizing the transport of those persons from Germany to Sweden, and the Board of Naval Logistics was to provide the ships.

The logistics of transportation from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden

The logistics of transportation from Bergen-Belsen included three steps. 

Transportation from Bergen-Belsen to Lübeck

Transportation by train from the British Army hospital next to former Bergen-Belsen camp to Lubeck to the detachment called Swedish Transit Hospital manned by Swedish, German and British personnel. At this detachment (also called in Swedish Civilförsvarsstyrelsens Uppsamlingsläger I Lubeck) - Board of Civilian Defense detention camp) the former concentration camp prisoners, now called patients, were given besides the medical ward also multilingual travel documents. 

The efficiency of the Swedish transit hospital was to receive approximately 2 000 displaced persons a week from Bergen-Belsen. 

Transportation from Swedish transit hospital to the Lübeck harbor
The next step was transportation from Swedish transit hospital to the Lübeck harbor in the middle of the city. DPs were sent down to the ships by buses and ambulances. The name lists were prepared for each boat. Each transport had own transport code name like Red ship, Black ship, etc. The patients were divided into two groups: sittande and liggande. The sittande - sitting patients was the category that could go ombord by themselves. Liggande - laying patiens were brought ombord on the stretchers. Usually there was only one doctor ombord and few nurses on each ship.

Totally, according to the commandant of the Lübeck detachment, dr. Hans Arnoldsson, the number of patients evacuated from Germany from June 23rd to July 25th 1945 9 273 sent over the Baltic to Sweden with the White Boats. The majority of them were Jewish and the main part comprised of women.

Five White Boats; Karskär, Rönnskär, Kastelholm and Prins Carl took aboard some 200 patients each, while the Kronprinsessan Ingrid took a few more than 400 in their first transport on the 27th and 28th of June. The patients, depending on their condition, were sent to various Swedish hospitals in cities along the Swedish coastline.

Transportation from the Lübeck harbor to Swedish ports
The total number of patients transported by five White boats was approximately 1 500 (each trip). The distance to Trelleborg and Malmö was shorter and that was the reason that two White boats M/S Karskär and M/S Rönnskär transported half of the patients. In Sweden White boats went to following harbors: Göteborg, Helsingborg, Karlskrona, Kalmar, Malmö, Norrköping, Stockholm and Trelleborg. The trips to Stockholm took the longest time.

The name lists were prepared for each boat. Each transport had own transport code name like Red ship, Black ship, etc. The patients were divided into two groups: sittande and liggande. The sittande - sitting patients was the category that could go ombord by themselves. Liggande - laying patiens were brought ombord on the stretchers. Usually there was only one doctor ombord on each ship. The numbers in the left column are the patient number from the Swedish Transit Hospital register.

In Sweden - From White Boats to the hospitals - Quarantine
When in Sweden - most of the patients were placed in the in special emergency hospitals that were prepared already in 1939 and were called in Swedish beredskapssjukhus. These emergency hospitals were within already functioning hospital and as well in storage places in numerous schools that in case of need could be quickly transferred to the functioning ward units.

All former concentration camp prisoners that came to Sweden were quarantined for at least two weeks. They were broken to some degree, physically and psychologically. According to the medical cards I intensively studied, most of the UNRRA refugees had tuberculosis and other pulmonary and post typhus problems. Therefore  many of the Holocaust survivors were hospitalized for extended periods. Quite a few didn’t long survive their rescue, as evidenced by cemeteries in the Swedish cities where emergency hospitals were dedicated for the ward of UNRRA mission patients. In Stockholm at Norra begravningsplatsen there are graves of almost one hundred survivors that came to Sweden with White boats. Most of them died just days or weeks after arrival at beredskapssjukhuset in Sigtuna and Epidemiska sjukhuset in Stockholm.

Many of the Holocaust survivors were hospitalized for extended periods. Quite a few didn’t long survive their rescue, as evidenced by cemeteries in the Swedish cities where emergency hospitals were dedicated for the ward of UNRRA mission patients. In Stockholm at Norra begravningsplatsen there are graves of almost one hundred survivors that came to Sweden with White boats. Most of them died just days or weeks after arrival at beredskapssjukhuset in Sigtuna and Epidemiska sjukhuset in Stockholm. The Jewish congregation in Stockholm led by mr. Aron Verständig and Isak Reichel ruined this Holocaust Monument - 6 stones - 6 millions on the 75th anniversary of UNRRAs White Boat mission - July 2020. 

Exhausted and ill, these mostly women and few men were brought to Sweden to receive medical care. Those who survived and were children and teenagers when the WWII started recovered relatively quickly and benefited from the care and professional training provided by the Swedish government, some of which was under the supervision of different Zionist organizations active in Sweden. Relatively healthy Holocaust survivors were quarantined in the detention camps in Sweden.

Leaving Sweden for Israel, home-countries and America

Main part of the Holocaust survivors that came to Sweden at the end of WWII, declared thet after recovering in Sweden they want to leave Sweden. Most of the survivors wanted to go to Eretz Israel (British Mandate of Palestine) or to home countries if they had families there that survived the Holocaust or to the America.

This story is to uncover still hidden information about the lives of the Holocaust survivors, in this case the contingent of 644, mostly women who came to Eretz Israel from Sweden in 1947. All of the 550 women and about 94 men were brought to Sweden from the concentration camps in so called White Boats and White Buses at the end of the WWII (April-July 1945).

If we could find the descendants of these women and men, we could provide them with the precious details of their lives and the fate of their families during the Holocaust which are contained in the pages of Swedish medical histories as well as in the field medical cards issued by the British Army we have discovered in our research. These medical records contain not only the pure medical histories but also the family histories, including the fate of the parents and siblings. For example, a record from the Swedish Beredskapssjukhus (Emergency hospital) might include the following information: “father died in the ghetto in 1942, the mother perished in Majdanek, and a sister died of typhus in Bergen-Belen two weeks prior to the liberation…" 

4.06 PM was the start of Sabbath on January 27th, 1947. It was used to explain the hurry for Trelleborg port authorities to leave Sweden. SS Ulua left quickly Sweden as they were afraid to be stopped by Swedish authorities.

S/S Ulua (later S/S Haim Arlosoroff) in Trelleborg port before departure to Eretz and Swedish Medical Cards. The train on the right arrived in the morning all the way from Falun.

Despite the 18 months of relative stability and accommodation in Sweden, most of the youngsters decided not to stay but to pursue an uncertain future in Eretz Israel. The S/S Ulua ship was a Aliyah Beth ship send by Haganah to bring these survivors to Eretz Israel. It has to be pointed out that these young people — similar to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising -- were completely alone in the world, deprived of family members, a true “Monogeneration”.

From the very beginning, the British Intelligence tried to thwart the S/S Ulea expedition. For example, they spread false information to Danes and Swedes that the S/S Ulua is carrying white slaves and whores. It is likely that Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter was the first to try to stop the S/S Ulua by publishing on January 23, 1947, the information both about S/S Ulua´s final destination and the way Holocaust survivors will be transported to the port of departure - Trelleborg. Why and who gave the info to the newspapers about this secret project it is not known. Who and why decided to publish this information is not known either. Mr. Herbert Tingsten was the chef journalist at Dagens Nyheter at that time. Information published in Dagens Nyheter included the information about especially chartered train to Trelleborg port.

Who was the "Swedish Quisling"?

Who was the "Swedish Quisling" that wanted to stop Holocaust survivors to go to Eretz Israel? All the plans, special trains schedules, places where the survivors were hiding when waiting for the ship arrival and other information were kept secret. However, someone betrayed this mission and reporters and photographers from the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter appeared at the Stockholm Central station just before the midnight. The story about Jews leaving Sweden appeared just five hours later in all three biggest Swedish cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Almost at the same time the train with the Holocaust survivors reached the Trelleborg port. After boarding was completed S/S Ulua left quickly Sweden as they were afraid to be stopped by Swedish authorities. They claimed that they have to leave befor the Shabbat starts. So just before the dusk 550 young women and 94 men started their long trip to the Eretz Israel.

In the Swedish State Railways' archives, more specifically the Swedish Transport Administration (Tbr). I was looking for information about the train that arrived at Trelleborg's ferry camp on January 24, 1947. In the diary register C1b for 1946-1947 there were found under the subject group Foreign travelers a number of dossier and diary numbers with the heading "Tp of Jews" (ie Transport of Jews). Unfortunately, in the main diary where it says what correspondence has occurred, there was only info with the stamp "Embossed according to KB 14 May 1915" (... according to the Royal Letter directives ....), ie the officials at SJ had the right to thin according to this letter in the documents as stated in the letter. That it was the requested document that disappeared is indicated by the abbreviations that apply to the Ra 20 file. Transport of 600 Jews Central Station - Trelleborg Ferry Camp 23-24 / 1 1947.

On the way to Haifa, the S/S Ulua, picked up additional Holocaust survivors in Italy, at the same time changing its name to "Haim Arlosoroff”. 

After a very difficult and tortuous journey of 34 days, the survivors reached the shore of Bat Galim on February 27, 1947. The quick and clever maneuver resulted in the ship being grounded on the shallow shores of Haifa. Some refugees jumped of the boat into the water but they had no chance to escape as barbed wire surrounded the beach and was watched by British paratroopers. Survivors of the Holocaust were sent to the camp again, this time British detention camp no. 66 in Cyprus. The Time Magazine wrote about in in the issue of March 10, 1947.

Contrary to the expectations, the trip had not ended in Haifa. Only few people succeeded in reaching the land and hiding. All others were caught by the British and transported to Cyprus and placed in the detention camp no 66. Some of them stayed there until the creation of Israel in 1948. Many of the survivors that came to Sweden during the UNRRA mission White Boats (June-July 1945) and also the little group of Jews that came in April 1945 by White busses, formed strong, family like, bonds. They maintained these close contacts for many years in Israel and some even came from detention camp on Cyprus as married couples or married later in Israel.

It is important that this Monogeneration (My Heros) — a group of very young Holocaust survivors who single-mindedly have chosen life in Israel in favor of Sweden -- should be remembered. Since many of them are no longer alive, it gives at least chance for their descendants to learn their fate to carry their memory for future generations. This can be accomplished by contacting:
Roman Wasserman Wroblewski, PhD, Chairman of the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association (SHMA) in Stockholm at romwro@gmail.com tel :+46 704 158 610. Look for us and join us at Face book.

Malka Weiss, mother to Benny Gantz was one of the 550 Jewish girls that left Sweden on January 24, 1947 on S/S Ulua (later S/S Haim Arlosoroff). Malka arrived to Sweden with the UNRRA mission White Boats on M/S Karskär on July, 8th 1945). Her last concentration camp was Bergen-Belsen.
Bennys father, Nachum Gantz came ombord S/S Ulua in Italy. Malka and Nachum were deported on February 27 1947 from Eretz Israel to the camp no. 66 located on Cyprus. So it is likely that they met for the first time on the S/S Ulua or in the detention camp on Cyprus.

S/S Haim Arlosoroff, former S/S Ulua left on the shore of Bat Galim. Parts of it can be found when diving in the area.

S/S Haim Arlosoroff, former S/S Ulua was left on the shore of Bat Galim just to the left of Casino.

S/S Haim Arlosoroff, former S/S Ulua was stranded at the place approx. in the lower right corner.