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| Actually, only 302 non-Scandinavians were rescued in the "White Buses mission". |
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| There is an enormous deflation in the figures for the number of transported non-Scandinavians (marked in blue) by White buses, "rescue operations" have been subjected to. The same applies to the total number "transported by White buses to Sweden". Förluster in the table above means Losses. The total number of people who were transported by the White buses and lost their lives was 2,453. As the total number of non-Scandinavians that were brought to Sweden was 2,755, the net number of non-Scandinavians who were "rescued" is only 302 people. The deduction applies to the French, Polish, and other prisoners of war who the White buses under SS auspices transported from Neuengamme to make room for Scandinavians. Several of the prisoners mentioned were sick and in such poor condition that they died during the journey, and the rest died in the camps where they were transported. All of them would probably have survived if they had stayed in Neuengamme. The stay put option was perhaps more merciful. + Red crosses in the table indicate that there were probably more people in the category than officially stated by the Swedish Red Cross. |
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| White buses under SS auspices transported out from Neuengamme prisoners that do not fit for work, sickly, and dying. That, to give space for the Scandinavian prisoners. |
The Swedish Holocaust Museum would like to call the White Bus operation a rescue operation, with very vague explanations as to why they broke the Red Cross' own rules from the start to take care of the sickest and most needy first. It is known that German-Swedes, and many Nazis, were among the first to use the White Buses to escape justice. There is an enormous deflation that the figures for the number of non-Scandinavians transported (marked in blue) in the "White Buses rescue operation" have been subjected to. The net number of non-Scandinavians who were "rescued" is only 302 people. The deduction applies to the 2,000 French, Belgian, Dutch, Russian, and Polish prisoners and other prisoners of war that the White Buses under the SS auspices transported from Neuengamme* to make room for Scandinavians. Most of the White Bus transports of prisoners for the SS took place between March 27 and 29. Transports went from Neuengamme to subcamps in Hannover and Salzgitter and to Bergen-Belsen. Most of these POWs were very ill, as the "Schonungsblock" in Neuengamme concentration camp was a group of barracks for prisoners not fit for work, sickly, and dying prisoners. Several of the prisoners died during the White Bus transports, and the rest died in the camps where they were transported. All of them would probably have survived if they had stayed in Neuengamme. The "Stay put" option was perhaps the most merciful, and probably more of the POWs would survive.
The Swedish sub-lieutenant Åke Svenson, taking part in the White bus mission, wrote the following in his book:
We could now see how the Germans treated their prisoners in general, French, Belgians, Dutch, Poles, and Russians. It was terrible. This time, the Germans had to allow us into the camp as most of the passengers could not walk the minor distance from the barracks to the road. From these barracks, a group of creatures were forced, that hardly anymore seemed to be human beings.
The last White bus transport for the SS started on April 13, with 423 French prisoners. The prisoners were taken to Theresienstadt concentration camp (ghetto), wherefrom the White buses picked up 400 Danish citizens (actually Jews).
