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| British Field Medical Card found by SHMA in the Swedish Archives. The patient was hospitalized in the famous Round House, the main hospital building in the former Wehrmacht military camp. |
Since 1995 Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association SHMA has been working to gather information about the Holocaust Survivors and other inmates of the concentration camps that arrived in Sweden on UNRRAs White Boat, Spoke trains, and White buses, at the end of WWII.
SHMA archives are a kind of micro-archives where we have over 20 000 documents of different kinds. Our collections are mainly related to the UNRRA mission White Boats that brought almost 10 000 former inmates of concentration camps to Sweden. Most of them were liberated in Bergen-Belsen in April 1945. However, in most cases, the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen was the "last camp" in a series of other places of camps and ghettos. Some of the inmates passed through 5-6 camps. The value of our material is that it allows us allows to trace the vicissitudes of the victims based on original documents both as a group and as single cases. The endeavor, our goal, is to create achieve archives showing the logistics of the Holocaust throughout Europe, from Italy and Greece in the West to the Soviet Union in the East. To make our so important records accessible, we are trying to build an easy-to-search digital platform that swiftly could swiftly be connected with other major archival collections.
We recently showed how the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association (SHMA) archival collections could be linked with the documents from such collections as Auschwitz Archives and Arolsen Archives. By integrating archival data from Auschwitz with the data from Bergen-Belsen archives and from Arolsen we were able to describe the fate of the twins who were used by Mengele in Auschwitz (not the ones described below). Afterward, they were sent on death marches and were inmates of a number of camps before they were liberated in Bergen-Belsen and brought to Sweden by the White Boat mission. Actually, in our archives, we have documents from several sources that cover both the time until the liberation and the time after the liberation when at the hospital in Bergen-Belsen and Lübeck. Our archives include the documents issued by the Swedish authorities that were filled by former inmates in Lübeck Transit Centre and also finally five different types of Swedish documents that in a way summarize the entire period of the Holocaust and also provide information on the fate of the closest family that, in most cases, perished during the Holocaust.
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| Swedish document from the Wasa hospital in Gothenburg. It belongs to Rajchman Amalia. Her Lübeck number was L: 5154. The number was found on the Swedish Inresekort, Entry Card that was issued in Lübeck prior to transport by White Boat mission to Gothenburg, Sweden. There is also information about Amalia's two sisters at the same hospital and also about their brother Gerszon Rajchman living in Tel-Aviv. |
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Swedish "Doctor cards" (Läkarkort) of tweens Rajchman Amalia and Czeslwa born 1930 (almost 15 y old at liberation in Bergen-Belsen. Both were inmates in Auschwitz. They were brought to Sweden by UNRRAs White Boat M/S Kronprinsessan Ingrid to Gothenburg. Dr. Lisa Welander took care of them during the transport from Lübeck which took 2 days. There is information on the body temperature, weight, and other data on these Läkarkort issued on July 13th. At the top of this card, the number G03400510 is given. That number is from the DP-1 card issued in Bergen-Belsen.
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DP-2 card of Rajchman sisters Jadwiga, Czeslawa and Amalia issued in Lübeck prior to transport by White Boat mission to Gothenburg, Sweden.
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In addition to the pure Swedish documents, SHMA digitized different types of British and German documents that were brought to Sweden with the survivors. That gave the possibility for our research group to study the health conditions of the former inmates directly after the liberation in the camp as described by British and German doctors in the Field Medical Cards. The health conditions could be followed during the transfer to Sweden and thereafter also in the Swedish hospitals and camps. Quite often Field Medical Cards and other medical records included more than pure medical information that is also of interest.
SHMA's archival expertise and knowledge of Swedish archives are well known and several Holocaust researchers and also private persons around the world have been contacting us for years. We hope that our collection will be soon fully digitalized and become a part of the network with the major big archives. By integration with other networks, our data could be accessible to researchers and the public at large.
We recently applied for the funds for this so important task to IHRI but our application was refused.
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Swedish "Entry cards" were issued for the Holocaust survivors from Ravensbrück that arrived to Sweden on April 28th 1945 (the last group). The green Entry stamp shows that they arrived in Malmö. On top is attached another card "Departure card" with the red stamp from January 24, 1947. On that day several hundred Holocaust survivors were brought to Sweden by different missions left on the Hagana ship S/S Ulua heading to Eretz Israel.
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| On the back of the Swedish "Entry cards" (Inresekort) there is information about sisters during their stay in Sweden. |
SHMa Archives collect information about the Holocaust Survivors that arrived to Sweden at the end of WWII. Until now, 76 years after the survivors reached Sweden in 1945 there are no data concerning the numbers of survivors that came to Sweden.
Personally, I estimate that most of the Jews came to Sweden with UNRRA-mission White Boats, about 50% of the total. The next biggest group were Jews that came to Padborg in Denmark by two "Spoke trains", 45%. The group of Jews that came to Sweden by White buses was about 5%.
