Escape From the Third Reich by Sune Persson

Author:Sune Persson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781783469512
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2013-08-20T07:00:00+00:00

The Swedes Accept Danish Aid

The Swedish Foreign Office drew up a strictly confidential memo on 27 March when Bernadotte returned to Germany. In it the Foreign Office estimated the total number of Norwegians and Danes at 9,000, a much lower figure than the 13,000 previously reported by Norwegian and Danish sources but considerably higher than the barely 3,000 prisoners alleged by the Germans. At Neuengamme there were now about 4,800 Scandinavian prisoners, of whom the White Buses had fetched only 2,483 by then. The 1,000 Scandinavian internees at Stutthof were reckoned to be ‘at an unknown site’ and were evidently no longer included in the Swedish estimate. There were still 3,200 Scandinavian prisoners to bring back – 1,400 Danish policemen, 800 Jews and close on 1,000 hard labour camp inmates. Permission to fetch the last had not yet been forthcoming. In addition, there remained sixty-seven seriously ill and infectious people in the south of Germany.

With the Swedish detachment’s imminent final journey home the Danes grew anxious that the Swedes would not bring back all the Scandinavians in time. The Swedish legation in Berlin issued a report on 24 March of a new Danish feeler. The Danish Red Cross asked the German Foreign Ministry about the possibility of participating in the Swedish Red Cross operation. The matter was discussed on the German side between Schellenberg and Auswärtiges Amt. Barely four hours later Bernadotte gave his reply from the Swedish Foreign Office – it was desirable to accept the Danish offer should the German authorities agree. The operation might still remain perhaps under Swedish Red Cross administration. Günther did not, however, authorise the collaboration until two days later, and then with a proviso: ‘We should not take any initiative in the matter. His Excellency is anxious for the operation to remain and not split up merely because a number of people wish to return home.’

So that was what happened: the Foreign Office in Stockholm had at long last perceived the need for assistance from the Danes. When about half of the Swedish detachment made for home on 5 April it was replaced by a large Danish convoy. During the Easter weekend two convoys had been equipped in Denmark consisting of thirty-three buses, fourteen ambulances, seven trucks and four cars. They had been furnished with equipment at the Danish State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, but their base for mechanical equipment, etc., was now transferred to the quarantine station at Padborg on the German – Danish border. The first Danish convoy reached Friedrichsruh on 4 April. It was commanded by Frants Hvass, head of the politico-legal department at Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In March he had been part of the negotiations for transporting the Danish policemen home to Denmark. Hvass was now invested with responsibility for the negotiations at Friedrichsruh together with Swedes and Germans, as well as for all telephone connections with the Danish ministries for foreign and social affairs in Copenhagen by way of Denmark’s general-consulate in Hamburg. Tasks of a

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