GRAPEVINE: REMEMBERING BERNADOTTE

Oct6
GRAPEVINE: REMEMBERING BERNADOTTE

GREER FAY CASHMAN

The Swedish government refused to believe that Bernadotte had been the victim of a terrorist attack and blamed the Israel government.
Ambassadör Magnus Hellgren / Foto: Kristian Pohl, Regeringskansliet

Swedish Ambassador Magnus Hellgren will next week host a memorial evening for Count Folke Bernadotte, who, as vice chairman of the Swedish Red Cross during the Second World War, successfully negotiated the release of several thousand prisoners from Nazi concentration camps and secured their transport on what history has recorded as the White Buses.

As noble a mission as the White Buses had been, the effort was surrounded by much controversy, including a debate among historians as to whether Bernadotte had initially refused to rescue Jews and had given priority only to Scandinavians. Some historians say that he was pressured by the Danes to organize the release of Danish Jews from Theresienstadt, but others say that at no time did he discriminate against Jewish prisoners. Many eyewitnesses, including the World Jewish Congress representative in Stockholm, testified on his behalf.

On May 20, 1948, less than a week after David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel, Bernadotte, who was a grandson of King Oscar II of Sweden, was appointed United Nations mediator in Palestine. He was the first official UN mediator. A comprehensive plan that he proposed included the whole or part of the Negev as Arab territory, the whole or part of the Western Galilee as Jewish territory, and Jerusalem as Arab territory with municipal autonomy for the Jewish community, coupled with guarantees of protection for all the holy places.

This did not sit well with the leadership of the newly established state, and demonstrated that Bernadotte had not properly studied the history and traditions of the region, especially with regard to Jerusalem. The proposal was rejected, and Bernadotte came up with an alternative, placing Jerusalem, which was a problematic area, under UN control, with separate community autonomy for its Arab and Jewish residents.

Neither the Arabs nor the Jews were happy with such an arrangement. The Stern Group, which had been the most radically militant of all the resistance movements against the British Mandate, decided to nip this proposal in the bud by assassinating Bernadotte, who had also advocated that Arab refugees who had fled the country so as not to be caught up in war should be permitted to return. The assassination was carried out in Jerusalem on September 17, 1948. It was approved by Stern Group leaders Yitzhak Shamir, Natan Yellin-Mor and Yisrael Eldad. A four-member Stern Group team ambushed Bernadotte’s motorcade, and he was shot by Yehoshua Cohen.

The Swedish government refused to believe that Bernadotte had been the victim of a terrorist attack and blamed the Israel government. Even though Sweden recognized Israel in 1950, relations long remained less than warm. Israel made several attempts to improve its relationship with Sweden, including the planting by the Jewish National Fund of the Folke Bernadotte Memorial Forest in 1952. In a 1995 ceremony honoring Bernadotte that was attended by Sweden’s deputy prime minister, Mona Sahlin, Shimon Peres, who was then foreign minister, publicly condemned the assassination and all forms of terrorism and thanked the Swedes for providing a haven for Jews during the Holocaust. Sahlin left Israel ahead of schedule because the Foreign Ministry denied her permission to meet with Palestinian officials at Orient House in east Jerusalem. Since then, there have been several disputes between Israel and Sweden over the treatment and status of Palestinians, with the upshot that in 2014, Sweden became the first European Union member state to officially recognize the “State of Palestine.”

The guest of honor at Hellgren’s reception will be Bernadotte’s grandson Folke Bernadotte III. The evening will include a presentation by Sven-Eriik Soder, director of the Folke Bernadotte Academy, who will discuss Bernadotte’s legacy.

Zawartość publikowanych artykułów i materiałów nie reprezentuje poglądów ani opinii Reunion’68,
ani też webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyraźnie zaznaczone.
Twoje uwagi, linki, własne artykuły lub wiadomości prześlij na adres:
webmaster@reunion68.com