White Buses
White Buses timeline

White Buses

Section Title: White Buses timeline
Table Section Text: None

Year	Month/Date	Event

1940	August	The first Norwegian political prisoners are deported to Germany.

1942	October	The family of Johan Bernhard Hjort, interned at the castle Gross Kreutz outside Berlin, in Germany, start work to support the prisoners.

1943	September	The Danish coalition government resigns; deportations of Danish prisoners to Germany begin.

1944	January	Niels Christian Ditleff establishes contact with the group at Gross Kreutz.

February	Carl Hammerich visits Sweden and has the first of several meetings with Ditleff, discussing the Scandinavian prisoners.

22 September	Ditleff meets Bernadotte and suggests a Swedish expedition to save Scandinavian prisoners.

23 September	Major Johan Koren Christie writes a PM which states that the prisoners shall "stay put".

October	A report from the Gross Kreutz group written by Johan Bernhard Hjort argues that the Scandinavian prisoners must be moved out of Germany before the war ends.

December	Felix Kersten, masseur to SS head Heinrich Himmler, manages to free 103 Scandinavian prisoners.

29 December	The Norwegian government-in-exile in London changes its view and requests that the Embassy in Stockholm research a possible Swedish expedition to rescue prisoners in Germany.

1945	5 February	Ditleff sends an official Norwegian PM to the Swedish foreign department, requesting a Swedish expedition to rescue the Scandinavian prisoners.

16 February	Bernadotte travels to Berlin by plane, meets Himmler and discusses the release of political prisoners.

29 March	The "white buses" arrive at Friedrichsruh, the base for the expedition in Germany.

15 March	The first transport from Sachsenhausen to Neuengamme; 2,200 Norwegian and Danes are collected.

19 March	The first transport collecting prisoners in the south of Germany; 559 prisoners are transported to Neuengamme. Five surviving Norwegian Jews in Buchenwald are left behind.

26 March	The first transport of Swedish women married to Germans is moved to Sweden.

27 March	Transport of French, Belgian, Dutch, Polish, and Russian prisoners from Neuengamme to make space for additional Scandinavian prisoners.

29 March	The Swedish Red Cross gets access to the Neuengamme concentration camp.

30 March	Transport from the area around Leipzig; some 1,200 prisoners are collected, 1,000 of them Danish police, and all are transported to Denmark.

2 April	A new Swedish column to the south of Germany, which visits the camps at Mauthausen, Dachau and Vaihingen; 75 prisoners are collected at Neuengamme.

5 April	About half of the Swedish contingent return to Sweden; they are replaced by Danes.

8 April	The first transport from Ravensbrück; 100 female prisoners are transported directly to Padborg in Denmark.

9 April	A Swedish/Danish column travels to Berlin to collect political prisoners from jails; 211 prisoners are transported to Neuengamme. The evacuation of sick prisoners to Denmark begins.

15 April	A total of 524 political prisoners from jails in Mecklenburg are collected; 423 Jews are transported from Theresienstadt to Denmark and Sweden.

8 April	The first air attack against the "white buses" occurs at the Danish camp at Friedrichsruh, four Danish drivers and one nurse are slightly wounded.

20 April	The evacuation of all Scandinavian prisoners from Neuengamme to Sweden through Denmark begins.

April	Transport of sick prisoners from Ravensbrück; 786 and 360 female prisoners in two columns are taken to Padborg.

2 April	One column with 934 females and one train with 3,989 female prisoners; the last "white buses" transport leaves from Ravensbrück.

30 April	The Magdalena with 223 prisoners and Lillie Matthiessen with 225 female prisoners depart from Lübeck.

2 May	2,000 female prisoners (960 Jews, 790 Poles and 250 French) arrive in Padborg by train.

3 May	Cap Arcona, a German passenger vessel filled with prisoners from Neuengamme is attacked by the RAF; almost all the 7,500 aboard the vessel die.

4 May	The last transport leaves with rescued political prisoners, transported by ferry from occupied Copenhagen, Denmark to Malmö, Sweden.

Sentence(s)

On April 15, White Buses collected 524 prisoners from jails in Mecklenburg.

final_sentence: On April 15, White Buses collected 524 prisoners from jails in Mecklenburg.