page_title: Estelle Bernadotte
section_title: Professional life
hierarchical_section_title: Estelle Bernadotte / Life / Professional life
caption_attribution_description: English: Estelle Bernadotte, with her two sons Folke (b. 1931) and Bertil Oscar (b. 1935), leaving for Folke Bernadotte's funeral. Picture taken at the entrance of the Bernadotte residence in Stockholm. September 26, 1948.
context_page_description: Estelle Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg, also known as Estelle Ekstrand, was an American-Swedish countess who was a leading figure in the International Red Cross and Girl Scout movement. She married Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish member of a United Nations mediating team. He was assassinated by the extremist zionist Stern gang while on duty in Israel in September 1948.
context_section_description: In May 1948, Estelle's husband Folke Bernadotte was appointed the United Nations' mediator in Palestine, the first official mediator in UN history. This appointment followed the immediate violence that followed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the subsequent unilateral Israeli Declaration of Independence. In this capacity, he succeeded in achieving an initial truce during the subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli War and laid the groundwork for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The specific proposals showed the influence of the previously responsible British government, and to a lesser extent the U.S. government. 
  On Friday 17 September of that same year, Folke Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by the Israeli militant group Lehi.
  As her husband's widow, Estelle Bernadotte was active in philanthropic endeavours that he had supported, including the International Red Cross. She was president of the Swedish Girls' Guide and Scout Association from 1949 to 1957. She supported the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and international conservation efforts.
  On September 17, 1958, on the 10th anniversary of the assassination of her husband Folke Bernadotte, she became the first leader of the Folke Bernadotte Foundation, a charity that supports children with cerebral palsy. The foundation was created and supported by the Swedish Guide and Scout Association, the Swedish Red Cross, the Gothenburg Deaconess Society, and twenty other non-profit organizations, as well as by prominent medical and educational expertise. Under Bernadotte's leadership, the Folke Bernadotte Foundation widened its mission to help children and young people with other disabilities. Bernadotte was also the leader of the Folke Bernadotte Memorial Fund, a foundation whose mission is to increase understanding among young people at the international level.
  In her later life, she managed a care home for elderly women in Stockholm.
caption: Bernadotte, with her two sons Folke (b. 1931) and Bertil (b. 1935), leaving for Folke Bernadotte's funeral. Picture taken at the entrance of the Bernadotte residence in Stockholm, September 26, 1948.
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