page_title: White Buses
hierarchical_section_title: White Buses
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Den 19 april 1945 började de vit bussarna köra koncentrationsläger fångar från Tyskland. Som ung värnpliktig var Stig Svensson frivillig chaufför på en av det vita rödakors bussarna. - Jag kommer aldrig att glömma det jag varit med om, berättade han i en intervju 1992.
context_page_description: The "White Buses" was an operation undertaken by the Swedish Red Cross and the Danish government in the spring of 1945 to rescue concentration camp inmates in areas under Nazi control and transport them to Sweden, a neutral country. Although the operation was initially targeted at saving citizens of Scandinavian countries, it rapidly expanded to include citizens of other countries. Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, a Swedish nobleman and diplomat who was then vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross, negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps.
  In the end, an operational staff of about 300 persons removed 15,345 prisoners from concentration camps. Of them, 7,795 were Norwegian and Danish prisoners and 7,550 were other nationalities.
  In particular, 423 Danish Jews were removed from the Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, contributing significantly to the fact that casualties among Danish Jews during the Holocaust were among the lowest of the occupied European countries.
context_section_description: The "White Buses" (Swedish: Vita bussarna) was an operation undertaken by the Swedish Red Cross and the Danish government in the spring of 1945 to rescue concentration camp inmates in areas under Nazi control and transport them to Sweden, a neutral country. Although the operation was initially targeted at saving citizens of Scandinavian countries, it rapidly expanded to include citizens of other countries. Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, a Swedish nobleman and diplomat who was then vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross, negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps.
  In the end, an operational staff of about 300 persons removed 15,345 prisoners from concentration camps. Of them, 7,795 were Norwegian and Danish prisoners and 7,550 were other nationalities (Polish, French etc.).
  In particular, 423 Danish Jews were removed from the Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, contributing significantly to the fact that casualties among Danish Jews during the Holocaust were among the lowest of the occupied European countries.
  The term "white buses" originates from the buses having been painted white with the Red Cross emblem on the side to avoid being mistaken for military vehicles.
  Inspired by that operation, the Norwegian White Buses Foundation organises excursions to Sachsenhausen and the sites of other concentration camps for school classes and were accompanied by first-hand witnesses and survivors.
caption: On April 19, 1945, the White Buses started driving prisoners from concentration camps in Germany. As a young citizen, Stig Svensson was a volunteer driver on one of the White Red Cross Buses (not the one in the picture). "I'll never forget what I've seen", he said in a 1992 interview.
exif: {}