Fascinating Archive of the Chairman of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden 'Hillel Storch,' the Activities and ...

Fascinating Archive of the Chairman of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden 'Hillel Storch,' the Activities and Meetings with the Nazi Leaders to Save Jews

Fascinating archive containing over one hundred documents connected to the Chairman of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden, Hillel Storch, and documentation of the missions, activities and meetings which he held with the Nazi leadership in order to save Jews from the extermination camps.

Background: Hillel Storch, a Jewish businessman, was born in Latvia in 1902. From an early age he was an enthusiastic Zionist activist and was involved in the promotion of Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel. When Latvia was occupied by the Soviets, he moved with his family to Sweden, where he became one of the most influential Jews in Sweden and was even appointed as Chairman of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden. He tried to help Jews in the occupied territories in any possible manner.

He organized shipment of food parcels to Jews in concentration camps in Germany, used his good relationship with the royal family to save Jews from the Nazis and even received a promise from Himmler that the concentration camps and all their inmates would not been blown up as the allied forces approached.
In 1945, he met with Himmler in Berlin, this meeting was the first and only one between Himmler and a Jew representing Jewish organizations. As a result of this meeting, thousands of women were freed from the Ravensbrück extermination camp in northern Germany and transferred to Sweden and to Switzerland, at least two thousand of whom were Jewish.

The "White Buses" Operation, also known as the "Bernadotte Operation" after its mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, was an operation to rescue prisoners from German extermination camps and transport them to Sweden. The operation was held in the spring of 1945 and got its name from the vehicles – buses, ambulances and trucks, which were all painted white and marked with a red cross for identification. During this operation more than 15,000 prisoners were rescued from extermination camps, among them many Jews.

General Specifications:

* Transcript of a report from Raoul Wallenberg, October 22, 1944, about the state of Hungarian Jewry.

* Typewritten letter, written by Felix Kersten to Storch on April 4,1945, in which he reports that Himmler agreed to transfer 450 Danish and Norwegian Jews from Theresienstadt to Neuengamme and from there to Sweden. The initials F.K. appear on the upper part, with handwritten corrections. In addition – a document in Yiddish from March 1, 1945, which might have been written by Storch, titled "Kersten, " with the main points from a meeting between them.

* Three original carbon copies of letters which Storch sent to Felix Kersten in March-April 1945, regarding the meeting with Himmler. Two copies of an affidavit/report about Kersten and his relationship with Himmler; an affidavit in Swedish "about my relationship with Felix Kersten;" a four-page long letter from Baron Van Nagell, the Dutch ambassador in Sweden in 1949; a 26-page document with English translations of documents related to Felix Kersten and his humanitarian work during the Nazi period. Typewritten, with minimal corrections in pen.

* Feststellungen, die im Zuge derBefreiungsaktionen von Schutzhäftlingen aus deutschen Konzentrationslagern getroffen wurden.

* Affidavit signed by Franz Goering – the SS officer who was appointed by Walter Schellenberg, Himmler’s assistant, as a liaison officer for the “White Buses” operation.

* Nine-page affidavit about the operation to transfer 1200 Jews from Theresienstadt to Switzerland. Each page is signed by Goering on the bottom in initials; the document is signed at the end by Goering with his complete signature. On page 2, three lines were added by Goering, by hand. The affidavit was signed in Storch's office. Enclosed is an additional copy, as well as an additional document titled “some comments about the people’s outrage regarding November 8, 1938 (Kristallnacht)” [Einige Notizen über die sogenannte volks empörung am 8. November 1938]. This document is not signed but Goering’s name is written at the end, in pencil.

* Letter handwritten by Norbert Masur to Hillel Storch; written on Masur’s official letterhead, dated 18.7 (no year).

* 67 negatives of photographs portraying the “White Buses” operation. Among the photographs – concentration camps survivors, rescue teams, ships that served to transfer survivors to Sweden.

* Carbon copy of a letter to Walter Schellenberg, Himmler's assistant, from June 1945 (one month after the German surrender), with a series of questions – about Eichmann, Rudolf Kastner, Bergen-Belsen's Jews, and more. In addition – transcript of a letter from Schellenberg to Storch, two copies of a 96-page report in German written by Schellenberg in which he outlines mainly the events of April-May 1945.

* Transcript of a telegram from Storch to the heads of the World Jewish Congress in New-York, in which he informs them that he confirmed with Kersten that he will come to Germany and meet with Himmler. March 31, 1945.

* Letter from the prime minister of Sweden, Tage Erlander, from 1951. Typewritten on official stationery of the prime minister, signed in pen.

* 18 original documents and some photocopies of documents, related to Storch's early years. An invitation to Storch's wedding, 1937; copy of a letter that Storch wrote to his wife in 1940.

* Approximately 80 interesting letters connected to Storch's life in Sweden and more.

Condition: Fine overall condition. In two binders.