The Swedish Red Cross White Bus Rescue Action

The Swedish Red Cross White Bus Rescue Action was a mission undertaken by the Swedish Red Cross and the Danish government to rescue prisoners of Nazi concentration camps in the last months of World War II. Count Folke Bernadotte (co-chairman of the Swedish Red Cross) engaged in a series of clandestine meetings with Heinrich Himmler (overseer of the concentration camps and head of the SS and Gestapo) to negotiate the release of more prisoners over the course of the rescue action. The operation convened drivers and nurses, as well as 36 buses, at Malmö Castle. The operation launched on March 9, 1945. The buses were painted white and tagged with a red cross on top to signal their purpose to Allied forces.

Initially intended to rescue only Scandinavians, the White Buses ultimately liberated 15,500 Holocaust victims of over twenty different nationalities in 54 days. We honor these heroes!