White Buses - White Buses Timeline

White Buses Timeline

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.
September 22 Ditleff meets Bernadotte and suggests a Swedish expedition to save Scandinavian prisoners.
September 23 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.
December 29 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 February 5 Ditleff sends an official Norwegian PM to the Swedish foreign department, requesting a Swedish expedition to rescue the Scandinavian prisoners.
February 16 Bernadotte travels to Berlin by plane, meets Himmler and discusses the release of political prisoners.
March 12 The "white buses" arrive at Friedrichsruh, the base for the expedition in Germany.
March 15 The first transport from Sachsenhausen to Neuengamme; 2,200 Norwegian and Danes are collected.
March 19 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.
March 26 The first transport of Swedish women married to Germans are carried to Sweden.
March 27 Transport of French, Belgian, Dutch, Polish, and Russian prisoners from Neuengamme to make space for additional Scandinavian prisoners.
March 29 The Swedish Red Cross gets access to the Neuengamme concentration camp.
March 30 Transport from the area around Leipzig; some 1,200 prisoners are collected, 1,000 of them are Danish police and transported on to Denmark.
April 2 A new Swedish column to the south of Germany, the camps at Mauthausen, Dachau and Vaihingen are visited; 75 prisoners are collected at Neuengamme.
April 5 About half of the Swedish contingent return to Sweden; they are replaced by Danes.
April 8 The first transport from Ravensbrück; 100 female prisoners are transported directly to Padborg in Denmark.
April 9 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 starts.
April 15 A total of 524 political prisoners from jails in Mecklenburg are collected; 423 Jews are transported from Theresienstadt to Denmark and Sweden.
April 8 The first air attack against the "white buses" occurs at the Danish camp at Friedrichsruh, four Danish drivers and one nurse are slightly wounded.
April 20 The evacuation of all Scandinavian prisoners from Neuengamme to Sweden through Denmark starts.
April Transport of sick prisoners from Ravensbrück; 786 and 360 female prisoners in two columns are taken to Padborg.
April 2 One column with 934 female and one train with 3,989 female prisoners; the last "white buses" transport leaves from Ravensbrück.
April 30 The Magdalena with 223 prisoners and Lillie Matthiessen with 225 female prisoners depart from Lübeck.
May 2 2,000 female prisoners (960 Jews, 790 Poles, and 250 French) arrive in Padborg by train.
May 3 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.
May 4 The last transport leaves with rescued political prisoners transported by ferry from occupied Copenhagen in Denmark to Malmö in Sweden.

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