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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