Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisborg (January 2, 1895 - September 17, 1948), or simply Count Bernadotte, was a Swedish diplomat noted for his negotiation of the release of 15,000 mostly Scandinavian prisoners [1] from the German concentration camps in World War II and for his assassination by members of a Jewish terrorist group during his service as United Nations mediator in Palestine. Image File history File links Folke-Bernadotte. ... Look up Count in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Countess redirects here. ... January 2 is the second day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe named after the Scandinavian Peninsula. ... It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ... Combatants Allies: Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France/Free France, United States, Canada, China, India, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, South Africa, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Burma Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian... United Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ...

Early life

He was the son of Oscar Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (formerly Prince Oscar of Sweden) and his wife, née Ebba Henrietta Munck af Fulkila. Oscar, the son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, married without the King's consent in 1888, thereby leaving the royal family, and was (in 1892) given the hereditary title Count of Wisborg by the Grand Duke Adolphe of Luxembourg. Prince Oscar of Sweden and Norway, Oscar Carl August (November 15, 1859 - October 4, 1953), Duke of Gotlandia, was the second son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway. ... Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik) (January 21, 1829 – December 8, 1907) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1872 until his death. ... Members of the British royal family A royal family is the extended family of a monarch. ... A title is a prefix or suffix added to a persons name to signify either veneration, an official position or a professional or academic qualification. ... Four persons have been created Count Bernadotte af Wisborg in the Luxembourg nobility, all of whom were members of the Swedish Royal House of Bernadotte, to which the Grand Duke of Luxembourg is closely related. ... Grand Duke Adolphe of Luxembourg, Adolph Wilhelm August Karl Friedrich of Nassau-Weilburg (July 24, 1817 – November 17, 1905) was the last Duke of Nassau, and the fourth Grand Duke of Luxembourg. ...

Marriage and children

In 1928 he married Estelle Manville (b. 1904), a rich American heiress whom he had met in Riviera. They had four sons: Gustaf (b. 1930), Folke (b. 1931), Frederik (b. 1934) and Bertil (b. 1935).

World War II diplomacy

Bernadotte, while vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross in 1945, attempted to negotiate an armistice between Germany and the Allies. At the very end of the war he received Heinrich Himmler's offer, from April 24, of Germany's complete surrender to Britain and the United States, provided Germany was allowed to continue resistance against the Soviet Union. The offer was passed on to Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry S. Truman. The Red Cross and the Red Crescent emblems, the symbols from which the Movement derives its name The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement whose stated mission is to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for the human being, and to prevent... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... A white flag is traditionally used to represent a truce. ... In general, allies are people or groups that have joined an alliance and are working together to achieve some common purpose. ... (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ... April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an English politician and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the thirty-fourth Vice President (1945) and the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–1953), succeeding to the office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ...

Just before the end of World War II he gained much good will leading a rescue operation transporting interned Norwegians, Danes and other West-Europeans inmates from German Concentration Camps to hospitals in Sweden, of whom some speaking French from the Cap Arcona. In the "White Buses" of the Bernadotte-expedition 15,000 persons were liberated, mostly Scandinavians but also some Jews. Combatants Allies: Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France/Free France, United States, Canada, China, India, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, South Africa, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Burma Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian... This article is about the continent. ... The Cap Arcona was a 27,500 gross ton German luxury passenger steamer of the Hamburg South America line. ... Swedish Red Cross buses, possibly near their field headquarters Friedrichsruh White Buses was a humanitarian effort headed by the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte that by the end of the second world war saved thousands of Norwegian and Danish resistance fighters from German concentration camps. ... Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe named after the Scandinavian Peninsula. ...

Bernadotte served on the World Scout Committee of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1947 until 1948. The World Scout Committee is the executive body of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM). ... The World Organization of the Scout Movement is the supranational organization which governs most national Scouting movements. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ...

UN mediator

Following the 1947 UN Partition Plan, on May 20, 1948, Folke Bernadotte was appointed the United Nations' mediator in Palestine. This made him the first official mediator in the history of the world organization. In this capacity, he succeeded in achieving a truce in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and laid the groundwork for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. On 29 November 1947 the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict in the British Mandate of Palestine, was approved by the United Nations General Assembly, at the UN World Headquarters in New York. ... May 20 is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... United Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... The 1948 Arab-Israeli War is referred to as the War of Independence (Hebrew: מלחמת העצמאות) or as the War of Liberation (Hebrew: מלחמת השחרור) by Israelis. ... The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a relief and human development agency, providing education, healthcare, social services and emergency aid to over four million Palestinian refugees living in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab...

Assassinated in Jerusalem by Lehi

Count Folke Bernadotte in uniform

Bernadotte was assassinated on September 17, 1948 by members of the Zionist terrorist group Lehi, sometimes known as the Stern Gang. The assassination was approved by the three-man Lehi 'center': Yitzhak Shamir, Natan Yellin-Mor and Yisrael Eldad, and planned by the Lehi operations chief in Jerusalem, Yehoshua Zetler. A four-man team lead by Meshulam Markover ambushed Bernadotte's motorcade in downtown Jerusalem and team member Yehoshua Cohen fired into Bernadotte's car. Bernadotte and his aide, UN observer Colonel André Serot were killed. The following day the United Nations Security Council condemned the killing of Bernadotte as "a cowardly act which appears to have been committed by a criminal group of terrorists in Jerusalem while the United Nations representative was fulfilling his peace-seeking mission in the Holy Land".^[1] Old well=known public photo of Count Folke Bernadotte File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Lehi (IPA: , Hebrew acronym for Lohamei Herut Israel, Fighters for the Freedom of Israel,לחי - לוחמי חירות ישראל) was an armed underground faction in pre-state Israel that had as its goal the eviction of the British from Palestine to allow unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state. ... (Hebrew יִצְחָק שָׁמִיר) (born October 15, 1915) was Prime Minister of Israel from 1983 to 1984 and again from 1986 to 1992. ... Dr. Israel Eldad Israel Eldad (1910-1996) born Israel Schieb in Podvolochisk, Galicia, was a philospher and one of the leaders of the Lohame Herut Israel or Lehi. ... United Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful organ of the United Nations (UN). ...

Lehi took public credit for the murders in the name of a previously unknown group, but Lehi's role was never in doubt. Lehi was forcibly disarmed and many members were arrested, but nobody was ever charged with the murders. Yellin-Mor and another Lehi member Schmuelevich were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization. They were found guilty but immediately released and pardoned (Yellin-Mor had meanwhile been elected to the first Knesset). Years later, Cohen's role was uncovered by David Ben-Gurion's biographer Michael Bar Zohar while Cohen was working for Ben-Gurion as a security guard. The first public admission of Lehi's role in the murder was made in 1977 (Yediot Aharonot, Feb 28). The modern Knesset building, Israels parliament, in Jerusalem Though similar-sounding, Beit Knesset (בית כנסת) literally means House of Assembly, and refers to a synagogue. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Michael Bar-Zohar is an Israeli historian known for his controversial biography of David Ben-Gurion Ben-Gurion: The Armed Prophet (1968). ... Yedioth Ahronoth (Hebrew: ידיעות אחרונות, meaning latest news) is a major daily Israeli newspaper, written in Hebrew. ...

His peace efforts in the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1947/8

Three days after his death, a report describing Bernadotte's peace efforts was published. It included the following proposals:

1947 United Nations Partition Plan For Palestine

• To transform the first lull in the fighting into a permanent peace, or at least a ceasefire, and determine the final borders of the Jewish and Arab states in Palestine
• To grant the Negev desert to the Arab state and the Galilee to the Jewish state
• To internationalize Jerusalem
• To grant control over the Arab sections of Palestine to the Arab states (in effect, Transjordan)
• To ensure that the port in Haifa and the airport in Lydda serve both the Jewish and Arab sections of the country, and the neighboring Arab states
• To return the Arab refugees to their homes
• To establish a Reconciliation Committee as the first step toward achieving a lasting peace in the region.

The government of Israel rejected the proposals. After Bernadotte's death, American mediator Ralph Bunche was appointed to replace him. Bunche eventually negotiated a ceasefire, signed on the Greek island of Rhodes. See 1949 Armistice Agreements. Map showing the 1947 UN partition plan for Palestine Copyright: GFDL derivative work created by the uploader based on a portion of the public domain work http://www. ... Map showing the 1947 UN partition plan for Palestine Copyright: GFDL derivative work created by the uploader based on a portion of the public domain work http://www. ... Ruins in the Negev desert The Negev (Hebrew נֶגֶב;, Tiberian Hebrew Néḡeḇ; Arabic النقب an-Naqab) is the desert region of southern Israel. ... Galilee (Arabic al-jaleel الجليل, Hebrew hagalil הגליל), meaning circuit, is a large area overlapping with much of the North District of Israel. ... Jerusalem (Hebrew: Yerushalayim; Arabic: al-Quds; Greek Ιεροσόλυμα; Latin Aelia Capitolina) is an ancient Middle Eastern city on the watershed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea at an elevation of 650-840 meters. ... Map of the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine The Emirate of Transjordan was an autonomous political division of the British Mandate of Palestine, created as an administrative entity in April 1921 before the Mandate came into effect. ... Nickname: Red Haifa Official website: www. ... Lod (Hebrew לוד; Arabic اللد al-Ludd, Greco-Latin Lydda) is a city in the Center District of Israel in Israel. ... Ralph Bunche, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1951 Ralph Johnson Bunche (August 7, 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation in Palestine in the late 1940s that led to an armistice agreement between the Jews and... Rhodes, Greek: Ρόδος (pron. ... The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Security Council 57 (1948) Resolution of 18 September 1948.

References

• Kushner, Harvey W. (2002). Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Sage Publications. ISBN 0761924086
• Schwartz, Ted (1992). Walking with the Damned: The Shocking Murder of the Man Who Freed 30,000 Prisoners From the Nazis. Paragon House, New York. ISBN 1557783152

See also

• Folke Bernadotte Academy

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Folke Bernadotte

• Folke Bernadotte - how did his life end?
• Rescuers during the Holocaust Bibliography