Editing Folke Bernadotte (section)

==Diplomatic career==
===World War II===
[[File:Folke Bernadotte-1943.jpg|thumb|Count Folke Bernadotte (left) talking to Australian prisoners of war in Sweden during a prisoner exchange, 1943]]
During the autumns of 1943 and 1944, he organized prisoner exchanges which brought home 11,000 prisoners from Germany via Sweden. While Vice-President of the Swedish Red Cross in 1945, Bernadotte attempted to negotiate an [[armistice]] between Germany and [[the Allies (WWII)|the Allies]]. He also led several rescue missions in Germany for the Red Cross. In April 1945, [[Heinrich Himmler]] asked Bernadotte to convey a peace proposal to Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] and President [[Harry S. Truman]] without the knowledge of [[Adolf Hitler]]. The main point of the proposal was that Germany would surrender only to the Western Allies (the United Kingdom and the United States), but would be allowed to continue resisting the [[Soviet Union]]. According to Bernadotte, he told Himmler that the proposal had no chance of acceptance, but nevertheless he passed it on to the Swedish government and the Western Allies. It had no lasting effect.<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|36–38}}<ref name=Bernadotte-Lewenhaupt>{{cite book |first=Folke |last=Bernadotte |translator=Count Eric Lewenhaupt |title=The Curtain Falls: Last Days of the Third Reich |edition=First American |date=1945 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York, New York |url=https://archive.org/details/curtainfalls0000unse/}}</ref>{{rp|151–152}}<!-- more refs needed-->

===White Buses===
{{verification section|date=September 2016}}
{{main article|White Buses}}
[[File:Bernadotte-aktionen. Danske Røde Kors busser kører gennem Odense d. 17. april 1945 på vej til Sverige med danske fanger fra tyske koncentrationslejre (7392607518).jpg|thumb|A White Bus passes through [[Odense]], Denmark, 17 April 1945.]]Upon the initiative of the Norwegian diplomat [[Niels Christian Ditleff]] in the final months of the war, Bernadotte acted as the negotiator for a rescue operation transporting interned [[Norway|Norwegians]], [[Denmark|Danes]] and other western European inmates from German concentration camps to hospitals in Sweden.

In the spring of 1945, Bernadotte was in Germany when he met Heinrich Himmler, who was briefly appointed commander of an entire German army following the assassination attempt on Hitler the year before. Bernadotte had originally been assigned to retrieve Norwegian and Danish [[Prisoner of war|POWs]] in Germany. He returned on 1 May 1945, the day after Hitler's death. Following an interview, the Swedish newspaper ''[[Svenska Dagbladet]]'' wrote that Bernadotte succeeded in rescuing 15,000 people from German concentration camps, including about 8,000 Danes and Norwegians and 7,000 women of French, Polish, Czech, British, American, Argentinian, and Chinese nationalities<!-- (SvD 2/5&nbsp;–45) -->. The missions took around two months, and exposed the Swedish Red Cross staff to significant danger, both due to political difficulties and by taking them through areas under Allied bombing.

The mission became known for its buses, painted entirely white except for the Red Cross emblem on the side, so that they would not be mistaken for military targets. In total it included 308 personnel (about 20 medics and the rest volunteer soldiers), 36 hospital buses, 19 trucks, seven passenger cars, seven motorcycles, a tow truck, a field kitchen, and full supplies for the entire trip, including food and gasoline, none of which was permitted to be obtained in Germany. A count of 21,000 people rescued included 8,000 Danes and Norwegians, 5,911 Poles, 2,629 French, 1,615 Jews, and 1,124 Germans.

After Germany's surrender, the White Buses mission continued in May and June and about 10,000 additional liberated prisoners were thus evacuated.

Bernadotte recounted the White Buses mission in his book ''The End. My Humanitarian Negotiations in Germany in 1945 and Their Political Consequences'', published on June 15, 1945 in Swedish.<ref name=Bernadotte-Lewenhaupt/>

====Postwar controversy====
Following the war, some controversies arose regarding Bernadotte's leadership of the White Buses expedition, some personal and some as to the mission itself. One aspect involved a long-standing feud between Bernadotte and Himmler's personal [[masseur]], [[Felix Kersten]], who had played a role in facilitating Bernadotte's access to Himmler,<ref name=Palmer-94>{{cite journal |first=Raymond |last=Palmer |title=Felix Kersten and Count Bernadotte: A Question of Rescue |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=29 |issue=1 |date=1994 |pages=39–51 |doi=10.1177/002200949402900102}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Yehuda |last=Bauer |title=Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945 |publisher=Yale University Press |date=1994 |pages=241–149 |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsforsalenazij00baue |isbn=0-300-05913-2 |url-access=limited}}</ref> but whom Bernadotte resisted crediting after the war.<ref name=Palmer-94/>{{rp|46–48}} The resulting feud between Bernadotte and Kersten came to public attention through British historian [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]].<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|41}} In 1953, Trevor-Roper published an article based on an interview and documents originating with Kersten.<ref name=Atlantic-TR53>{{cite magazine |first=H. R. |last=Trevor-Roper |title=Kersten, Himmler and Count Bernadotte |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |volume=7 |date=February 1953 |pages=43–45 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1953/02/kersten-himmler-and-count-bernadotte/640677/ |author-link=Hugh Trevor-Roper |access-date=20 June 2024}}</ref> The article stated that Bernadotte's role in the rescue operations was that of "transport officer, no more". Kersten was quoted as saying that, according to Himmler, Bernadotte was opposed to the rescue of Jews and understood "the necessity of our fight against World Jewry".

Shortly following the publication of his article, Trevor-Roper began to retreat from these charges. At the time of his article, Kersten had just been nominated by the [[Dutch government]] for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for thwarting a Nazi plan to deport the entire Dutch population, based primarily on Kersten's own claims to this effect.<ref name=Atlantic-TR53/> A later investigation by Dutch historian [[Louis de Jong]] concluded that no such plan had existed, however, and that Kersten's documents were partly fabricated.{{efn|The original results were published by de Jong in 1972 and republished in a German translation in 1974.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Hans-Heinrich |last1=Wilhelm |first2=Louis |last2=de Jong |title=Zwei Legenden aus dem dritten Reich : quellenkritische Studien |trans-title=Two legends from the Third Reich: source-critical studies |journal=Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |lang=de |publisher=Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag |volume=28 |date=1974 |pages=79–142 |doi=10.1524/9783486703573|isbn=978-3-486-70357-3 }}</ref>}} Following these revelations and others, Trevor-Roper told journalist [[Barbara Amiel]] in 1995 that he was no longer certain about the allegations, and that Bernadotte may merely have been following his orders to rescue Danish and Norwegian prisoners.{{efn|In 1956, for the introduction of Kersten's ''Memoirs'' (1956), Trevor-Roper wrote "It is important to note that although Bernadotte seems to have been understood by Himmler as using the language of anti-Semitism—which may have been a tactical necessity—there is no reason to suppose that his motive in refusing to take the Jews was anti-Semitic. Indeed the evidence points in the other direction, for Bernadotte also refused to take French and Polish prisoners. It seems that he genuinely misunderstood his instructions, thinking that he was only authorized to take Scandinavians. The fact that he could so misunderstand, and be so overruled, is evidence of the subordinate position which he occupied in these negotiations."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/the-kersten-memoirs-1940-1945 |title=The Kersten Memoirs 1940–1945 |first1=Felix |last1=Kersten |author1-link=Felix Kersten |edition=English |publisher=Hutchinson |date=1956 |translator1=Constantine Fitzgibbon |translator2=James Oliver |chapter=Introduction |first2=H. R. |last2=Trevor-Roper |author2-link=Hugh Trevor-Roper |pages=9–21 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/the-kersten-memoirs-1940-1945/page/8/mode/2up}}</ref>{{rp|16}} The introduction was reprinted with minor changes in a 1957 ''Commentary'' magazine article.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/h-trevor-roper/the-strange-case-of-himmlers-doctorfelix-kersten-and-count-bernadotte/ |first=H. R. |last=Trevor-Roper |author-link=Hugh Trevor-Roper |title=The Strange Case of Himmler's Doctor |magazine=Commentary |volume=23 |date=April 1957 |pages=356–364}}</ref> In 1995, Trevor-Roper clarified this earlier statement, quoted in a [[Barbara Amiel]] review of [[Kati Marton]]'s book as saying, "I am not certain that Bernadotte refused to take Jews. I have some reservations about the documentation here. If he did, it may well have been that he simply had no instructions except in respect of Norwegians and Danes."<ref>{{cite magazine |author-link=Barbara Amiel |first=Barbara |last=Amiel |title=A Death in Jerusalem (book review) |magazine=The National Interest |date=Summer 1995 |url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_n40/ai_17100953 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120090933/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_n40/ai_17100953/ |archive-date=2012-01-20}}</ref> Trevor-Roper earlier had made similar concessions.<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|262}}}} Several other historians have also questioned Kersten's account, concluding that the accusations were based on a forgery or a distortion devised by Kersten.<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|43–45}}<ref>{{cite journal |first=Gerald |last=Fleming |title=Die Herkunft des 'Bernadotte-Briefs' an Himmler vom 10. März 1945 |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |volume=26 |number=4 |date=1978 |pages=571–600 |url=https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1978_4_3_fleming.pdf |access-date=20 June 2024}}</ref>

Some controversy regarding the White Buses trip has also arisen in Scandinavia, particularly regarding the priority given to Scandinavian prisoners.<ref name=Persson00/><ref name=Cesarani-Levine02/> Political scientist Sune Persson judged these doubts to be contradicted by the documentary evidence. He concluded, "The accusations against Count Bernadotte ... to the effect that he refused to save Jews from the concentration camps are obvious lies" and listed many prominent eyewitnesses who testified on Bernadotte's behalf, including the [[World Jewish Congress]] representative in Stockholm in 1945.<ref name=Persson00/>{{rp|264}}

===UN mediator===
[[File:GLAM TLV 2018 050651 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Folke Bernadotte in 1948]]
[[File:Count Bernadotte Street Gaza City.png|thumb|Count Bernadotte street sign in [[Gaza City]], [[Gaza Strip]]]]
{{main|Bernadotte plan}}
On 20 May 1948, Folke Bernadotte was appointed "United Nations Mediator in Palestine", in accordance with UN-resolution 186 of 14 May 1948.<ref>UNGA@unispal, [https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/A9A8DA193BD46C54852560E50060C6FD ''Resolution 186 (S-2). Appointment and terms of reference of a United Nations Mediator in Palestine''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103072620/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/A9A8DA193BD46C54852560E50060C6FD |date=2011-01-03 }} (doc.nr. A/RES/186 (S-2)), 14 May 1948</ref>
It was the first official mediation in the [[United Nations|UN's]] history. This was necessitated by the [[1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine|immediate violence]] that followed the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]] and the subsequent unilateral [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]]. In this capacity, he succeeded in achieving an initial truce during the subsequent [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] and laid the groundwork for the [[United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East]]. The specific proposals showed the influence of the previously responsible [[British government]], and to a lesser extent the [[U.S. government]].<ref name="Sachar1998">
{{cite book
|first=Howard M.
|last=Sachar
|author-link=Howard M. Sachar
|title=Israel and Europe: An Appraisal in History
|year=1998
|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf
|isbn=978-0-679-45434-2
|chapter=Chapter 1: The Pangs of Withdrawal
|chapter-url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sachar-israel.html
|url=https://archive.org/details/israeleuropeap00sach
}}</ref>
Bernadotte wrote that: "in putting forward any proposal for the solution of the Palestine problem, one must bear in mind the aspirations of the Jews, the political difficulties and differences of opinion of the Arab leaders, the strategic interests of Great Britain, the financial commitment of the United States and the Soviet Union, the outcome of the war, and finally the authority and prestige of the United Nations."<ref>Diary of Folke Bernadotte, ''To Jerusalem'', Hodder & Stoughton, 1951, pp. 114–115</ref>

After Bernadotte's assassination, his assistant 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]].