Editing Folke Bernadotte (section)

==Assassination==
[[File:Oscar of Sweden (1859) family grave 2007.jpg|thumb|Prince [[Oscar Bernadotte]]'s family tomb at the [[Norra begravningsplatsen|Northern Cemetery]] in Stockholm where the remains of Folke Bernadotte also are interred]]

Bernadotte was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the group [[Lehi (militant group)|Lehi]], a Zionist paramilitary militant organization, commonly known in the West as the Stern Gang. Immediately after Bernadotte was pronounced dead, his body was moved to the [[Jerusalem International YMCA|YMCA]], after which it was taken to [[Haifa]] and flown back to Sweden. Bernadotte was granted a state funeral, [[Abba Eban]] attended on behalf of Israel. Bernadotte was survived by a widow and two sons, a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old. He was buried in Prince [[Oscar Bernadotte]]'s family tomb at the [[Norra begravningsplatsen|Northern Cemetery]] in Stockholm.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://norrabegravningsplatsen.se/bernadottegraven/|title=Bernadottegraven|first=Anders|last=Arhammar|date=October 7, 2016|website=Norra begravningsplatsen}}</ref>

===Planning and background===
Journalist Baruch Nadel planned the murder.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1970-09-27 |title=Falscher Brief |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/falscher-brief-a-e40d4307-0002-0001-0000-000044418139 |access-date=2024-04-13 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issn=2195-1349}}</ref> The Stern Gang saw Bernadotte as a puppet of the British and the Arabs and therefore a serious threat to the emerging State of Israel.<ref name=Heller95/>{{rp|239–255}} Most immediately, a truce was in force, and Lehi feared that the Israeli leadership would agree to Bernadotte's peace proposals, which it considered disastrous.<ref name=Heller95/>{{rp|passim}}<ref>Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. ''Political Assassinations by Jews''. SUNY Press 1993 {{ISBN|978-0-7914-1165-0}}, pp. 267–274.</ref> The group was unaware the Israeli government had already decided to reject Bernadotte's plan and to take the military option.<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|200–201}}<ref>Shamir, ''loc. cit.'', p. 241.</ref>

The killing was approved by the three-man 'center' of Lehi: Yitzhak Yezernitsky (the future [[Prime Minister of Israel]] [[Yitzhak Shamir]]), Nathan Friedmann (also called [[Natan Yellin-Mor]]) and [[Yisrael Eldad]] (also known as Scheib). A fourth leader, [[Emmanuel Strassberg]] (Hanegbi) was also suspected by the Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] of being part of the group that ordered the assassination.<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|194}}<ref>
[[J. Bowyer Bell]], Assassination in International Politics, ''International Studies Quarterly'', vol 16, March 1972, 59–82.
</ref><ref name="Haberman1995">
{{cite news |first= Clyde |last= Haberman |author-link= Clyde Haberman |title= Terrorism Can Be Just Another Point of View |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDF153EF931A15751C0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |work=Books of the Times |publisher= New York Times |date= February 22, 1995 |access-date=2008-12-28 |quote= Mr. Shamir, nearly 80, still speaks elliptically about the Bernadotte assassination. Years later, when Ben-Gurion moved to a kibbutz in the Negev desert, Sdeh Bokker, one of his closest friends there was Yehoshua Cohen, who had been one of the assassins.
}} Review of Kati Marton's biography.
</ref><ref name="Cowell1991">
{{cite news |first= Alan |last= Cowell |author-link= Alan Cowell |title= The Middle East Talks: Reporter's Notebook; Syria Offers Old Photo to Fill an Empty Chair}}</ref>
The assassination was planned by Lehi's Jerusalem operations chief, [[Yehoshua Zettler]].<ref name="Kifner1988"/>

===The attack===
{{quotebox |align=right |width=30em |quote={{pad|1.0em}}In the Katamon quarter, we were held up by a Jewish Army type jeep placed in a road block and filled with men in Jewish Army uniforms. At the same moment, I saw an armed man coming from this jeep. I took little notice of this because I merely thought it was another checkpoint. However, he put a Tommy gun through the open window on my side of the car, and fired point blank at Count Bernadotte and [[André Serot|Colonel Serot]]. I also heard shots fired from other points, and there was considerable confusion. [...]<br/>{{pad|1.0em}}Colonel Serot fell in the seat in back of me, and I saw at once that he was dead. Count Bernadotte bent forward, and I thought at the time he was trying to get cover. I asked him: 'Are you wounded?' He nodded, and fell back. [...]<br/>{{pad|1.0em}}When we arrived [at the Hadassah hospital] I carried the Count inside and laid him on the bed [...] I took off the Count's jacket and tore away his shirt and undervest. I saw that he was wounded around the heart and that there was also a considerable quantity of blood on his clothes about it.<br/>{{pad|1.0em}}When the doctor arrived, I asked if anything could be done, but he replied that it was too late. |source=General [[Åge Lundström]], who was in the UN vehicle<ref>{{cite press release |publisher=United Nations Department of Public Information |url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/23E5F866FE7393B585256A680061B348 |title=General Lundstrom Gives Eyewitness Account of Bernadotte's Death, PAL/298 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140222215045/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/23E5F866FE7393B585256A680061B348 |archive-date= 2014-02-22  |date=18 September 1948}}</ref>}}
A four-man team, consisting of [[Yehoshua Cohen]], Yitzhak Ben-Moshe (Markovitz), Avraham Steinberg, and Meshulam Makover, ambushed Bernadotte's [[motorcade]] in Jerusalem's [[Katamon]] neighborhood. The team left a Lehi base in a Jeep and set up a makeshift roadblock at Ben Zion Guini Square, off Hapalmach Street, and waited in the jeep. When Bernadotte's motorcade approached, Cohen, Ben-Moshe, and Steinberg got out and approached it, while Makover, the driver, remained in the jeep. Captain Moshe Hillman, the motorcade's Israeli liaison officer, who was sitting in the leading UN vehicle, called out in Hebrew to let them through, but was ignored.

Cohen came up to Bernadotte's [[Sedan (automobile)|sedan]] and fired through an open window, pumping six shots into Bernadotte's chest, throat and arms and 18 into Colonel [[André Serot]]  who was seated to his left, killing both.<ref name="Independent"/> Serot had swapped places in the motorcade to join Bernadotte and thank him personally for having saved his wife's life in a German concentration camp.<ref name="Independent"/> Ben-Moshe and Steinberg shot at the tires of the UN vehicles, while Cohen finished the magazine by firing at the radiator. The driver of the sedan, Colonel Begley, got out and tried to grapple with Cohen as he fired his last shots, but was burned in the face by the gun flashes. Ben-Moshe and Steinberg then rushed back and mounted the jeep, which quickly accelerated down a side road, while Cohen ran away from the scene across a roadside field.<ref name="Kifner1988">
{{cite news |first= John |last= Kifner |author-link=<!-- John Kifner --> |title= 2 Recount '48 Killing in Israel
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/12/world/2-recount-48-killing-in-israel.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date= 12 September 1988 |access-date= 2008-12-28 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/2006-09-29/ty-article/a-murder-waiting-to-happen/0000017f-e0e2-df7c-a5ff-e2fa11280000 |title=A Murder Waiting to Happen [book review of ''Nesikh yerushalayim'' by Ofer Regev] |first=Danny |last=Rubinstein |work=Haaretz |date=September 29, 2006 |access-date=23 October 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bell |first=J. Bowyer |author-link=J. Bowyer Bell |title=Terror out of Zion |date=1976 |pages=338–339 |publisher=Avon Books |isbn=0-380-39396-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/terroroutofzion00jbow |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name="baram">{{cite news |url= http://www.jpost.com/IsraelGuide/JerusalemAreaTours/Article.aspx?id=166744 |first= Aviva |last= Bar Am |title= Katamon – Independence Day miracle |date= January 25, 2010 |newspaper= The Jerusalem Post}}</ref>

Following the shooting, Bernadotte's car sped to [[Hadassah Medical Center|Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital]], despite damage to the radiator; the lead vehicle followed as its tires came apart. At the hospital, Bernadotte was pronounced dead.

All four members of the hit team made it to the religious community of [[Shaarei Pina]], where they hid with local [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi]] sympathizers. After a few days in hiding, they fled to [[Tel Aviv]] in the back of a furniture truck.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-assassination-of-count-bernadotte |title= The Assassination of Count Bernadotte |website= www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date= 2019-06-11}}</ref>

===Investigation===
Lehi leaders initially denied responsibility for the attack.<ref name="sdc">{{cite news |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ddB7do2jUx8C&dat=19480918&printsec=frontpage |title= Jews launch great manhunt |date= 1945-09-18 |publisher= Spokane Daily Chronicle |access-date= 23 April 2010}}</ref> Only later did Lehi take responsibility for the killings in the name of ''Hazit Hamoledet'' (the Homeland Front), a name they copied from a war-time Bulgarian resistance group.{{efn|The text of the announcement was reprinted in 1988.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stanger |first=Cary David |jstor=4327737 |title=A haunting legacy: The assassination of Count Bernadotte |journal=The Middle East Journal |publisher=Middle East Institute |volume=42 |number=2 |date=1988 |pages=260–272}}</ref>}}<ref name=Heller95>{{cite book |last=Heller |first=Joseph |title=The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror 1940–1949 |publisher=Frank Cass |date=1995 |isbn=978-0-7146-4106-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/sterngangideolog0000hell}}</ref>{{rp|252–253}}

Lehi was forcibly disarmed and many members were arrested, but nobody was charged with the killings. The [[Israel Police]], along with the military police and security services, investigated the assassination, but failed to identify any of the participants in the assassination, and the case was eventually closed without any of the participants having been identified. It has been suggested that the reasons for the failure of the investigation were poor coordination between these bodies, which resulted in information that may have assisted the police not being turned over to them, and the lack of proficiency among police officers and investigators in the early days of the Israel Police.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.israeldefense.co.il/he/content/%D7%94%D7%94%D7%AA%D7%A0%D7%A7%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%98%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%94-%D7%91%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%95%D7%9A-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%96%D7%9F-%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%A0%D7%93%D7%95%D7%98 |title= ההתנקשות הפוליטית הראשונה בישראל – מתווך האו"ם, הרוזן ברנדוט {{!}} Israel Defense |website= www.israeldefense.co.il |language= he |access-date= 2019-06-11}}</ref> The murder case was identified as ''148/48'' in Israeli police records.<ref name="makorrishon">{{cite web |url= https://www.makorrishon.co.il/magazine/dyukan/21963/ |title= תיק סגור: כלי הנשק שנמצא וחשף סוד עתיק של מדינת ישראל |date= 22 February 2018 |website= www.makorrishon.co.il |format= PDF |access-date= 2019-07-11}}</ref>

[[File:Yellin-Mor & Shmuleiwitz released.jpg|thumb|[[Natan Yellin-Mor]] (center) and Matityahu Shmueliwitz in front of the Acre prison, after their release in 1949]]
Yellin-Mor and another Lehi member, Mattityahu Shmulevitz, 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]].<ref name=Heller95/>{{rp|261–270}} Betty Knut-Lazarus, a Lehi militant, and the granddaughter of composer [[Alexander Scriabin]], was also imprisoned for being allegedly involved in the killing, before being subsequently released.<ref>Lazaris, V. (2000). Три женщины. Tel Aviv: Lado, pp. 363–368</ref>

Years later, Cohen's role was uncovered by [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s biographer [[Michael Bar Zohar]], while Cohen was working as Ben-Gurion's personal bodyguard. The first public admission of Lehi's role in the killing was made on the anniversary of the assassination in 1977.<ref>''Yair Amikam, [[Yediot Aharonot]]'', 28 February 1977: interview with Yehoshua Zetler and Yisrael Eldad. English translation in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', vol 6, no. 4 (1977) 145–147.</ref> The [[statute of limitations]] for the murder had expired in 1971.<ref name="Haberman1995" /><ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|193}} In 1988, two years after Cohen's death, Zettler and Makover publicly confessed their role in the assassination and confirmed that Cohen had killed Bernadotte.<ref name="makorrishon"/>

The weapon which was used in the assassination (an [[MP 40#Operators|MP 40]], serial number 2581)<ref name="makorrishon"/> was lost, and was only found again in 2018 during an inventory check in the {{ill|בית מורשת משטרת ישראל|he|lt=Heritage House of the Israel Police}}, when an unidentified box was found to contain an MP 40 machine pistol and the curator, Shlomi Shitrit, decided to identify the history of the weapon. Prior to finding it, it was believed to have been destroyed.<ref name="makorrishon"/>

===Diplomatic fallout===
[[File:Bernadotte funeral.jpg|thumb|Folke Bernadotte's funeral: From left: [[Alexander Cadogan|Sir Alexander Cadogan]], [[Ernest Bevin]], [[George Marshall]], [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]]]]

The day after the murders, by means of [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 57|Security Council Resolution 57]], 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."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/57 |title=57 (1948). Resolution of 18 September 1948 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118072030/http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/d744b47860e5c97e85256c40005d01d6/48c06a0c497863f1852560c2005beb32%21OpenDocument |archive-date=18 January 2009 |url-status=live |publisher=United Nations Security Council}}</ref>

The Swedish government believed that Bernadotte had been assassinated by Israeli government agents.<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|224}} They publicly attacked the inadequacy of the Israeli investigation, and campaigned unsuccessfully to delay Israel's admission to the United Nations.<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|238}} In 1950, Sweden recognized Israel, but relations remained frosty despite Israeli attempts to mollify Sweden, such as through the planting of a Bernadotte Forest by the [[Jewish National Fund]] in Israel.<ref name=Ilan89/>{{rp|241}} At a ceremony in [[Tel Aviv]] in May 1995, attended by the Swedish deputy prime minister, Israeli Foreign Minister and [[Mapai|Labor Party]] member [[Shimon Peres]] issued a "condemnation of terror, thanks for the rescue of the Jews and regret that Bernadotte was murdered in a terrorist way", adding that "We hope this ceremony will help in healing the wound."<ref>{{cite news |title=Israel belatedly condemns U.N. negotiator's murder |work=Reuters News |date=15 May 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Israel tries to ease tensions with Sweden |work=Reuters News |date=15 May 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Peres apologizes for assassination of Bernadotte |work=Jerusalem Post |date=15 May 1995 |page=1}}</ref>

[[Ralph Bunche]], Bernadotte's American deputy, succeeded him as UN mediator. Bunche was successful in bringing about the signing of the [[1949 Armistice Agreements]], for which he received the [[Nobel Peace Prize]].

===Awards and memorials===
In 1998, Bernadotte was posthumously awarded one of the first three [[Dag Hammarskjöld Medal]]s, given to UN peacekeepers who are killed in the line of duty.<ref>[https://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/sites/50years/7.htm The First Dag Hammarskjöld Medals: Biographical Notes].</ref>
[[File:Folke Bernadotte monument Engelska parken.jpg|thumb|Folke Bernadotte Memorial in [[Uppsala]], Sweden]]

The university library at [[Gustavus Adolphus College]] in [[St. Peter, Minnesota]], US is named after him.

The [[Yad Vashem]] Holocaust museum in Jerusalem features one of the "white buses" of Bernadotte's mission to Nazi Germany, which it recognises as rescuing 25,000 prisoners including several thousand Jews.<ref>{{cite web|author=Yad Vashem|title=Yad Yashem map|url=https://www.yadvashem.org/visiting/map-of-yad-vashem.html|access-date=21 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Yad Vashem|title=Bernadotte, Folke|url=https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/about/o93|access-date=21 February 2025}}</ref>

Bernadotte rescued large number of Jews and others, Yad Vashem did not award him the ''Righteous Among the Nations'' title. His name does not appear in that database's Sweden section.<ref>https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/pdf-drupal/sweden.pdf</ref>