Efforts of Swedish Red Cross to Save Nazi Camp Survivors to be Featured at Temple Beth El

BRADENTON - A project dedicated to showing the efforts of the Swedish Red Cross to save concentration camp survivors in northern Germany will be on display at the Temple Beth El Bradenton on June 2. Titled: ”Give the women their voices back", the exhibit will start at 7:00 p.m.

In 1945, the Swedish Red Cross sent ”White buses“ to rescue the survivors of a women and children's concentration camp located in northern Germany named RavensbrŸck. Between 1939 and 1945, some 130,000 female prisoners passed through the RavensbrŸck camp system; According to Encyclopedia Britannica, about 50,000 of them perished from disease, starvation, overwork and despair; some 2,200 were killed in the gas chambers.

Only 15,000 of the total survived until liberation. When the camp closed, 7,000 survivors were transported by Swedish Red Cross to southern Sweden. Hidden for 70 years, the Ravensbruck Archive contains 500+ detailed interviews with woman and children concentration camp survivors, lists of prisoners, maps, notebooks, diaries, artwork, and memorabilia carried out of the camp by survivors.

Swedish born Richard Ohlsson, with Lund University Foundation, now a Sarasota resident will present and talk about the Ravensbruck project. This will be a free event and open to the public.