Before he was the United Nations peace envoy to the Middle East during the first Israeli-Arab war, Count Folke Bernadotte played a central role in a bizarre series of meetings with Heinrich Himmler and other leaders of Hitler’s Germany in the final days of the Second World War.

Bernadotte’s mission, in his role as a leader of Swedish Red Cross, was to negotiate the release of Norwegian and Danish prisoners held in German camps. But inevitably, Himmler tried to use him to mediate a deal with General Eisenhower to end the war in the West — and allow German armies to turn their guns on the advancing Soviet armies.

In the end that deal fell through, though Bernadotte’s humanitarian efforts were more successful.

The count came under criticism for his apparent friendliness towards the Nazis, a point addressed by his children in a 2009 foreword to the book. Among others, the noted historian Hugh Trevor-Roper believed Bernadotte to have been anti-Semite. Bernadotte’s book was largely ghost-written, as his children point out, and it is quite evident where Bernadotte’s story ends and where the professional writer begins.

As it is based on his diaries and reports from the spring of 1945, Bernadotte is able to comment favourably on his first meeting with Himmler and describes in some detail his attempts to persuade the Nazi leaders how humanitarian gestures at this time, weeks before the end of the war, would help them, not least in ensuring that the legacy of the Third Reich is not further tarnished. (He actually writes such things in the book.)

Here and there, one finds mentions of how absolutely evil the Nazi regime was, but these feel like additional material added by the ghost writer, and do not come from the original reports.

Three years after the book was written and published, Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by terrorist from the Stern Gang, who believed — as did many others — that Bernadotte was no friend of the Jewish people. ( )

Hur kan jag inte ha vetat något om det? Ett okänt kapitel av världshistorian? Skakande, gastkramande. ( )

This is a unique document from the last days of Nazi Germany, written by the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte who brokered a deal wtih Heinrich Himmler to get Scandinavian prisoners out of Germany. It is not very well written, but the eyewitness events described are worth the read, also his impressions of Himmler. Of particular interest is that he is also quoting an alternative impression of events from Schellenberg, a Nazi who tried his best to end the atrocities earlier than the Nazi leadership. How many thousands of lives coulld have been saved if Himmler had let go of his blind loyalty to Hitler, a man he knew was insane. It is especially interesting to read knowing that Bernadotte only a few years later was coldbloodedly killed by Israeli fanatics. ( )

Prezidanto de la sveda Ruĝa Kruĉo, la aŭtoro faris, de februaro ĝis majo 1945-a, demarŝojn ĉe Himmler por akiri la transportpermeson de norvegaj kaj danaj malliberitoj el germanaj koncentrejoj al Svedlando; poste, li eĉ intervenis en la kapitulaco de la disfalanta Tria Regno.
Por realigi sian humanan celon, li rilatiĝis Ribbentrop, Kaltenbrunner, Schellenberg, k. a. Li tipe skizas la personojn, trafe observas, dum siaj aŭtoveturoj en Germanujo, la mensan staton kaj falsitan spiriton de ĝiaj loĝantoj, la mistikan fidelecon al la « Führer », kiu ĝis la fino iel stampas la okazaĵojn.
En sio epilogo, kiu enhavas la rakonton de Schellenberg pri la intrigoj de la Finakto, li insistas pri la germana malvenko, absoluta sur ĉiuj frontoj, kaj substreke pentras la gvidantojn de la •Tria Regno « homoj sen moralaj ideoj kaj sen homa digno ».
La aŭtoro, ĉeestanto de la lastaj spasmoj de la « miljara » regno, ne seke raportas pri la mondoskuaj eventoj, li vigle rakontas, li katenas : en unu streĉo mi legis la libron kiu restos valora dokumento pri la sveno de monstraj revo kaj regimo.
La Esperanta traduko, aperinta antaŭ ĉiuj aliaj, kaj kies aspekto, preso kaj papero plene taŭgas, indas la konatan svedon Stellan Engholm. (...)
Konklude oni povas aserti ke la verko estas valora ne nur pro la enhavo sed ankaŭ pro la Esperanta teksto.
T. van Gindertalen (Flandra Esperantisto, Marto 1946, p. 3)

Flandra Esperantisto, Marto 1946, p. 3