Auction 48 - Rare and Important Items
Archive of Documents – Hillel Storch – a Meeting with Himmler and Negotiations for the Rescue of Jews and the "White Busses" Operation
Opening: $5,000
Unsold
An archive containing more than one hundred documents related to Hillel Storch, Chairman of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden and to his endeavors to rescue Jews from the Nazis during the last years of the Nazi regime.
The archive contains:
· Feststellungen, die im Zuge der Befreiungsaktionen von Schutzhäftlingen aus deutschen Konzentrationslagern getroffen wurden [findings revealed when “custody prisoners” were liberated from German concentration camps], affidavit signed by Franz Goering – SS officer who was appointed by Walter Schellenberg, Himmler’s assistant, as a liaison officer for the “White Busses” operation.
An affidavit of nine pages; each page is signed by Goering on the bottom in initials; the document is signed at the end by Goering with his complete signature. On page 2, three lines were added by Goering, by hand.
The affidavit refers to the operation of transferring 1200 Jews from Theresienstadt to Switzerland, initiated by the Swiss economist Jean-Marie Musy in 1944, and to the operations of rescuing prisoners from various camps and transferring them to Sweden during 1945. The document also directly refers to the rescue of Jews. According to a note attached to the affidavit, the document was signed in Storch’s office.
Enclosed is an additional copy, not signed, as well as an additional document titled “some comments about the people’s outrage regarding November 8, 1938 (Kristallnacht)” [Einige Notizen über die sogenannte volks empörung am 8. November 1938]. This document is not signed but Goering’s name is written at the end, in pencil.
· A letter handwritten by Norbert Masur to Hillel Storch; written on Masur’s official letterhead, dated 18.7 (no year).
· Roll of film with 67 negatives of photographs portraying the “White Busses” operation. Among the photographs – concentration camps survivors, rescue teams, ships that served to transfer survivors to Sweden.
· Transcript of a report composed by Raul Walenberg, 22.10.1944, relating to the state of Hungarian Jews (two typewritten pages; Swedish). With this document is another transcript of a report in German which is not signed, from the same period, quoting the Hungarian press agency MTI, regarding the Race Laws imposed on Jews among them the obligation to wear a yellow badge, curfew laws, and more. Both transcripts bear a signature (unidentified).
· A typewritten letter, written by Felix Kersten to Storch on April 4,1945, while staying in Stockholm, in which he reports that Himmler agreed to transfer 450 Danish and Norwegian Jews from Theresienstadt to Neuengamme and from there to Sweden. Not signed; on upper part appear the initials F.K., with handwritten corrections. In addition – a document in Yiddish from March 1, 1945, which might have been written by Storch, titled "Kersten", outlining, probably, the main points of a meeting between the two. Mentioned are the Jews of Finland, Himmler, Hitler, concentration camps, and more; three original carbon-copies of letters sent by Storch to Felix Kersten in March-April 1945, mentioning Kersten's proposal that Storch would go to Germany to meet with Himmler; an affidavit in Swedish "about the relations with Felix Kersten"; a document (four-pages) by Baron von Nagel, Dutch Ambassador to Sweden, from 1949; a document consisting of 26 pages with translations into English of documents relating to Felix Kersten – "The Data on the Finnish Medical Councillor E.A. Felix Kersten's humanitarian relief work during the war 1940-1945…", typewritten with some corrections in pen.
· Carbon copy of a letter to Walter Shcellenberg, Himmler's assistant, from June 1945 (one month after the German surrender), with a series of questions – about Eichmann, Rudolf Kastner, Bergen-Belsen Jews, and more. The name of the writer of this letter is not mentioned, and it is signed in pen but the signature is not clear, maybe it is Storch's signature. In addition – transcript of a letter from Schellenberg to Storch, written one week earlier, on June 6; two copies of a 96-pages report in German written by Schellenberg in which he outlines mainly the events of April-May 1945 (typewritten, not signed).
· Transcript of a telegram from Storch to the heads of the World Jewish Congress in New-York, in which he informs them that he authorized Kersten to go to Germany and meet with Himmler. March 31, 1945. Typewritten.
· A letter from the prime minister of Sweden, Tage Erlander, from 1951. Typewritten on official stationery of the prime minister, signed in pen.
· 18 original documents and some photocopies of documents, related to Storch's years in Latvia, to his immigration to Sweden in 1940, to his attempts to immigrate from there to the United States; an invitation to Storch's wedding, 1937; copy of a letter that Storch wrote to his wife in 1940, when he was already in Sweden while his wife and son were still in Riga; documents regarding the nationalization of Storch's enterprise in Riga by the Soviet authorities; Storch's and his family's visas to Palestine, which have never been used; and more.
· About 80 documents, most of them from the second half of the 1940s, dealing with various aspects of Storch's life in Sweden – his Zionist activity, business, personal life, as well as numerous letters from people who were refugees in Sweden and thanked him sincerely for his assistance and commitment. Among the documents: 14 copies of telegrams exchange between Storch and the Jewish Agency in Palestine, May 1943-May 1945, including lists of Hungarian Jews that must be saved; 14 carbon-copies of correspondence and telegrams-exchange between Storch and Salomon Adler-Rudel, of the Jewish Agency in London, July 1943-May 1945, mainly regarding the attempts to rescue Danish Jews and to the arrival of Jews on the "White Busses" in Sweden; three reports by Dr. Otto Schutz, member of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden, two of them from March 1945, about Bergen-Belsen and Ravensbrück extermination camps, most probably as a preparation for the "White Busses" operation. Carbon copies, with handwritten correction; and more.
The archive contains:
· Feststellungen, die im Zuge der Befreiungsaktionen von Schutzhäftlingen aus deutschen Konzentrationslagern getroffen wurden [findings revealed when “custody prisoners” were liberated from German concentration camps], affidavit signed by Franz Goering – SS officer who was appointed by Walter Schellenberg, Himmler’s assistant, as a liaison officer for the “White Busses” operation.
An affidavit of nine pages; each page is signed by Goering on the bottom in initials; the document is signed at the end by Goering with his complete signature. On page 2, three lines were added by Goering, by hand.
The affidavit refers to the operation of transferring 1200 Jews from Theresienstadt to Switzerland, initiated by the Swiss economist Jean-Marie Musy in 1944, and to the operations of rescuing prisoners from various camps and transferring them to Sweden during 1945. The document also directly refers to the rescue of Jews. According to a note attached to the affidavit, the document was signed in Storch’s office.
Enclosed is an additional copy, not signed, as well as an additional document titled “some comments about the people’s outrage regarding November 8, 1938 (Kristallnacht)” [Einige Notizen über die sogenannte volks empörung am 8. November 1938]. This document is not signed but Goering’s name is written at the end, in pencil.
· A letter handwritten by Norbert Masur to Hillel Storch; written on Masur’s official letterhead, dated 18.7 (no year).
· Roll of film with 67 negatives of photographs portraying the “White Busses” operation. Among the photographs – concentration camps survivors, rescue teams, ships that served to transfer survivors to Sweden.
· Transcript of a report composed by Raul Walenberg, 22.10.1944, relating to the state of Hungarian Jews (two typewritten pages; Swedish). With this document is another transcript of a report in German which is not signed, from the same period, quoting the Hungarian press agency MTI, regarding the Race Laws imposed on Jews among them the obligation to wear a yellow badge, curfew laws, and more. Both transcripts bear a signature (unidentified).
· A typewritten letter, written by Felix Kersten to Storch on April 4,1945, while staying in Stockholm, in which he reports that Himmler agreed to transfer 450 Danish and Norwegian Jews from Theresienstadt to Neuengamme and from there to Sweden. Not signed; on upper part appear the initials F.K., with handwritten corrections. In addition – a document in Yiddish from March 1, 1945, which might have been written by Storch, titled "Kersten", outlining, probably, the main points of a meeting between the two. Mentioned are the Jews of Finland, Himmler, Hitler, concentration camps, and more; three original carbon-copies of letters sent by Storch to Felix Kersten in March-April 1945, mentioning Kersten's proposal that Storch would go to Germany to meet with Himmler; an affidavit in Swedish "about the relations with Felix Kersten"; a document (four-pages) by Baron von Nagel, Dutch Ambassador to Sweden, from 1949; a document consisting of 26 pages with translations into English of documents relating to Felix Kersten – "The Data on the Finnish Medical Councillor E.A. Felix Kersten's humanitarian relief work during the war 1940-1945…", typewritten with some corrections in pen.
· Carbon copy of a letter to Walter Shcellenberg, Himmler's assistant, from June 1945 (one month after the German surrender), with a series of questions – about Eichmann, Rudolf Kastner, Bergen-Belsen Jews, and more. The name of the writer of this letter is not mentioned, and it is signed in pen but the signature is not clear, maybe it is Storch's signature. In addition – transcript of a letter from Schellenberg to Storch, written one week earlier, on June 6; two copies of a 96-pages report in German written by Schellenberg in which he outlines mainly the events of April-May 1945 (typewritten, not signed).
· Transcript of a telegram from Storch to the heads of the World Jewish Congress in New-York, in which he informs them that he authorized Kersten to go to Germany and meet with Himmler. March 31, 1945. Typewritten.
· A letter from the prime minister of Sweden, Tage Erlander, from 1951. Typewritten on official stationery of the prime minister, signed in pen.
· 18 original documents and some photocopies of documents, related to Storch's years in Latvia, to his immigration to Sweden in 1940, to his attempts to immigrate from there to the United States; an invitation to Storch's wedding, 1937; copy of a letter that Storch wrote to his wife in 1940, when he was already in Sweden while his wife and son were still in Riga; documents regarding the nationalization of Storch's enterprise in Riga by the Soviet authorities; Storch's and his family's visas to Palestine, which have never been used; and more.
· About 80 documents, most of them from the second half of the 1940s, dealing with various aspects of Storch's life in Sweden – his Zionist activity, business, personal life, as well as numerous letters from people who were refugees in Sweden and thanked him sincerely for his assistance and commitment. Among the documents: 14 copies of telegrams exchange between Storch and the Jewish Agency in Palestine, May 1943-May 1945, including lists of Hungarian Jews that must be saved; 14 carbon-copies of correspondence and telegrams-exchange between Storch and Salomon Adler-Rudel, of the Jewish Agency in London, July 1943-May 1945, mainly regarding the attempts to rescue Danish Jews and to the arrival of Jews on the "White Busses" in Sweden; three reports by Dr. Otto Schutz, member of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden, two of them from March 1945, about Bergen-Belsen and Ravensbrück extermination camps, most probably as a preparation for the "White Busses" operation. Carbon copies, with handwritten correction; and more.
Rare and Important Items
Rare and Important Items