Rescue+and+Liberation+(1944-1945)

=April 30th 1945:=

====The Soviet Army found only about 3,000 extremely ill women in Ravensbrück, because the Nazis had sent the other remaining women on a death march. Count Folke Bernadotte, vice president of the Swedish Red Cross, had convinced Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler to allow the International Red Cross to rescue some prisoners from Ravensbrück and other camps and bring them to Sweden, The Swedish Red Cross was first allowed to rescue Scandinavians on March 5, followed by women from France, Poland, and the Benelux countries.====

====Through the intervention of the Swedish section of the World Jewish Congress, Bernadotte requested that Jewish prisoners also be sent to Sweden. Himmler agreed, and between April 22 and April 28, about 7,500 womenan estimated 1,000 of them Jewishwere liberated from Ravensbrück. They were rescued in the famous Red Cross "White Buses;" by trucks, or trains. They were then ferried from Copenhagen to Malmö in neutral Sweden, Once there, they received clothing, food, and medical attention and were then sent to recuperate in different locations. Afterward, most of the nonJewish women returned to their homelands. The Jewish women sought out surviving family members in their former homelands, but most immigrated to Israel or the Americas, and some settled in Sweden.====



=May 5th 1945:=

====Ebensee; Germans flee from this gathering point for those who survived the Death Marches. U.S. troops entered the camp. U.S. Troops also enter Mauthausen where they encounter the shock of piles of Ebensee; Germans flee from this gathering point for those who survived the Death Marches. U.S. troops entered the camp. U.S. Troops also enter Mauthausen where they encounter the shock of piles of over ten thousand bodies laying in one huge communal grave. 110,000 survivors. 28,000 of them were Jewish. The Americans did not have enough supplies to offer a fraction of these numbers. Foods such as candy, chocolate, milk and jams were too rich for the starving who still died as a result of malnutrition One survivor, Sidney Fahn, weighed 80 pounds. Over ten thousand bodies laying in one huge communal grave. 110,000 survivors. 28,000 of them were Jewish. The Americans did not have enough supplies to offer a fraction of these numbers. Foods such as candy, chocolate, milk and jams were too rich for the starving who still died as a result of malnutrition One survivor, Sidney Fahn, weighed 80 pounds.====



= = =Bibliography=

http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/TIMELINE/rescue.htm

http://www.k12.nf.ca/gc/SocialStudies/whist3201/World%20History/AshleyKayla/liberation.html

http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Witnesses/LiberatorsEng.html

= = =Resources= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNQH-Srmmkg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYVn0hzcSs0

http://www.k12.nf.ca/gc/SocialStudies/whist3201/World%20History/AshleyKayla/rescue%20pictures.html

http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/TIMELINE/rescue.htm