The expedition is concluded
The detachment’s assignments were now divided into two sections. One section, under Captain Melin, was assigned to transport Scandinavians from the camps in Fröslöv and Horsens to Sweden. The remaining section, based at Lübeck, was to make sure that food supplies and fuel was transported to Denmark.
Early in the morning on the 28th of April the column left Lübeck. Around nine on the 1st of May the first Swedish Red Cross detachment arrived in Copenhagen. Crowds of people shouted with joy when the columns rolled in. They threw flowers on to the vehicles, cheered and waved flags.
Many of the ex-prisoners were brought to Ramlösa Spa outside Helsingborg. Other prisoners, in better health, were taken by train to newly established barracks in southern Småland.
Germany was defeated and the country was shattered. Vast amounts of people had become refuges, hungry, homeless and in need of help.
In May the allied countries turned to Sweden through UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) with a request to provide care and refuge for another batch of exprisoners.
Sweden agreed to receive 10 000 people.
This new detachment was to go via Lübeck, the only German port that remained functional. The Civil Defence Board in consultation with the Red Cross recruited volunteers and on the 19th of June the new Lübeck detachment departed with Dr Arnoldsson at the head of the expedition.
The work in Lübeck lasted from the 25th of June to the 25th of July. During that time 9273 ex-prisoners were transferred to Sweden.
Source: The White Buses. The Swedish Red Cross rescue action in Germany during the Second World War – The Swedish Red Cross, Stockholm, January 2000 /Research: Agneta Greayer and Sonja Sjöstrand/Editing: Martin Wikberg Translation: Annika and Peter Hodgson