Note: In a follow-up to a post published in 2019, I present the testimony submitted by Dr. Walter Rothholz, my second cousin once removed, about the mistreatment of Jews held at a Nazi detention center in Bærum, Norway. I also discuss the “White Buses” mission negotiated between Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte in the closing months of the war, a humanitarian effort that resulted in over 15,000 people being saved from German concentration camps, many of them Scandinavians.
Related Posts:
POST 65: GERMANY’S LAST EMPEROR, WILHELM II, PICTURED WITH UNKNOWN FAMILY MEMBER
POST 66: DR. WALTER ROTHHOLZ, INTERNEE IN NAZI-OCCUPIED NORWAY
This post tiers off Post 66 written in 2019 about Dr. Walter Rothholz (1893-1978) (Figure 1), my second cousin once removed, who was interned in Nazi-occupied Norway from the 2nd of December 1942 until the 2nd of May 1945. Walter provided testimony on the 4th of October 1945, five months after his liberation from the Nazi Grini concentration camp/detention center in Bærum, Norway, a suburb southwest of Oslo, describing the mistreatment of Jews there. It was sent to me by Hans Peter Lindemann, a Norwegian gentleman from Oslo, whose grandmother, Emmi Skau, née Gronemann (1907-1979), coincidentally was among the seven Jews released from Grini in early 1945, a group that included Dr. Rothholz.
Along with 45 surviving Jews at the nearby Berg concentration camp, approximately 90-100 kilometers (55-63 miles) away from Grini, Walter and Emmi were sent to Sweden. It was indirectly part of the “White Buses” mission agreement negotiated between Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte in the closing months of the war. More on this below.
Walter Rothholz and Emmi Skau, as it turns out, were born and grew up meters apart in Stettin, Germany (today: Szczecin, Poland). It’s unclear whether they knew one another, though it’s likely their families were aware of each other. Walter’s father, Dr. Hermann Rothholz, was an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Stettin, while Han Peter’s grandmother’s maternal uncle, Dr. Alfred Peyser, was also an ear, nose, and throat doctor.
Before quoting Walter’s words on the treatment of Jews detained in Grini, let me explain the White Buses mission. Ignorant of this humanitarian operation prior to Hans Peter Lindemann’s email, Walter Rothholz benefited indirectly from this action. Knowing my family’s history can be of limited interest to followers, I try to frame the events that impacted them in the context of the geopolitical climate of the time. I reckon this will be of broader interest to readers.
During the Second World War, many Scandinavians, mostly Norwegians and Danes, were deported and imprisoned by the Nazi regime. They were imprisoned for various reasons. Some were Jewish, some held opposing political views, others were part of the resistance, and some were Danish border police. Many of the deportees were sent to concentration camps and labor camps in Germany.
By 1944, it became clear Germany was losing on the battlefield and that the Second World War would soon come to an end. This raised concerns in Sweden about the safety of the Scandinavians held in the concentration camps and labor camps; the Swedes feared the Germans might liquidate all their prisoners. Thus, in early 1945, as the war was nearing its end, the Swedish government asked the Swedish Red Cross to help rescue Scandinavian inmates.
One sidebar. Sweden was the only Nordic country that remained neutral during the Second World War. Not only did Sweden remain neutral, but they provided Nazi Germany with crucial raw materials, primarily high-quality iron ore, which was indispensable for German steel production, along with other strategic goods like ball bearings and timber; they also facilitated troop movements through its territory. Sweden’s neutrality involved a delicate balancing act, trading with both Allies and Axis countries. Its economic support for Germany, especially early on, was crucial to Germany’s war effort. Some historians have argued Sweden’s early support prolonged the war. Notwithstanding the merits of this claim, Sweden’s neutrality would have positioned it as a logical intermediary between the Allies and Germany had any negotiations ever taken place.
Back to the topic at hand. White Buses was a Swedish humanitarian operation aimed at freeing Scandinavians held in German concentration camps in Nazi Germany in the waning days of the Second World War. Though the goal was to rescue Scandinavian prisoners, slightly less than half of the 15,345 people estimated to have been removed from concentration camps and transported to Sweden in March and April 1945 were of other nationalities. The number of Jews among those rescued has never been determined as the former prisoners were registered by nationality rather than by ethnic group or religion.
The Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte, a nephew of Sweden’s King Gustav V, negotiated the humanitarian operation primarily with Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. While Hermann Göring was officially designated as Hitler’s second-in-command, Heinrich Himmler was generally considered the second most powerful man in Germany after Adolf Hitler during the Second World War. This stemmed from the fact that Himmler came to preside over a vast empire that included the SS, the Gestapo, the Reich Security Main Office (RHSA), and the concentration camp system.
Realizing the war was lost, Himmler attempted to open peace talks with the Allies in March 1945 without Hitler’s knowledge. The negotiations with the Swedes on the White Buses mission was similarly conducted without Hitler’s awareness as he opposed prisoner or inmate releases. When Hitler found out about Himmler’s machinations on April 28, 1945, he was furious, stripped Himmler of all his offices and ranks, and ordered his arrest. Himmler attempted to go into hiding but was captured by British forces.
The buses used to transport the prisoners from German concentration camps were painted white with red crosses painted on the roof, side, front, and back, ergo how the mission got its name. They were thus marked so they would not be mistaken for military targets by the Allies. Those freed from the various concentration camps were transported by the white buses and trucks and gathered at the Neuengamme concentration camp near Lübeck, Germany. Swedish ships took most of the former prisoners onward to Malmö, Sweden though the Danes continued by land on the white buses to Denmark.
The White Buses mission, notwithstanding that it was deemed a humanitarian success and saved the lives of many who would otherwise have died of malnutrition and/or deprivation or been executed in a final paroxysm of Nazi violence, is not without its detractors.
The key criticisms of the mission are:
(1) Nationality Bias: The initial mandate focused on rescuing Danish and Norwegian prisoners, leading to accusations that other nationalities, especially Jews and Eastern Europeans, were neglected or abandoned.
(2) Cooperation with the Nazis: The Swedish Red Cross, led by Count Bernadotte, negotiated directly with Himmler raising the obvious moral quandary of compromising with the enemy, specifically the odious architect of the Holocaust.
(3) Selective Rescue: Volunteers initially had to leave people behind who were not on an approved list though the operation was later expanded.
(4) Moral Trade-Off: As already discussed, some felt that Sweden’s neutrality and trade had already prolonged the war, making the rescue efforts ethically complex even though they saved lives.
As noted above, the agreement between the Swedish Red Cross and Himmler required gathering the prisoners at the Neuengamme concentration camp. At some point, the Germans announced the camp was full and could no longer receive any more prisoners from other camps. The Germans demanded that the Swedes, using their buses and other vehicles, transport around 2,000 non-Scandinavian prisoners to other camps. The Swedish drivers initially refused this request. However, because the Germans insisted the transfer of Scandinavian prisoners could not continue unless space was made in Neuengamme, higher unidentified, presumably Swedish, authorities ordered the drivers to cooperate and so the transports began.
The outcome is that between March 27 and 29, 1945, about 2,000 French, Russian, and Polish prisoners were transported to concentration camps in Hannover and Braunschweig. Each bus was escorted by two SS guards, one condition of the agreement between the Swedish Red Cross and the Germans. Many prisoners were obviously seriously ill, weak, or dying, and several died during the journey. Cruel to the bitter end, German guards beat some of these prisoners to death.
Readers can draw their own conclusions as to whether the moral compromises that were made during the White Buses mission were worth it.
Earlier I alluded to the fact that my relative Dr. Walter Rothholz benefited indirectly from the White Buses mission. Recall that Walter was freed from Grini concentration camp in Norway, not transferred from a camp in Germany. Walter explains this in his testimony of October 1945 quoted below but suffice it to say that because he was married to a non-Jewish Norwegian woman, Else Marie “Elsemai” Bølling (1915-1976) (Figure 2), he was therefore exempt from deportation to a German concentration camp. However, he’d already been stripped of his German nationality through the Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935, and by the Eleventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of November 25, 1941, and thus was deemed “stateless.”
Knowing Walter was interned in Norway, I became curious why he was transported to Sweden shortly before liberation on May 2, 1945. Jewish internees liberated from Norway on May 7, 1945, like those from Grini, were sent to Sweden in 1945 because neutral Sweden provided sanctuary and a crucial staging ground for rescue efforts, especially through the Swedish Red Cross.
It appears that prior to liberation the Swedish Red Cross and Count Bernadotte had not only negotiated the release of Scandinavian prisoners from Germany but had also negotiated safe passage for Scandinavian Jews from Nazi camps in Norway like Berg and Grini to safety.
Following arrival in Sweden, the former prisoners were quarantined and then sent to refugee centers, like Kjesäter, for treatment and care as “The Rescued of 1945,” with the goal of eventual repatriation to their home countries or resettlement elsewhere. In essence, Sweden served as a vital humanitarian haven and a place for former prisoners to recover from years of starvation and inhumane treatment.
After May 1945, Norway began prosecuting thousands for collaborating with the Germans. Grini and other Norwegian camps became holding facilities for these accused collaborators. These people were processed within Norway for treason. The primary reason for holding people at Grini post-liberation was to detain collaborators for trial, not to deport them to Sweden or elsewhere.
Below is the testimony Dr. Walter Rothholz provided in October 1945 (Figures 3a-c):
Walter Rothholz witness testimony 4 October 1945, at Victoria Terrasse, translated with Google translate
Questioned at Vict. Terrasse on 4.10.45: Walter Rothholz, born 24.4.95 in Stettin, Dr. Juris, lives at St. Hallvards vei 8, Jar, tel. 35020, familiar with the case and the responsibility to testify, willing to explain himself and explained
regarding the mistreatment of Jews at Grini
“I came to Grini on 2.12.42 and was there until 2.5.45, when I, together with 6 ladies, was sent to Sweden at the expense of the Swedish Red Cross. When I came to Grini there were about 25-26 Jews there. We lived in rooms 1 and 2 in barracks 6. The rest of the rooms in this barracks were inhabited by Norwegians.
In Jan.–Feb. 1943 I participated in two punishment exercises. The first began at about 19 in the evening and was held with the entire barracks 6, both Jews and Norwegians, while the second was held less than 14 days later and then with only Jews from 2:30 to 5:30 at night. Both of these exercises were held on the old roll call square.
The first exercise lasted about an hour. It was very hard and I remember that many of the prisoners were quite upset afterwards. However, I cannot with the best of my ability remember who was in command, whether it was ZEIDLER or someone else, nor can I remember which Germans were present. However, I believe that Feldwebel FIEDLER was not there.
The Jews this time were treated better by the one who conducted the exercise than the Norwegians for the reason that we Jews understood the commands and could immediately obey them, which was not always the case with the Norwegians. I saw that several Norwegians were beaten and kicked during this exercise, but I cannot remember any names. I do not remember that Prof. Jaroczy was beaten. I lived in the same barracks as him, and I have no recollection that he had any signs of abuse after the exercise. Nor do I remember that he spoke of having been abused.
The second exercise took place about 14 days later. Then only the Jews were present. We were woken up in the middle of the night and had to stand at the old roll call square. I cannot say who woke us up, but when we got beyond the barracks and ran towards the roll call square we were beaten by the driver SCHLEGEL, who had positioned himself there and punched some one or two who he thought were coming too late.
When we got to the roll call square I seem to remember that ZEIDLER was there, as was apparently Feldwebel FIEDLER. I cannot say who else was there. HEILMANN was not there at first, but came later.
Before the exercise began ZEIDLER took the Jew BLUMENFELD out of the line. Then, as far as I remember, he handed over the command to FIEDLER and himself went out with BLUMENFELD and disappeared for a while. I did not hear if he said anything to FIEDLER when he gave the latter the command.
The exercise began at 2:30 and lasted until 5:30. During this whole time, we were chased back and forth across the roll call area in a chorus, ‘Hinlegen’, ‘Auf’, ‘Hinlegen’, ‘Auf’, ‘Laufen’. [EDITOR’S NOTE: ‘LIE DOWN’, ‘UP’, ‘LIE DOWN’, ‘UP’, ‘RUN’] Once during the exercise, FIEDLER heard someone talking to each other, he then became even more furious, lined us up and asked who had spoken, at first no one wanted to say anything, but eventually someone pointed to a Lurje from Oslo. FIEDLER then went up to Lurje and hit him several times in the face. I cannot say whether FIEDLER hit with a clenched fist, but he hit him so hard that Lurje fell over. Lurje was then ordered to run around and immediately knock him down again. How many times this was knocked down, I cannot say, but it was several times.
During the exercise, Prof. Jaroczy came to say that he was a front-line soldier from the last world war and that for that reason he thought he was subjected to brutal treatment. When FIEDLER heard this, he was completely furious, went over to Jaroczy and the latter then received the same treatment as Lurje. He was first knocked down and while he was lying down FIEDLER kicked and stomped on him everywhere. He then had to get up again, was knocked down and kicked and stomped on again. Whether he was knocked down as many as 12 times, I dare not say, but I will not rule out the possibility of it either.
I did not directly see FIEDLER directly mistreat anyone during the exercise, but he kicked right and left with his shaft boots when he walked between us during a “Hinlegen” [EDITORS’S NOTE: ‘LIE DOWN’]. I for one also got a kick from his boots in passing, and they hurt quite a bit. When ZEIDLER had been gone for an hour he came back. I was then called forward and he read me an anti-Semitic song that he said I should get the Jews to sing. The song itself was only one verse and it ended with ‘und dann nicht mehr’ [EDITOR’S NOTE: ‘AND THEN NO LONGER’. When he had instructed this, ZEIDLER disappeared and FIEDLER was to make sure that we practiced correctly. After a while ZEIDLER came back and we had to sing the verse for him too and kept singing the verse over and over for at least half an hour.
ZEIDLER then disappeared again and was gone for a while. During that time FIEDLER was again doing ‘hinlegen’ [EDITOR’S NOTE: ‘LIE DOWN’] etc. HEILMANN was then present but he did not like it and I saw that he tried several times to slow down FIEDLER, who was still just as furious. Then HEILMANN left too.
During the time between ZEIDLER’s return after being gone for about an hour, and at 5:30 when the exercise ended, ZEIDLER was only partially present. He came earlier to see that everything was going as it should. FIEDLER drove us the whole time, either we had exercises or we had to sing the aforementioned song, but it was not as hard as the first hour.
As far as I could see, ZEIDLER did not hit us once during the entire exercise. He made speeches to us and mocked the Jews for being unintelligent and cowardly, etc., but he did not hit.
When the exercise was over, 6-7 of the oldest ones were so badly injured that we had to carry them from the square to the barracks. In the barracks we were received by BLUMENFELD whom I had not seen since he was taken away by ZEIDLER at the beginning of the exercise. Where he had been during that time I do not know.
The next morning 5-6 of the Jews were in bed, including Jaroczy, Lurje, Rothkopf and Pintzow. The latter was over 60 years old. They all looked bad, their faces swollen and bloody. Rothkopf had, among other things, been hit on the nose at the beginning of the exercise so that the blood flowed. For this reason, his nose became completely blocked, but he still had to do the exercise at the same time as the rest of us. It was probably FIEDLER who had hit Rotkopf too, but I did not see it. Dr. Poulsson and Dr. Halvorsen came to see them, and one of them determined that Rotkopf had suffered a concussion.
The rest of us who had not been so ill that we had to stay in bed had to go out to work as usual in the morning. I heard that WARNECKE had been to the barracks in the morning and recorded a report on what had happened, but I was not there at the time. A couple of days later, ZEIDLER came into the barracks and asked if the exercise had been so terribly hard, but he did not get any answer.
The morning after the exercise, the entire roll call area was covered in bloodstains.
I remember that Frau FIEDLER was present during the exercise, but I did not see her hitting or kicking any of the prisoners. When I noticed her, she was standing on the main stairs and shouting: ‘Schneller, schneller!’ [EDITOR’S NOTE: ‘FASTER, FASTER’]
Apart from these two exercises, I do not remember that the Jews were subjected to any mistreatment. They were of course treated worse than the Norwegians, were constantly subjected to insults, etc., but violence was not used against them.
I remember that ZEIDLER decided that we should work on both Christmas days in 1942, when other prisoners had the day off. Moreover, it was impossible for us to receive visitors. I know that my wife was at Vict. Terrasse in Feb. or March 1943 and that she had been granted a visitor’s permit there. When she came to Grini with this, she was placed and rejected by ZEIDLER. The same was twice the case with the wife of a Jew named BLUMENAU, she too was rejected by ZEIDLER after permission had been granted at Terrassen.
Most of the Jews were sent from Grini to Germany on 1 Feb. 1943, only about 10-14 days after the last penal exercise, and many of them were not completely recovered from the treatment they had received when they were sent. Only those Jews who were married to Norwegian or German women avoided being sent.
For the above reason I was not sent to Germany and remained at Grini until just before the capitulation. At one time or another during this time I spoke to ZEIDLER about the treatment the Jews had been subjected to. This did not only apply to Grini, but in general. ZEIDLER then said: ‘Ja, das haben wir getan, und wir entschuldigen uns nicht dafür’ [EDITORS’S NOTE: YES, WE DID THAT, AND WE MAKE NO APOLOGIES FOR IT’].
At Grini the Jews were not allowed to go to hospital. If any of us got sick, we had to stay in the barracks. Fortunately, no one got so sick that the matter was brought to the fore, but the order was that no Jews were to be admitted to the hospital.
The Jews were also given the worst and heaviest work, they were preferably put to dig ditches and do other heavy work. It was completely impossible for a Jew to enter a workshop or kitchen. In 1944 things improved, and Jews could then enter workshops, such as broom making, etc. The latter was, for example, the case with me.
I have never seen ZEIDLER and DENZER beat prisoners. On the other hand, I saw both HEILMANN, KUNZE and POHL beat, but I cannot remember any names or cases. It was especially when they thought that the prisoners were cheating their way out of work, or that they had caught them in some violation of the camp regulations. They beat both with their hands and with the sticks they were carrying.
The first day I arrived at Grini, I was beaten by KUNTZE right at the reception. When he heard that I knew German, he put me in charge of the other prisoners ‘Augen rechts’ and ‘Augen links’ [EDITORS’S NOTE: ‘EYES RIGHT’ AND ‘EYES LEFT’]. When some of them did the exercise wrong, it affected me and I was hit in the face with a clenched fist.
Adopted
Walter Rothholz”
While the affidavit speaks for itself, let me explain a few things.
According to Walter’s statement, he and six women were sent to Sweden at the expense of the Swedish Red Cross on May 2, 1945, five days before the formal German surrender in Norway on May 7th. This is the clearest evidence we have that the prisoners at Grini were released before liberation day because of the agreement Count Bernadotte and Himmler negotiated on behalf of Scandinavians held in German concentration camps.
The Grini detention center in occupied Norway was primarily administered by Gestapo and SS personnel. The camp commander at Grini at the time of liberation was a German SS officer whom Walter merely identifies as “Zeidler.” His full name was Alfred Zeidler, and he held the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer; he was the last commander of the Grini detention center, a position he held from July 1942 until the end of WWII in May 1945. This encompassed the entire time Walter was imprisoned. Upon being appointed commander, Zeidler promised the prisoners they would get used to “Prussian discipline,” something clearly reflected by the two “punishment exercises” Walter was forced to endure.
On the day of German surrender in Norway, May 7, 1945, Zeidler handed over command as he’d been ordered. Later he attempted to disguise himself as a regular member of the German army, the Wehrmacht, along with a group of 75 other members of the Gestapo but was apprehended. Though sentenced to a life of forced labor in 1947, he was released in 1953 after an all-too-short incarceration.
Walter Rothholz mentions the name “Denzer.” This seemingly is Julius Denzer, who along with Alfred Zeidler and Hellmuth Reinhard, were the three primary commanders who oversaw the Grini concentration camp. Denzer was transferred from Grini to another camp, Tromsdalen, in August 1944.
Another name Walter mentions is “Heilmann.” This corresponds to Eugen Wilhelm Heilmann, who was a guard at the Grini detention center. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment after the war, but, like Alfred Zeidler, was released early on the 7th of September 1951. On page 62 of Odd Bergfald’s book entitled “Hellmuth Reinhard, soldat eller morder?,”the author details the evidence Walter provided in Heilmann’s trial. During his trial, when Heilmann pretended he knew nothing about Auschwitz and the open mass grave he’d boasted having seen during a wartime visit there implying this was the fate that awaited Norwegian Jews, Walter Rothholz was called to testify to the contrary that Heilmann knew precisely what would happen to deportees.
As Walter Rothholz testifies, as a Jew married to a non-Jewish Norwegian woman, he was not deported to a German concentration camp when most other Jews were sent from Grini to Germany on the 1st of February 1943. In 1936, Walter had married Else Marie “Elsemai” Bølling, a move that permitted him to emigrate to Norway in 1939, seemingly escaping the Nazi scourge. However, after the Nazis invaded Norway on April 9, 1940, as part of “Operation Weserübung,” Walter was eventually arrested on October 26, 1942 (Bergfald: p. 62). Regardless, the Nazis offered “privileged” status to “mixed marriages” such as Walter’s. Compared to other Norwegian Jews, many such couples survived. Walter was later granted Norwegian citizenship.
As previously noted, Walter was transported to Sweden with six women. He mentions that upon his arrival at Grini there were 25 or 26 Jews there. Since Walter makes no further mention of them after they were beaten, one can assume that unlike him they were deported to German concentration camps and murdered.
In closing, I would only say that reading firsthand accounts of historical events is perhaps as close as we’ll come to knowing what happened at the time. What makes Walter’s testimony very believable is how dispassionate he is about describing his experiences and what he witnessed.
REFERENCE
Bergfald, O. (1967). Hellmuth Reinhard, soldat eller morder? Unknown binding.
