Folke Bernadotte

Swedish diplomat and nobleman, the youngest of the five children of Oscar Bernadotte, Prince of Sweden. In World War II he negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps, including 450 Danish Jews from the Theresienstadt camp. They were released on 14 April 1945. In 1945 he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected.

In his book, The End: My Humanitarian Negotiations in Germany in 1945 and Their Political Consequences, published on 15 June 1945 in Swedish, Bernadotte recounts his negotiations with Himmler and others, and his experience at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1947–1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem on 17 September 1948 at age 53 by the paramilitary Zionist group Lehi while pursuing his official duties.

In 1928 in Pleasantville, New York, Folke Bernadotte married Estelle Romaine Manville (1904–1984). They had four sons, two of whom died in childhood. In September 2008, it became official that before his marriage, in 1921, Bernadotte had a daughter with actress Lillie Ericson-Udde (1892–1981).