Bernadotte, Count Folke

Related Category: Scandinavian History: Biographies

(fôl´kə bĕrnädôt´, bûr´nədŏt), 1895–1948, Swedish internationalist; nephew of King Gustavus V. He was active in the Swedish Red Cross and became its president in 1946. Early in 1945 he arranged the evacuation of Danish and Norwegian prisoners from German concentration camps and conveyed a peace offer from Heinrich Himmler to the British and U.S. authorities. Appointed (1948) United Nations mediator in Palestine, he was assassinated by Jewish extremists; Ralph Bunche succeeded him. Bernadotte wrote several autobiographical books.

See biography by R. Hewins (1950); K. Marton, A Death in Jerusalem (1995).