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The White Buses

September 3, 2025

It was one of the most dangerous rescue operations of the Second World War. In 1945, 75 white buses set off from Malmö, Sweden, on a journey through destroyed Germany.

DW | Documentary | The White Buses - A Dangerous Concentration Camp Rescue Operation
Image: Phoenix

They liberated between 15,000 and 20,000 concentration camp prisoners. Marianne Prager's mother was among them.

Image: Phoenix

80 years after the end of the Second World War, Marianne Prager sets off to retrace her mother’s journey. A young Danish woman, her mother Ruth Toronczyk spent 18 months in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Germany.

Image: Phoenix

Her mother was never able to forget the war years. The journey in the goods wagon through half of Europe, the shaved head, the hunger and finally the rescue. Marianne Prager wants to know: How did her mother survive?

Image: Phoenix

In Theresienstadt alone, 450 Danish Jews were rescued in April 1945. White buses were sent by the Red Cross in Sweden.

Image: Phoenix

Count Folke Bernadotte, a nephew of the Swedish king and high official of the Red Cross, arranged the operation. His negotiating partner on the German side was Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo and the SS. It is a rescue operation that has almost been forgotten today. 
 

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