Children…

foreword
This book,“Tell Ye Your Children…” was first published
in 1998 as part of the “Living History” information campaign
initiated by then Swedish Prime Minister Göran
Persson. Over a decade later, the now permanent Living
History Forum commissioned us to revise and update
the book, which included complementing it with a
newly written chapter on Sweden and the Holocaust.
This has enabled us to include some of the findings of
the extensive research conducted over the past decade,
particularly when writing the new chapter on Sweden.
We are grateful for this opportunity to publish
an expanded edition in English. Many questions still
remain, but there is a clearer picture today of how Sweden
and its population reacted to first the persecution
of Germany’s Jews and the subsequent deportation and
murder of them throughout Europe between 1941 and
1945. There was, in fact, no unified Swedish response.
On the contrary, the Government and its citizens displayed
a wide range of reactions.
Despite massive research conducted into what is
commonly known as the Holocaust, there remains much
information missing. The order of events has, however,
long been clear. The “Final Solution of the Jewish question”
was characterised by its total,systematic and global
nature. The road to the death camps and the countless
scenes of murder in Europe went from old and new
prejudices via hateful propaganda to the classification,
discrimination and segregation of human beings. This
was followed by the assembly, deportation and finally
physical extermination by bullet, gas, starvation or disease.
For Jews living in Central and Western Europe, this
process could take several years. In other areas, it could
be remarkably swift. For Jews in the Baltic States and
the Soviet Union, it could be a matter of a few weeks –
sometimes even one, single day.
Even if we can never establish exactly how many
people suffered from the Nazi vision of a “Germanic”
empire in Europe under Greater Germany, the dimensions
of the crime are clear enough. Simultaneous to
approximately six million Jews being murdered in
the Holocaust, over two hundred thousand “Gypsies”
(Romani-speaking groups and Travellers) were subjected
to genocidal policy. In Germany, tens of thousands
of members of political resistors and “ordinary people”
fell victim to the Nazis, along with well over one hundred
thousand physically and mentally disabled people
and “asocial elements”, thousands of homosexuals and
Jehovah’s Witnesses. Close to ninety-eight per cent of
victims lived outside Germany’s borders. Three million
Soviet prisoners of war and as many, if not more,
civilians in Poland, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and the
Baltic States also fell victim to the Nazi ideology of
“race” and “Lebensraum” (living space).
However, these figures come across as abstract and
their real meaning is easily lost. Behind each number is a
name, a face, a loved one; a future lost. Children, parents,
relatives.That is why we begin with the story of the children
of Bullenhuser Damm. During the war, the Nazis
murdered close to one and a half million Jewish children.
For every ten Jewish children alive in Europe when the
war began, nine lost their lives. Why did this happen?
We sought to describe historic events in a factual and
sober manner, combining an enormous body of research
with personal accounts.We hope this book will contribute
to a greater awareness of the Holocaust, and act as
a basis for a dialogue about morality, ethics and democracy
– not only today but also in the future. Nonetheless,
it can serve only as a starting point, and we urge all who
are interested to continue their own search for knowledge
and understanding.
This book would have been impossible to write
without the painstaking and persistent efforts of historians
the world over to understand and explain different
aspects of the Holocaust. We are greatly indebted to
them. We also wish to take this opportunity to thank
those who assisted us in revising and updating the book.
We would particularly like to extend our warm thanks
to our assistant Viktor Bernhardtz, photo editor Sanna
Johansson and layout designer Magnus Wigg.We would
also like to express our gratitude to Martin Månsson and
Rune Rautio, who kindly supplied us with rare photos.
Lars M. Andersson, Charlotta Brylla, Matthew Kott,
Helmut Müssener, Ester Pollack, Mattias Tydén, Klas
Åmark and Oscar Österberg shared their invaluable
knowledge. Lastly, we wish to thank this edition’s project
manager, Bitte Wallin, for her patience and support.
Stockholm and Uppsala, August 2012
Stéphane Bruchfeld and Paul A. Levine
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