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Selected records from the Sigtuna Foundation in Sweden

Document | Accession Number: 2016.189.1 | RG Number: RG-66.007

Records from a hospital, set up in Sigtuna, Sweden, in 1945, which cared for about 1200 patients who had been released from the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. The collection includes photographs of patients and nurses, administrative and organizational records, including pages from the Statement of Operations, newspaper clippings, including an article in a college magazine about the hospital, as well as materials from Marthe Rydback, who worked as a nurse at the hospital, including a copy of an emblem of the hospital, a visitor book with signatures of the patients, photographs, Christmas cards, postcards, and thank you letters from patients, as well as some records of the patients.

Date
inclusive:  1945-1950
Language
Swedish
German
Genre/Form
Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
Correspondence.
Letters.
Photographs.
Reports.
Extent
417 digital files : JPEG and PDF ; 823 MB .
69 pages of photocopies.
Extent
2 folders

About This Document

Document Creator
Alf Linderman
Biography
The Sigtuna Foundation is a private non-profit foundation, established in 1915 in Sweden. The organization is under the leadership of the Executive Director who servers under the board of nine people. The Foundation offers a neutral ground to people of different backgrounds, traditions and/or viewpoints who wish to meet, interact and learn from one another in an atmosphere of mutual respect. After the war ended, through an arrangement with UNRRA, Sweden agreed to receive 10,000 survivors from Bergen Belsen.They were brought from Luebeck with hospital ships to various harbors and divided among 135 accommodations. Sigtuna was the only such location in the Stockholm region. The SS Kastelhom made three voyages between Luebeck and Stockholm with about 200 patients in each, most of them were young Jewish women. Many of the patients were in such poor condition that they died shortly after their arrival in Sigtuna. The last parts of the Sigtuna hospital were closed at the beginning of 1946.
System of Arrangement
Arranged in five series: 1. Photographs of hospital patiens and staff; 2. Hospital visitor book, correspondence, letters and postcards; 3. Organizational records, 1945; 4. School magazine "Sigtunaringen" (nr 3, 1945), and newspaper clippings from "Siguna Bygden," 1945; 5. Statement of Operations, 1945-1946. Photographs numbered 23D-33D were taken by the janitor Jonas Andersson Fisk and the others were donated by the sister of Marthe Rydback. The digital folder "Folio photos" contains raw photos taken of the folio photos from an the exhibition "Back to Life" on display at the Sigtuna Foundation in 1995 by Magdalena Kellerman and Pia Kristina Garde.
Reference
Roos, Lena. "Barmhartiga svenskar och tacksamma flyktingar: Ett beredskapskjukhys sommaren 1945 i svensk press," Nordisk Judaistic (Scandinavian Jewish Studies). Vol. 26, No. 1-2, 2008, pages 133-156.

Sundberg, Ellen. Hostliga Utblickar: Blad ur en Prastfrus Dagbok. Stockholm: Svinska Kyrkans, 1959.

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Holder of Originals
Sigtunastiftelsen
Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
Source of acquisition is the Sigtuna Foundation (Sigtunastiftelsen), Sweden. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the digitized collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum International Archival Programs Division in July 2016.

Rights and Restrictions

Conditions on Access
This material can only be accessed in a Museum reading room or other on-campus viewing stations. No other access restrictions apply to this material.
Conditions on Use
Any requests for publication or reproduction for a third party should be directed to the Sigtuna Foundation. May not publish on the Internet without the permission of Sigtuna Foundation.

Copyright Holder
Sigtunastiftelsen
 
Record last modified: 2023-05-26 09:54:40
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn543069