Dr. Felix Kersten was an Estonian celebrity osteopath and massage therapist, who treated Dutch Queen Wilhelmina’s husband and later SS-Reichsführer Himmler. Because of his contact with Himmler, he was able to negotiate the freedom of thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners, and when the Nazis were about to lose the war, Kersten helped convince Himmler to bring Ravensbrück prisoners to neutral Sweden. For this “White Bus Rescue Action,” Swedish Count Bernadotte is often credited even though transcripts of the negotiations prove that Himmler could not have been convinced without Kersten’s help.

While some still see Kersten as a villain for making a pact with the devil to save his own hide, others recognize that without him many more would have perished; the World Jewish Congress sent Kersten a letter thanking him for saving Jewish concentration camp victims, Queen Wilhelmina awarded him the Order of Orange-Nassau, and Kersten was about to receive the “Legion of Honor” award from French General de Gaulle when Kersten died en route.

Here is an interesting documentary about Felix Kersten with his son: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b48W-Fz0eo

This is the written account of the meeting of Norbert Masur (of the Jewish World Congress), Kersten, and Himmler: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn500231#?rsc=21936&cv=9&c=0&m=0&

Between March 8th and May 1st, 1945, during what became known as the “White Buses expedition” of the Swedish Red Cross, as many as 21,000 prisoners were liberated from active Nazi concentration camps and transported to Sweden for medical treatment and recuperation.

Thea Boissevain, Tineke Guillonard, and Selma van de Perre-Velleman who were on these buses, later got married, had families, and led productive lives after the war. Of particular interest is the fact that Selma van de Perre wrote a book about her experiences –My Name is Selma– at the age of 98 because sadly, she found it necessary. Nothing is known about Evelyn Samuels, other than that she was Jewish, helped Mies Boissevain survive, and was on the last convoy of white buses with her.

After the ferry from Denmark, the refugees from Ravensbrück and other death camps were gathered at Malmö, Sweden to get de-loused, disinfected, washed, and clothed. Some shocking footage shows what that was like. Only watch the clip below if you can handle the raw emotions some of the women felt when undergoing all these things (while naked in front of fully dressed men!)…

The Harbor of Hope… and Heartbreak

One of the reasons that I felt compelled to tell the story of Kairos’ Muses is to show that war is nothing like the romance novels portray nor is it what the mostly male historians had people believe for too long.

Most of the time, war is not about valiant heroes battling evil villains; it is profoundly traumatic, bestially cruel, and nightmarishly chaotic, bringing out the worst in most people. Kairos’ Muses were not “most people”… Despite all the indignities and tremendous odds, they remained decent, positive people, always taking action for the good of the community.