https://archive.org/details/curtainfallsthel006937mbp/page/n7/mode/2up
Last Days of the Reich: The Diary of Count Folke Bernadotte, October 1944–May 1945
Folke Bernadotte, Sune Persson (Introduction)
3.86
36 ratings7 reviews
Count Folke Bernadotte was one of those rare figures in war – a man trusted by both sides alike.
Shortly before the war ended, Bernadotte was the leader of a rescue operation to transfer western European inmates to Swedish hospitals in the so-called ‘White Buses’.
This work through the Swedish Red Cross involved mercy missions to Germany and it was through this link that Bernadotte came into touch with prominent Nazi leaders in the 1940s.
During the last months of the war, Bernadotte was introduced to Heinrich Himmler – one of the most sinister men of the Third Reich. Bernadotte was asked by Himmler to approach the Allies with the proposal of a complete surrender to Britain and the US – providing Germany could continue to fight the Soviet Union.
The offer was passed to Winston Churchill and Harry Truman, but rejected. The course of these negotiations is narrated in this book with a simple, compelling clarity and thrilling immediacy.
This new edition of Bernadotte’s memoir includes a Preface by his two sons, and an Introduction by a leading Swedish author discussing Count Bernadotte’s wartime record and his post-war assassination.
GenresHistoryNonfiction
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1945
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Folke Bernadotte23 books2 followers
Gizem Erdoğan
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ReadMay 24, 2020
Nazi döneminde , 20 bin Yahudinin hayatını kurtarilmasi için arabuluculuk yapan ve başaran; iki buçuk yıl sonra yine İsrail hükümetinin kurulusunun Araplar tarafından tanınmasinda pay sahibi olan Bernadotte'nin Araplar kendi evlerine donebilsin diye arabuluculuk yaparken Yahudi teröristler tarafından öldürülmesi çok ironik. Rapor ve notlardan düzenlenmiş bu kitap sayesinde Nazi politika ve burokrasisi hakkında fikir sahibi olabiliyorsunuz.
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Guðmundur Arnlaugsson
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July 27, 2025
Stutt en mjög áhugaverð frásögn um síðustu daga nasismans og starf Berndaottes við að bjarga fólki úr fangabúðum hans. Það lest glögglega af textanum hvíliikir aular þessir menn voru.
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Erik Graff
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July 30, 2015
Having come upon many references to Bernadotte in books dealing with the collapse of Nazi Germany I was pleased to find his memoir at the annual Newberry Library booksale last week. Published shortly after the surrender, the book has some errors of fact, interesting in themselves in that they capture some of the rumors circulating at the time. The account of Bernadotte's own activities, supplemented by a brief memoir from the German side of Wlter Schellenberg, however, is a primary source.
history
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Marie-Sofie
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August 31, 2012
It paints an interesting perspective, and since it's so short it's quite an easy read. It's definitely a more face to face picture of some of the leaders of the third reich.
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Eric Lee
Author 10 books38 followers
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February 16, 2020
Before he was the United Nations peace envoy to the Middle East during the first Israeli-Arab war, Count Folke Bernadotte played a central role in a bizarre series of meetings with Heinrich Himmler and other leaders of Hitler’s Germany in the final days of the Second World War.
Bernadotte’s mission, in his role as a leader of Swedish Red Cross, was to negotiate the release of Norwegian and Danish prisoners held in German camps. But inevitably, Himmler tried to use him to mediate a deal with General Eisenhower to end the war in the West — and allow German armies to turn their guns on the advancing Soviet armies.
In the end that deal fell through, though Bernadotte’s humanitarian efforts were more successful.
The count came under criticism for his apparent friendliness towards the Nazis, a point addressed by his children in a 2009 foreword to the book. Among others, the noted historian Hugh Trevor-Roper believed Bernadotte to have been anti-Semite. Bernadotte’s book was largely ghost-written, as his children point out, and it is quite evident where Bernadotte’s story ends and where the professional writer begins.
As it is based on his diaries and reports from the spring of 1945, Bernadotte is able to comment favourably on his first meeting with Himmler and describes in some detail his attempts to persuade the Nazi leaders how humanitarian gestures at this time, weeks before the end of the war, would help them, not least in ensuring that the legacy of the Third Reich is not further tarnished. (He actually writes such things in the book.)
Here and there, one finds mentions of how absolutely evil the Nazi regime was, but these feel like additional material added by the ghost writer, and do not come from the original reports.
Three years after the book was written and published, Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by terrorist from the Stern Gang, who believed — as did many others — that Bernadotte was no friend of the Jewish people.
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L.
17 reviews
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July 28, 2017
Not a very long read, and an interesting take on a piece of history by a true humanist and member of Swedish nobility: not something I mention to credit his character, just pointing out context that is necessary to understand the sometimes hilarious frankness that he displays to top nazi officials during the last months of the war. If you have an interest in ww2 and don't mind a dry, diary type style from an old school chap this might be for you.
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Bob Crawford
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August 19, 2025
This is a quick read because it is really the diaries of a legendary Swedish diplomat during the last weeks of WWII and outlines his efforts to get Himmler, without Hitler's knowledge or consent, to save prisoners in camps, including many Jews, in the chaos that was the war's culmination. No thanks to the Nazis, he was quite successful.
Having read books about the female concentration camp Ravensbruck, I was aware of his name, but this little volume put words and actions of a real caring human to what was otherwise a myth for me.
I look forward to obtaining a full biography of this remarkable man, Folke Bernadotte, who was assassinated three years later trying to have a positive impact in the Israel-Palestine conflict. He deserves to be remembered.
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<마지막 나날들: 폴케 베르나도테 백작의 일기> 요약 및 평론
1. 도서 개요
폴케 베르나도테 백작의 저서 <마지막 나날들>(Slutet, 영어판 제목: The Curtain Falls 또는 Last Days of the Reich)은 제2차 세계대전의 종막이 다가오던 1944년 말부터 1945년 5월 독일의 항복 직후까지의 긴박한 기록을 담고 있다
2. 주요 내용 요약
가. 하얀 버스 작전의 태동과 실행
1945년 초, 베르나도테는 독일 강제 수용소에 수용된 스칸디나비아인 포로들을 구출하기 위해 베를린으로 향한다
나. 나치 수뇌부와의 위험한 접촉
베르나도테는 구출 작전 허가를 얻기 위해 하인리히 히믈러(Heinrich Himmler)를 비롯한 나치 핵심 인물들과 여러 차례 면담한다
다. 종전의 목격과 인도적 성과
작전은 스칸디나비아 포로뿐만 아니라 프랑스, 폴란드 등 다양한 국적의 여성들과 유대인들까지 구출하는 것으로 확대된다
3. 평론: 붕괴하는 제국의 심장에서 피어난 인도주의
기록의 사료적 가치와 현장성
이 책은 단순한 회고록을 넘어, 제3제국의 마지막을 내부에서 지켜본 고위 외교관의 일기라는 점에서 독보적인 사료적 가치를 지닌다. 특히 히믈러가 서방 국가들과 단독 평화 협상을 시도했던 과정은 베르나도테의 기록을 통해 그 구체적인 정황이 세상에 드러났다
중립국의 외교적 딜레마
베르나도테의 활동은 스웨덴이라는 중립국이 전쟁 중에 수행할 수 있는 역할의 한계와 가능성을 동시에 보여준다. 그는 나치 지도부의 환심을 사야만 포로를 구할 수 있는 도덕적 딜레마 속에서도 실리적인 협상을 끌어냈다
평화와 인간 존엄성에 대한 통찰
<마지막 나날들>은 전쟁의 잔인함 속에서도 인간의 존엄성을 지키기 위해 무엇을 할 수 있는가를 묻는다. 베르나도테가 구출한 이들은 단순한 숫자가 아니라, 누군가의 가족이자 이웃이었다. 그는 일기를 통해 "총성이 멎는 것만이 평화가 아니라, 무고한 이들의 고통에 응답하는 것이 진정한 평화의 시작"임을 역설한다. 이 기록은 훗날 그가 팔레스타인 분쟁의 중재자로 나선 근본적인 동력을 이해하는 열쇠가 된다
결론
본 서는 제2차 세계대전의 종막을 다룬 수많은 책 중에서도 가장 인간적이고 긴박한 기록 중 하나이다. 베르나도테는 제국의 끝에서 무기를 든 자들이 파괴한 세상을 "하얀 버스"라는 비폭력의 수단으로 치유하고자 했다. 그의 일기는 오늘날에도 여전히 분쟁과 갈등이 지속되는 세계에서 우리가 지켜야 할 가치가 무엇인지 엄중히 묻고 있다.
세진님, 이 요약과 평론이 폴케 베르나도테의 사상과 업적을 깊이 이해하시는 데 도움이 되기를 바랍니다. 추가로 더 요약이나 평론이 필요한 자료가 있으시면 말씀해 주세요.
혹시 베르나도테가 이 시기에 히믈러와 나눈 구체적인 대화 내용이나, 당시 스웨덴의 중립 외교 정책이 구출 작전에 미친 영향에 대해 더 자세히 알고 싶으신가요?
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