To Sweden
� The story that was never told
| Författare: | Oppenheimer Bertil |
| Titel: | To Sweden � The story that was never told |
| Utgivningsår: | 2023 |
| Omfång: | 460 sid. |
| Förlag: | Oppenheimer |
| ISBN: | 9789180595711 |
| Ämnesord: | Biografier och memoarer |
Pris: 381 SEK exkl. moms 
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 Bertil Oppenheimer was born in 1950 and grew up with his parents and an elder brother in a suburb of Stockholm. At home, German was spoken, since his parents were German Jewish immigrants, but they also spoke Swedish thanks to a great number of relatives and friends who were established in Sweden since many years. His parents, Elli and Kurt, had immigrated to Sweden in 1943. But they never told their children about what had happened to them during the war. It was not until the early decease of his parents that the questions started to accumulate. There with interesting notes. And there was a cardboard box tied up with a string. When it was opened there was the yellow Jewish star which was laying on the top, the badge that, in Germany and other areas occupied by the Germans, the Jews had been forced to wear on their clothes. This is the story about Eli and Kurt Oppenheimer, how they grew up, were educated, met each other and got married. How life, after Hitler’s takeover of power, gradually changed and eventually forced them to emigrate to the Netherlands, where after the German invasion, they had to go into hiding. You can follow their desperate struggle to get a residence permit in Sweden, what happened to their immediate family and, above all, how in the nick of time they were saved and could be reunited with their relatives in Sweden. The restrictive Swedish refugee policy is illustrated in various ways. There were a few other people who made considerable efforts to save Jews in distress during the war. What happened to the consul Borrero, who from Stockholm, issued Ecuadorian passports to Jews in Poland and the Netherlands? The Swedes very likely knew what was going on in Germany. The information was available – but what did the Germany-friendly Swedes want to believe? Documents show what was reported. After the war Germany started the so called Wiedergutmachung, a sort of compensation to the Jews. The author describes a long and complicated process. During his research the author also found a number of Jewish registers set up in Sweden during the years, which also leads to a concluding observation on the consequences of antisemitic hatred spreading on today’s social media. Bertil Oppenheimer writes about his own German-Jewish family, before, during and after the Second World War. The reader gains from this book insight into the sufferings of the Jews in Europe. But much more, including a story of brave non-Jewish Dutchmen who concealed Kurt and Elli Oppenheimer from the Gestapo, thereby saving future generations of the Oppenheimer family. I was especially upset by Sweden’s antisemitic immigration policy. Chief Rabbi emeritus Morton Narrowe A very impressive true story that deserves to be told. This book is a victory in more ways than one. First of all, on the silence that resulted from the trauma suffered by the survivors of the Shoah. But it is certainly also a victory over the extermination ideology of the National Socialists. It was the intention of Hitler and his cronies to wipe Jews, Roma and Sinti and political opponents off the face of the earth and to make their memory disappear forever. This book is proof that this endeavor failed. Bertil Oppenheimer has reconstructed his parents’ story through a tenacious and in-depth research of archives in several countries. The result is a scientifically sound reconstruction of how his parents survived the Nazi persecution. The author rightly expresses concern about current developments in the world. It is hoped that the power of the reasonable word, of reason and of humanity will prevail over extreme currents and the ideology of violence. This book is a plea for humanity and an indictment of extremism. I wish it the many readers it deserves. Raymund Schutz, Ph.D. in legal history, senior researcher at the city archives of The Hague Bertil Oppenheimer is a retired chartered accountant and author of books regarding professional issues. He is married and has two married sons and four grandchildren. |