Kommentar från Mike Jackson, Vancover

Hello Bertil, I wanted to send you a message to let you know that I have read your book from cover to cover and want to congratulate you on the tremendous job that you have done, researching the huge amount of material and then putting it together in such a readable document. Reading the book bothered me a lot and opened my eyes wider to some of the evil that prevailed (and still does) not only in Nazi Germany and Sweden but also in other countries in Europe. I have a long list of potential readers wanting to read your book after me including my two daughters, Kristina and Ingrid. As you may have heard from Kristina von Unge, my daughter Kristina visited Sweden with her partner a few weeks ago and they were married in Stockholm by Victor von Unge!!!! They tried to keep the entire event a secret but at age 84, I am nor easily fooled! I wanted to make a couple of comments to you that may provide some additional interesting background material related to your book. You mentioned in your book (p375 if I remember correctly) that Bruno Kreisky, the former Austrian Chancellor, lived in Sweden during the period 1938 - 1946. I have a friend in Victoria, an elderly Jewish lady, who escaped from Vienna as a young child with her family before WWII. They went first to Paris and then to Montreal but she has now lived in Victoria for many years, first with her husband and now as a widow. Her father was a medical doctor in Vienna but he understood that the political system in Austria was looking good for Jewish people and the family left at an early stage. Her name is Lisalotta Dubney today but her family name was Birman and Bruno Kreisky was her uncle! It is really a small world that we live in!! The second point relates to the four years I spent as a research physicist at STFI in Stockholm. At one point, I worked with a Docent from KTH on a couple of technical papers. His name was Ernst Back, formerly Bach, and he had been smuggled out of Gelsen Kirschen, an industrial city in the Ruhr region in Nazi Germany together with his brother, Klas (originally Claus), to Sweden via Denmark by relatives during the early part of the war. Their parents were incarcerated in one of the Nazi concentration camps and sadly did not survive. The two young brothers finished up in an orphanage in Tullgarn, Uppsala which was run by Stina Heyman, the paternal aunt of Eva, Hugo and Kerstin [von Unge]. Ja Bertil, I thought you would find these two items of interest and once again congratulate you on your tremendous effort in putting your book together. It is a masterpiece! With kindest regards to you and Sib! Sincerely, Mike

Max J. Friedman, USA, författare till boken "Painful Joy"

Dear Bertil Thank you for including me on the list for this note. Fortunately, I have read your third edition in English and so finally could better understand your story and the journey your parents took as they and their relatives became eye witnesses to the desperation and worse that became the reality of German Jews such as your parents and relatives. Of course, much of your book also so clearly and sadly documents the pro-German actions by representatives of the Swedish government in limiting the ability of your family to escape to Sweden, except for short periods early in the saga. Your documentary style is meticulous and powerful and so many of the things you say about the survivors of the journey -- and those who did not -- ring true for me as well, even if my story is quite different. Sadly the antisemitism that existed before the war -- more or less everywhere on earth, if I could say it so simply -- was rampant. Of course, accommodations were made in every country depending on the economic and social status that some Jews were able to attain -- but underneath it wasn't enough to save very many of those most threatened (in Europe and Russia). What is so much more worrying is how that antisemitism has seen an overt resurgence around the world, including in the U.S. and Europe. Books like yours must be held up as providing clear documentation and witness of what hate can do -- everywhere and anytime. Congratulations on your research and indeed, I must say, your courage -- to devote so much of the later part of your life to this effort. As someone also touched deeply by the Holocaust -- as well as what came before and even afterwards -- I have also come to understand the importance of serving as a witness -- at least so that our children and grandchildren can learn our stories. I'm afraid that Never Forget for the world no longer has much traction any longer with the rise of authoritarianism and worse everywhere, including in the U.S. So we do what we can with open eyes and wounded but also open hearts. All the very best on this edition, your speaking tours and your resoluteness to sometimes talk truth to power. I hope our paths cross again before too long. Max

To Sweden - the story that was never told. Escaping the Holocaust. New expanded 3rd edition now in English by Bertil Oppenheimer

Dear reader! After some years of hard work, I have now again updated my book "To Sweden – the story that was never told – Escaping the Holocaust" (ISBN: 978-91-8059-571-1), but this time in English (460 pages). The first edition was published in Swedish in 2010 with an expanded edition in 2016 (still also available). New facts have been added over the years and a new chapter on my investigation project "Jewish registers, incitement to racial hatred and the internet”, which was observed in media.I found a number of Jewish registers set up in Sweden.This also leads to a concluding observation on the consequences of anti-Semitic hatred spreading in today’s social media. A little about the content in my book: I was born in 1950 and grew up with my parents and an elder brother in a suburb of Stockholm. At home, German was spoken, since my parents were German Jewish immigrants. My parents, Elli and Kurt, had immigrated to Sweden in 1943. But they told us almost nothing about what had happened to them during the war. It was not until the early decease of my parents that the questions started to accumulate. This is the story about my parents Elli and Kurt Oppenheimer, how they grew up in Frankfurt/Main, 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 them survive deportation; eventually get an exit visa accepted by Adolf Eichmann and desperately struggle to get a residence permit in Sweden. You will learn 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? You can read comments about my book and the lectures I have given in Sweden and abroad. See my blog: www.bertiloppenheimer.blogspot.com. I hope you are interested in reading my new updated book in English. The book can also be a suitable gift for someone who is interested in our dreadful part of history.I would appreciate if you forward this letter to others who might be interested in reading my book. We must never forget! You can order my new book via the link: https://webshop.publit.com/webshop/5008 If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me: bertil.oppenheimer@outlook.com. //Bertil Oppenheimer

Oliver Ticciati, lawyer in London

Dear Bertil I cannot pretend to have read every word of the magnum opus, but I have read a very large chunk of it, and I hardly found a single English solecism; indeed I was most impressed by the English and I enjoyed your rather terse style and the short sentences. When your son Daniel said “It’s beginning to turn into an obsession” he was plainly on target—only someone who was truly obsessional could have unearthed and organised the fabulous number of documents that you have quoted in the book. Certainly it was the fact that I knew you which made much of what you had to say interesting to me. Very best wishes Oliver

Artikel i LindeNytt den 28 januari 2023 efter mitt föredrag för allmänheten i Lindesberg på Förintelsens Minnesdag kvällen innan

Stämningsfull konsert till minne av Förintelsens offer: ”så länge vi minns lever deras minne” På dagen 78 år efter att koncentrationslägret Auschwitz-Birkenau befriats, genomfördes på fredagskvällen en minneskonsert i Lindeskolans aula. En kväll för att minnas alla de människor vars liv tog slut i nazisternas gaskammare, men också för att aldrig glömma det som hänt, så det aldrig sker igen. – Tyvärr är det inte så många överlevare kvar livet, men många av deras barn och barnbarn berättar nu deras historia, för så länge vi minns lever deras minne, sade Lillemor Bodman (M) under sitt invigningstal. Lillemor Bodman (M), invigningstalade i egenskap av hennes roll som ordförande för Barn- och utbildningsnämnden, men också som lärare, där hon under lång tid arbetat mot antisemitism. – Jag har under lång tid arbetat mot antisemitism i mitt yrke som lärare, men också i mitt arbete i svenska kommittén mot antisemitism. Jag har gjort resor med ungdomar till förintelsens platser, i huvudsak det före detta koncentrationslägret Auschwitz. Det har också varit viktigt att få personliga berättelser, men tyvärr är det inte så många överlevare kvar livet, men många av deras barn och barnbarn berättar nu deras historia, för så länge vi minns lever deras minne, sade hon. Gitarrlegendaren Janne Schaffer framförde, tillsammans med sångaren Jonas Gideon, en mycket stämningsfull repertoar, speciellt framtagen för kvällen. Författaren Bertil Oppenheimer var kvällens föreläsare, där han berättade sin historia som andra generationens överlevare. En historia som började med att Bertil som 16-åring började att släktforska, då han ville veta om han var släkt med Robert Oppenheimer, atombombens fader. Det han fick veta hade han aldrig kunnat förbereda sig på, då hans föräldrar aldrig berättat för honom vad som egentligen hände under andra världskriget. – Min mammas morfar bodde på ett ålderdomshem och skrev ett brev till mina föräldrar, då han förstod vad som väntade, vilket också hände. Jag hittade för några år sedan dödsattesten från koncentrationslägret Theresienstadt, där det står att han dog av tarmkatarr, det kan man ju fundera på om det var sant eller inte, jag tror knappast det, berättade han och fortsatte: – Mitt mål i livet är att ta över stafettpinnen från de överlevare som orkat åka runt och berätta sin historia. Som avslutning på kvällen sjöng konsertens arrangör, Sara Lönnström, en vacker judisk vers. Därefter hölls en tyst minut för att hedra alla de miljontals människor som föll offer för nazisternas grymhet. Camilla Lagerman

Kommentar från odont.dr., leg. tandläkare Göran Bergkvist, Norrköping

I Senioruniversitetets regi fick igår ett 60-tal åhörare ta del av Bertil Oppenheimers mycket intressanta och angelägna berättelse om sin familjehistoria. Idag när allt fler av förintelseöverlevarna som förmedlat sina berättelser gått ur tiden känns det extra angeläget att nästa generation fortsätter i deras spår. Man hör ibland: ”det där var ju länge sen – är det inte dags att glömma och gå vidare nu”. Men så enkelt är det inte. I Norrköping har vi sedan 1858 en mycket vacker synagoga. Från 1782 fick judar rätt att bosätta sig i staden och flera judiska släkter har haft stor betydelse för Norrköpings utveckling. I samband med krigsslutet 1945 kom ett antal judar som räddats ur koncentrationslägren till Norrköping. En del blev kvar i staden, några flyttade vidare och några klarade inte transporten utan vilar nu på den judiska begravningsplatsen. Varje år på Förintelsens minnesdag går ett fackeltåg från synagogan till begravningsplatsen. Men, antisemitismen är närvarande i staden. Vid flera tillfällen har synagogan utsatts för attentatsförsök, nu senast i slutet av förra året: den 19.e december, första dagen i chanukka gjorde två personer ett försök att sätta eld på synagogan. Som tur var misslyckades de. Berättelsen om Förintelsen, dess förhistoria och efterspel måste fortsätta och genom att få möjlighet att höra berättelser som den om Bertil Oppenheimers föräldrar och familj och deras kamp för överlevnad får vi en möjlighet att komma människorna närmare, att dela deras erfarenheter, tankar och känslor. Berättelsen lyfter också fram människorna som vågade hjälpa – som inte lät sig indoktrineras av nazisternas hatläror. Bertil visade också på de olika antisemitiska hatsidor som florerar på internet och hans ansträngningar för att få dessa nedstängda. Tack Bertil för en mycket intressant föreläsning – nu väntar en tjock bok på genomläsning.

Föredrag på Förintelsens minnesdag i Lindesberg den 27 januari 2023, dels för Lindeskolans gymnasieelever på eftermiddagen och dels för allmänheten på kvällen.

Det var så härligt och inspirerande att se alla elever som lyssnade så uppmärksamt på din fängslande berättelse. Jag vet av egen erfarenhet att det påverkar för framtiden mer än vi kan ana. Kombinationen med din berättelse från ditt liv och musiken genom Janne Schaffer och Jonas Gideon gjorde att det blev en positiv anda trots dagens svåra tema. Kommentar från arrangören Sara Lönnström