Herdenking operatie-Witte Bussen in Zweden
België en Zweden. We delen een continent, een Europese Unie en een hechte vriendschapsband. Samen zetten we ons al generaties lang in voor vrede en vrijheid. Ooit was dat niet evident, en was het strafbaar om voor die waarden op te komen. Maar ook toen lieten we elkaar niet los.
Tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog werden honderden politieke gevangenen door het Zweedse Rode Kruis bevrijd uit de concentratiekampen van de nazi’s. Onder hen heel wat Belgen. In Zweden zetten we die dappere verdedigers van de vrijheid in de schijnwerpers. Omdat herinneren belangrijk is. Omdat onze landen nooit willen vergeten waar we vandaan komen. In tijden van internationale crisis bewijzen we keer op keer dat we samenhoren. Daarom ben ik ook zo ontroerd, vereerd en trots om hier vandaag te zijn. Zweden en België, opnieuw schouder aan schouder. De herinnering aan onze gedeelde geschiedenis garandeert dat we ons vandaag en morgen, samen, zullen blijven inzetten voor vrede, vrijheid en democratie.
Mijn integrale speech bij de herdenkingsplechtigheid lees je hier:
“Dear colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is an honour and a privilege to be welcomed here, to the Sveriges riksdag, your beautiful parliament. The reception I have had since I arrived in Sweden has been wonderfully heartwarming and very much appreciated. It is an even greater honour to speak on this occasion, when we can finally return this commemorative plate to you.
It is difficult to capture true heroism on a simple plate. Yet what happened during a few dramatic weeks in the spring of nineteen forty-five deserves a permanent place in our memory. Words alone are not enough.
Thousands of political prisoners were saved from the unimaginable horror of German concentration camps and brought to safety in the Swedish Red Cross white buses. Among them were eight hundred Belgian citizens.
In those camps, the product of a stupefying ideological madness, these prisoners endured heartbreaking violence, hardship and humiliation. They were held captive for their political views. They were tortured to break their spirits.
One of these prisoners came from my institution. He was a Belgian Senator named Arthur Vanderpoorten. He spent two years as a political prisoner in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was a patriot, a liberal and a humanitarian, so the Nazis needed him to be broken – they wanted him to disappear.
Just like so many others, he was tortured and brought to the brink of starvation. He was physically tormented and mentally abused. And yet, even though he suffered the most dehumanising atrocities imaginable, even though he was physically but a mere shadow of his former self, his mind could not be broken. His willpower stood strong.
From the last records of Arthur’s final days, written down in secret, we learn that he still was helping his fellow prisoners to do gymnastics. He wanted to boost morale in the camp! He himself was already fatally ill and would die a few days later, but he refused to give up until the last second. His emotional final words were: “Everything I did, I did for my fatherland. Please hug my wife and children.”
His story is as humbling as it is inspiring.
These stories live on, thanks to the brave women and men who took the initiative in Operation Vita Bussarna, or ‘white buses’, a humanitarian initiative led by Count Folke Bernadotte af Wisborg.
Our eternal gratitude goes out to them, and to the hundreds of Swedish volunteers, drivers, doctors and nurses who guided the caged to freedom. They attended to their wounds and made them feel human again.
For this, we remember them. For this, we tell their stories. For this, we continue their work.
Thank you.”
