Visions contra democratic majority decisions. Invitation of ten Jewish specialists to Norway and Sweden in 1939
Schöön, I-Mai.
Svensk Medicinhistorisk Tidskrift 9(1): 129-145
2005
ISSN/ISBN: 1402-9871 PMID: 17153180 Document Number: 584444
The attempt to save Jewish physicians from Germany by issuing invitations to neutral countries was first initiated in 1939 in Danzig, then under the protection of the League of Nations. Dr. Karl Evang in Norway and Dr. J. Axel Höjer in Sweden, then heads of their respective country's Health Departments, went to considerable lengths in their efforts to obtain work permits in Norway or Sweden. In Sweden, both student unions and the medical profession were firmly opposed to allowing their foreign colleagues to enter the country, whereas Norway accepted to admit ten of the altogether 222 applying physicians, on certain conditions. Owing to the German occupation of Norway, the majority of those finally admitted had to find refuge elsewhere.