News from the 19th Floor

Gilel Storch was the eldest child of a wealthy Jewish family from Daugavpils, Latvia.  His father owned a very successful family business, and in 1926 Gilel moved to Riga to head the company’s branch there.  After his father’s death in 1937, he, along with his two brothers, took over the business, and when the Soviet Union occupied Latvia in 1940, he fled to Stockholm. His wife Ania and daughter Eleonora joined him in May 1941.  

Storch participated in the Zionist movement and became a representative of the Jewish Agency at age 18. In Stockholm, as the official representative of the World Jewish Congress and of the Jewish Agency, he devoted his time, energy, and resources to the work of preserving Jewish life. His initiatives during the war led to the liberation of several thousand concentration camp inmates and their transfer to Sweden. After the war ended, Storch played a crucial role in obtaining the admission to Sweden of 20,000 camp survivors.

One rescue attempt began in February 1945, when Storch learned that Hitler wanted to bomb concentration camps in Germany, thus killing remaining concentration camp prisoners. Storch worked with the Swedish government, and word was sent to Germany that Sweden would take Scandinavian POWs from camps in Germany. At this time, Gilel Storch met Himmler’s masseur, Felix Kersten, at the home of a mutual friend in Stockholm. Kersten had helped Himmler with some medical problems, and the Reichsführer would often seek advice from Kersten. On February 25, 1945, Storch met with Kersten and pressed him to ask Himmler not to carryout Hitler’s decree to kill remaining concentration camp prisoners in Germany. On March 3, 1945, Kersten flew to Germany to meet with Himmler. Kersten was representing the Swedish government which was seeking to have Scandinavian POWs returned to Sweden, and he agreed to raise Storch’s request not to kill the remaining prisoners in the camps. On March 22, Kersten returned to Sweden with a letter from Himmler which provided assurances that Himmler would not pass on Hitler’s orders to blow up the concentration camps along with all prisoners. This decision saved thousands of Jewish lives.

At the same time, Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, who was negotiating with the Germans, received a request from the Swedish government to try to save non-Scandinavian Jews as well, provided that the main task – to locate and bring home Scandinavian prisoners – was not jeopardized. Previously Storch had reached out to Bernadotte to interest him in the cause of the Jewish prisoners held in concentration camps in Germany.  

It would have been unsafe for Storch, as a stateless Jew, to travel to Berlin. During consultations between Himmler and Norbert Masur, another Swedish representative of the World Jewish Congress, earlier promises were confirmed. Himmler agreed that 1,000 female Jews would be released from the Ravensbrück concentration camp, on condition that they were referred to as "Polish prisoners." During Himmler's meeting with Bernadotte a few hours later, this promise was extended so that a total of about 7,000 women, of whom about half were Jews, could be taken to Sweden. The total number rescued in the expedition before the end of the war is disputed, but amounted to at least 15,000, of whom between 3,500 and 6,500 were probably Jews. Shortly after the end of the war, the Red Cross transported about 10,000 camp prisoners to Sweden under the auspices of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administrations (UNRRA), most of whom were from Bergen-Belsen and a majority of whom were Jews.

In 1952, King Gustav VI of Sweden awarded Gilel Storch Sweden’s highest honor, the Order of Vasa, 1^st Class. Gilel Storch died in April 1983, at the age of 80.