Hilel Storch was born in Dvinsk, Latvia, he went to Riga where he was engaged in his father's world-wide business activities. He arrived in Stockholm in 1940 in transit to the USA. He decided to stay in Sweden primarily to keep in closer touch with his relatives who remained in Latvia. Before he arrived in Sweden he was already an active Zionist, having represented the Jewish Agency in Dvinsk and participated in the promotion of the emigration of 3000 Latvian Jews to Palestine. In Sweden he continued to work as a representative of the Jewish Agency (the forerunner to the Jewish government in Palestine). At the same time he represented the World Jewish Congress in Sweden. He was actively involved with promoting Zionist causes including providing assistance for Israel’s war of independence. His most significant achievements were the rescue of some 20,000 Jewish and non-Jewish concentration camp inmates and the provision of humanitarian aid to concentration camp inmates.
Open
3 folders
The material is divided into the following 3 folders: copy correspondence and enclosures between Storch and Gerald Fleming, 765/1; copy correspondence and enclosures between Storch and Monty Pekower, 765/2; copy journal article and translation, 765/3. The original order within the correspondence folders has largely been retained.
This collection comprises two separate deposits both made by Hilel (Gilel) Storch, a Latvian Jew and Swedish resident, who helped save the lives of thousands of European Jews during the Nazi era. The earlier deposit (765/1-2) consists of two folders of copy correspondence with enclosures between Storch and two historians, Gerald Fleming and Monty N. Penkower respectively. The later deposit (765/3) is a copy article with translation about the life of Hilel Storch. In order to place the contents of these files in context there followers a brief resumé of Hilel Storch's life and war-time activities. The correspondence and enclosures between Gerald Fleming and Storch (765/1) are primarily concerned with Fleming's preoccupation with the authentication of a controversial document (765/1/24), the original of which has never been found. It is an agreement dated 12 March 1945 in which Heinrich Himmler states, contrary to Hitler's orders, that he we will not burn down the concentration camps along with the inmates; that he will allow Swedish aid packages into the camps; and that he will make arrangements for the inmates to be handed over to the allies. Storch considers Fleming's line of enquiry narrow and irrelevant, favouring instead a far wider study into the provision of relief and the rescue of European Jewry throughout the Nazi era. There are numerous references to individuals and organisations engaged in providing aid for Jewish concentration camp inmates. The correspondence and enclosures at 765/2 between Storch and Monty Penkower relate to Penkower's research for his book The Jews were Expendable, University of Illinois Press, 1983, a study much more in line with Storch's wishes. Storch is able to make available his own considerable archive of personal and official papers, which he intended to deposit with the Jewish Community in Stockholm, and to be interviewed by Penkower. He is also able to facilitate access for Penkower to the Swedish foreign office archives. The enclosures at 765/1-2 include the correspondence and other papers of, amongst others, Felix Kersten, Himmler's masseur; Count Folke Bernadotte, vice president of the Swedish Red Cross; Gerhart M. Riegner, World Jewish Congress, Sweden; Walter Schellenberg, Swedish diplomat. At 765/ 3 there is a copy article with translation about the life and work of Gilel Storch (Accession No. 42835)
Gilel Storch: copy correspondence and article re Storch's war-time activities