United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Hillel Storch (also Hilel or Gilel, 1902-1983) was born on May 24, 1902 in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Governorate (now Daugavpils, Latvia). He participated in the Zionist movement and became a representative of the Jewish Agency at age 18. He moved to Riga to work as an export merchant. When the Soviet Union occupied Latvia in 1940, Storch fled to Stockholm. His wife Ania and daughter Eleonora rejoined him in May 1941 as part of an agent exchange between Sweden and the Soviet Union. In Sweden, Storch represented the Jewish Agency and the World Jewish Congress. He worked with the Stockholm Chief Rabbi Mordechai Ehrenpreis and other leading personalities in Sweden to find ways to save Jews from the Nazis. In 1944 he and the Jewish Agency helped bring Jews from “mixed marriages” to Sweden. In February 1945, Count Folke Bernadotte informed Storch that Swiss diplomats had arranged for several thousand Jews to be released from Germany to enter Switzerland, and that the Germans would consider releasing more. Heinrich Himmler's personal physician, Felix Kersten, sent an invitation from Himmler to Storch to come to Berlin to negotiate. As Storch was not a Swedish citizen, he could not expect Swedish protection abroad, so Norbert Masur went in his place. These so-called “White Buses” operations rescued hundreds of Jews from Neuengamme, Theresienstadt, and Ravensbrück. Storch died on April 25, 1983 in Stockholm. Many of his and his wife’s relatives were murdered in the Holocaust.
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The Hillel Storch papers are arranged as six series: Series 1: Correspondence, 1940-1966 Series 2: Negatives, circa 1945 Series 3: Personal papers, 1937-1943 Series 4: Printed materials, 1937-1947, 1981-1985 Series 5: Reports, circa 1942-1956 Series 6: Subject files, circa 1938-1969
The Hillel Storch papers consist of correspondence, photographic negatives, personal papers, printed materials, and subject files documenting Storch’s work on behalf of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden to rescue Jews during the Holocaust and to resettle survivors after the Holocaust. Records document his missions, activities, and meetings with Nazi leaders to save Jews from the extermination camps, and include materials about his work with Heinrich Himmler’s assistant Franz Goering and physical therapist Felix Kersten, and SS Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg about the “White Buses” operation transferring Jews from Neuengamme, Theresienstadt, and Ravensbrück to Switzerland and Sweden. Correspondence consists of letters to and from Hillel Storch about efforts to rescue Jewish victims from the Holocaust and to locate and resettle survivors after the Holocaust. Photographic negatives depict the White Buses operation, rescue teams, transfer ships, and concentration camp survivors and victims. Personal papers include certificates, correspondence, and forms documenting Storch’s export business, his immigration to Sweden in 1940, and his wife’s and daughter’s arrival in 1941. Printed materials include calls to aid European Jews, pages from the newspapers Unzer Wort, the Swedish parliament’s January 1945 protocols, and a 1985 booklet about the White Buses. Reports document Jewish rescue efforts during the Holocaust, efforts to resettle refugees after the Holocaust, and the White Buses operation. Subject files include correspondence, reports, and name lists documenting Storch’s work to rescue European Jewish along with the World Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency for Palestine. Records include Franz Goering’s report about the release of Jewish during the White Buses operation, documents about Felix Kersten’s and Walter Schellenberg’s participation in rescue efforts, lists of Latvian and Lithuanian Jews, reports by Otto Schutz and Raoul Wallenberg about the conditions of Jews in various places in Europe, and correspondence with future Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander.
Hillel Storch papers