22 Jul Erik Wijk & Göran von Essen
Torkel Tistrand also worked for the Swedish American Line
There were two gentlemen who worked for the Swedish American Line, known as SAL, who knew my father (Herman F. Allen) well enough to contribute to a valuable wedding gift. Their names are written in an official Swedish list as “Direktör Erik Wijk and Baron Göran von Essen.” Their addresses were Särö for Wijk and Göteborg for Van Essen. Both cities are on the west coast of Sweden. Göteborg is the country’s 2nd largest city, after Stockholm of course, and is the largest seaport in the Scandinavian countries. Särö is a small resort community to the south.
During the war, according to the SAL website; the two ships Drottningholm and Gripsholm “were used as repatriation ships and made 33 voyages to exchange prisoners of war, diplomats, women and children, between the warfaring nations.”
Count Folke Bernadotte, as the Vice-President of the Swedish Red Cross, worked closely with the countries of England, America and Germany to negotiate exchanges. In this account, they are all mentioned.
Direktör Erik Wijk has a grandson by the same name who is a well known Swedish writer.
In his position in the Military Air Attaché’s office of the American Legation in Stockholm, Herman worked closely with Count Folke Bernadotte in attending to the affairs of the internees.
I am searching for the connection.
View Särö, Kungsbacka in a larger map
No Comments