Gösta Engzell
Engzell (right) with Finnish architects Alvar Aalto and Elissa Aalto at the Finnish Independence Day reception in the Presidential palace in Helsinki on 6 December 1959
Ambassador of Sweden to Finland
In office
1954–1963
Personal details
Born1897
Died1997 (aged 99–100)

Gösta Engzell (1897–1997) was a Swedish jurist and diplomat who is known for his activities to rescue Jews during World War II. He was the ambassador of Sweden to Finland between 1954 and 1963 and served in other diplomatic posts.

Biography

Engzell was born in 1897.[1] He worked at the Göta Court of Appeal in 1929 and became a court councilor in 1933.[1] Then he served as an audit secretary and as the head of expedition in the Ministry of Trade in 1936.[1] He headed the Ministry of Foreign Affair's legal department between 1938 and 1947.[2] The department was in charge of all visa and immigration issues.[3] Shortly after his appointment Engzell represented Sweden in the Évian Conference held at Évian-les-Bains, France, between 6 and 15 July 1938 to address the problem of German and Austrian Jewish refugees.[4]

Engzell was made an envoy in 1947.[1] He was the envoy of Sweden in Poland from 1949 to 1951.[1] He held the same post in Finland between 1951 and 1954.[1][5] Then he was named as the ambassador of Sweden in 1954 which he held until 1963.[1][5]

Engzell died in 1997.[1]

Rescuing Jews during World War II

In the late 1930s Engzell and the Swedish government did not have a special interest in Jews who had to flee Nazi Germany and did not make any attempt to facilitate the entry of Jews to Sweden without visa or even to get Swedish visa.[3] He had an antisemitic approach, and his actions at the legal department of the Ministry aimed at keeping Jews out of the country.[3]

On 7 September 1942, a Latvian refugee named Gillel Storch met Gösta Engzell and informed him about the increasingly negative conditions of Jews in the German-occupied territories.[3][6] Then he began to influence the policy of the Swedish government which would help Jews in Nazi controlled regions.[3] He initiated actions to save Jews in Norway and Denmark.[3] In addition, Engzell encouraged Swedish diplomats Carl Ivan Danielsson and Per Anger to take steps to protect Jews in Budapest in 1944.[3][7] As a result of the activities of Engzell and his staff nearly 30,000-40,000 Jews were rescued.[3][7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Engzell Gösta (1897 – 1997)". Riksarkivet (in Swedish).
  2. ↑ "Gösta Engzell". Svensk Filmdatabas (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Paul A. Levine (2000). "Attitudes and Action: Comparing the Responses of Mid-level Bureaucrats to the Holocaust". The Journal of Holocaust Education. 9 (2): 217–229. doi:10.1080/17504902.2000.11087109. S2CID 154732855.
  4. ↑ Hernroth-Rothstein, Annika (May 2014). "Hating Jews in Sweden". Commentary. Vol. 37, no. 15. p. 47. ProQuest 1521122128. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  5. 1 2 "Tidigare svenska beskickningschefer & ambassadörer i Finland". Sweden Abroad (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  6. ↑ Simo Muir (Spring 2016). "The Plan to Rescue Finnish Jews in 1944". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 30 (1): 83. doi:10.1093/hgs/dcw006.
  7. 1 2 "Swedish Diplomats Who Rescued Jews". Rescue in the Holocaust. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
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