The vehicle is one of dozens of military buses made by Volvo that were converted into ambulances in a Red Cross operation headed by Swedish Red Cross Vice President Count Folke Bernadotte. During this operation, Bernadotte managed to ensure the release of Scandinavian citizens from German concentration camps – resulting in the convoy into Germany of dozens of such buses, in which stretchers, wide benches and medical equipment had been installed.
Tens of thousands of prisoners – mostly women, and among them many thousands of Jews – were brought from Germany to Sweden in this so-called "Bernadotte Convoy," accompanied by medical staff as well as a large team of volunteers from the Swedish army, who brought with them food and medical supplies.
At the end of the war, most of the buses were returned to their original use, but a few were conserved as ambulances, in order to tell this unique story of rescue. One of them, bus no. 38, was donated to Yad Vashem in 1991, aided by the Israel-Swedish Friends Association and in cooperation with Volvo and the Swedish Red Cross. The bus was displayed for the visiting public in an open-air space on the Mount of Remembrance. Over the years, with weather damage and time, the bus began to show signs of rust, cracks and fractures.
Recently, it was decided to renovate the bus. The Conservation Section of Yad Vashem's Museums Division led the project. The work on reconstructing the outer casing of the bus was led by the Tesra Company (Victor Uziel and Amir Levy) in a workshop in Jerusalem, accompanied and supervised by the Conservation Section Head Noga Schusterman and Head of Textile Conservation Alexandra Borovok.
"The conservation work on the bus leaned on research that describes its historical story, and includes the exact study of the different materials that made up the original item, an assessment of how it was used, and the methods of treatment, or restoration over the years. All of these gave us the requirements of a professional conservation process."
Noga Schusterman
Thanks to the thorough investigation conducted by Evgeny Rozin from the Museums Division Artifacts Department, important archival information was discovered which was relevant to the conservation of the White Bus. At the conclusion of an investigation of the Yad Vashem, Swedish Red Cross and Swedish Royal Archives, and with the generous aid of Karin Sjoberg of the Malmo Municipal Archives in Sweden, photographs, documentary films and other documents related to the rescue operation were located, including sketches of the buses that were converted into ambulances as well as lists of the bus drivers and timetables of the exit of the buses. All these played an important role in the conservation work. For example, an article in a Swedish newspaper from the 1990s reported on the discovery of an abandoned ambulance. From the article, it was understood that the bus had undergone widescale restoration attempts before it was donated to Yad Vashem.
During their research to identify materials to be used for the restoration work, professionals were successful in recreating a model bus in all its parts: from the skeleton, through to its internal design, wing mirrors, hinges and screws that assembled it originally. Additionally, the team managed to discover the accompanying accessories, such as the stretchers made of wood and fabric, and the Masonite (hardboard) used to cover its walls. It should be stressed that every part of the museological piece is an important element in the story it tells.
"One of the most complex challenges of this project was the reconstruction of the colors, symbols and texts appearing on the bus," adds Schusterman. "In order to thoroughly treat the skeleton and casing of the bus, we had to remove every layer of paint and treat the vehicle thoroughly to protect it. Before the paint layer was removed, however, the ambulance was documented from every angle, and paint samples were taken, Swedish flags and Red Cross symbols were measured and sketched exactly, and writing fonts and the exact location of the texts were copied. We also based the reconstruction on photos and archival film clips from the time, in order that at its conclusion, its casing would be reconstructed in perfect faith to the original."
As was mentioned earlier, the research for the project included the use of documentary photographs and films. One of the archival photographs features bus no. 38 – the ambulance donated to Yad Vashem.
"In this conservation project, we managed to restore the Swedish ambulance – White Bus – as close to the original as possible. The combination of historical research with comprehensive restoration work is an example of the critical dialogue between the efforts of curators responsible for their collections with dedicated conservators. This combination allows us to create an accurate visual experience for the historical events – and therein lies its power. This is, in fact, the heart of museological work."
Museums Division Director Vivian Uria
This article originally appeared in the "Yad Vashem Jerusalem Magazine," volume 92.
