Bernadotte, Folke, Count

Bernadotte (af Wisborg), Folke, Count

(born Jan. 2, 1895, Stockholm, Swed.—died Sept. 17, 1948, Jerusalem) Swedish soldier, humanitarian, and diplomat. A nephew of King Gustav V, Bernadotte headed the Swedish Red Cross in World War II and was credited with saving some 20,000 concentration-camp inmates. In 1948 he was appointed mediator in Palestine by the UN Security Council and secured a cease-fire between Israel and the Arab states. He made enemies by proposing that Arab refugees be allowed to return to their homes in what had become Israel and was assassinated by Jewish extremists.