A Swedish nurse and philanthropist, Elsa Brändström was known as the “Angel of Siberia”.
She was born on March 26, 1888 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She was the daughter of the Military Attaché at the Swedish Embassy. When she was three, the family returned to Sweden and her father now a General, became the Swedish Ambassador at the court of Tsar Nicholas II and returned to St. Petersburg.
At the outbreak of World War I Elsa’s mother passed away. Elsa volunteered for a position as a nurse in the Imperial Russian Army. In 1915, she and her friend, another nurse, Ethel von Heidenstam, went to Siberia for the Swedish Red Cross to introduce basic medical treatment for the German and Austrian Prisoners of War (POW). She discovered that almost 80% of POWs died of cold, hunger and disease, she saw the inhuman conditions the prisoners lived in and decided to dedicate her life to these soldiers. The men, who were from Germany and Austria were suffering from typhoid fever and on the verge of death. They saw this tall, blue-eyed blond haired nurse as an angel come to their rescue, and named her Angel of Siberia.
She established the Swedish Aid organisation, but her work was hindered by the October Revolution in 1917. The next year, the Russian authorities withdrew her work permit but that was not to stop her. She continued to visit Siberia in 1919 and 1920, until finally she was arrested in Omsk and condemned to death for spying. Later, the sentence was revoked, but she was interned in 1920. When she was released, she went back to Sweden and organised a fund raising for the former POWs and their families. She later emigrated to Germany.
A tireless worker
In 1922, she published her book Among Prisoners Of War In Russia And Siberia . She set up a rehabilitation sanatorium at Marienborn-Schmeckwitz in Saxony, for homecoming German soldiers. She bought a mill, named Schreibermühle, and used it as a re-socialisation centre for former POWs. Schreibermühle had a lot of lands, including fields, meadows and forests where crops were grown.
In 1923, she went on a six-month tour of the U.S., giving lectures to raise money for a new home for children of deceased and traumatised German and Austrian POWs. In January 1924, her dream was realised and she opend Neursorge, in Mittweida. It had room for 200 orphans and children in need.
Elsa married, and moved to the U.S. in 1933. She began to give aid to newly arrived German and Austrian refugees. Six years later she opened Window Shop, a restaurant which gave work opportunities for refugees in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
After World War II, she began to raise funds for starving and shelterless women and children in need in Germany. She collected sizable funds from Americans, especially the German American. She could not undertake her last planned journey to Germany because of illness. She died in 1948, of bone cancer.
Because of her commitment to POWs, Elsa Brändström became known as the “patron saint”for soldiers. In German and Austria, there are many streets named after her, as also schools and institutions.
She won several medals and honours. She was also awarded the Silber Badge of the German Empire and the Swedish, Golden Seraphim Medal. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize five times — 1922, twice in 1923, 1928 and 1929.
On September 16, 1965, a ceremony at Arne-Karlsson-Park Vienna preceded the official opening of the XXth International Conference of the Red Cross. A monument to Elsa Brändström was unveiled.
