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RUSSIAN REFUGEES
3i3
faced with the first group of these refugees at the office
in the Legation. From that moment the stream of
Russian refugees increased day by day and hour by
hour. I should never have thought that the number of
Russians who went to take waters in Germany every
summer was so large; moreover, nine-tenths of these
compatriots were Israelites. All these people, suddenly
hustled and ill-treated by the Germans, herded into
cattle trucks, arrived after much discomfort at Sassnitz
(in Pomerania), and thence crossed in ferry-boats to
Malmo, and finally reached Stockholm. They were a
famished, dirty crowd, with no money, many of them
without passports, which the German militaryauthorities
had taken from them1—a crowd seized with panic, not
feeling safe even in Sweden, so firmly had they been
told that Sweden also was going to declare war on us.
Every train coming from Malmo brought a fresh lot of
refugees, who wandered aimlessly along the streets of
Stockholm. They had all to be lodged, directed towards
the Russian frontier, and supplied with passports and
money to buy food on the way.
The Legation and the Russian Consulate-General
had no funds at their disposition. I managed, not
without difficulty, to get into the bank where I had some
credit, and where they paid out to me all the money I
had there—a few thousand crowns. The next day I saw
M. Emmanuel Nobel arriving; he was the head of the
house so well known to us and to the whole world.
This excellent man immediately placed a loan of 50,000
crowns at my disposal, and advised me to apply for
the remainder straight to M. Wallenberg. In a quarter
of an hour’s interview with the latter the necessary
arrangements were made: the Swedish Government
gave orders to supply the Russian Legation and the
Consulate with as many railway and steamer tickets
as they required. At the railway stations Russian
travellers were to receive food, milk for the children,
1 Probably to furnish some for the German spies who were going to
Russia.
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