Portal:Scouting/Selected biography/September

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, was a Swedish diplomat noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 423 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt. Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1947–1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948 by the militant Zionist group Lehi, while pursuing his official duties. Bernadotte represented Sweden in 1933 at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition and later served as Swedish commissioner general at the New York World's Fair in 1939–40. Bernadotte had long been involved with the Swedish Boy Scouts (Sveriges Scoutförbund), and took over as director of the organization in 1937. At the outbreak of World War II, Bernadotte worked to integrate the scouts into Sweden's defense plan, training them in anti-aircraft work and as medical assistants.