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Elsa Brandstrom Biography |
Elsa Brandstrom (March 26, 1888 - March 4, 1948), born in St. Petersburg, was the daughter of General Edvard Brändström, the Swedish Ambassador to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia during World War I. She was known as The Angel of Siberia for her ministrations to German prisoners of war during that war.
Gazing down from the window of the Embassy in St. Petersburg, Russia, onto German prisoners of war on their way to the frozen tundra of Siberia, Brändström was moved to leave the luxury of diplomatic life and became a nurse. She ministered to the prisoners of war in Siberia, in part privately and in part as a delegate of the Swedish Red Cross and with the protection of the Swedish and Danish embassy authorities. The prisoners of war benefited tremendously and named her The Angel of Siberia.
After the war, she attended the orphans of the German soldiers who had been killed, and Russian prisoners of war. She married Robert Uhlig, and moved to Germany where she served among the destitute. When Hitler rose to power, Elsa and her husband were forced to flee from Germany and came to America, where she and her husband offered care to European refugees.
Her husband took up teaching at Harvard University. She died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
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