Medicinalstyrelsen
- National Board of Health
Biographical History
The National Board of Health (Medicinalstyrelsen) was established in 1878 as a central authority responsible for health care by reorganizing the Health Collegium (Sundhetskollegiet). In addition to previous areas of responsibility, dental care, veterinary services, and asylums were added in 1900. A large part of the field medical office's affairs were transferred in 1908 to a newly established medical board within the Army Administration (Arméförvaltningen). 1915 saw a major reorganization. The National Board of Health was divided into six bureaus, and a scientific council and a veterinary council were established.
The National Board of Health was also the central authority responsible for the medical care of the survivors of Nazi camps who came to Sweden in 1945, and the special hospitals installed for their care.
Scope and Content
The Medical Board's archives include documents relating to the care of concentration camp survivors who came to Sweden in 1945 through the Red Cross and the UNRRA operation. There are documents relating to patients, hospitals, camps and staff.
The National Board's archive, 1945 refugee health care includes the series _ Medical index cards regarding refugees_ (Läkarkort rörande flyktingar) D 2. The series contains 16 boxes of medical cards of survivors, and documents from certain immigration centers and emergency hospitals, patient registers and patient rolls from various emergency hospitals. In series D3 and D4 there are Patient registers and indexes from various emergency hospitals (Patientliggare och patientrullor från olika beredskapssjukhus); and in D7 is an index of Hospitals and convalescent homes (Sjukhus och konvalescentförläggningar).
Series E1 is correspondence and E2 contains the records of the board's different hospitals and other facilities. For example, in E2 b, there are documents from the emergency hospital in Lärbro, where foreign male refugees and survivors were treated for TB (see also the Ingeborg Herlitz archive in this report).
Series F1 contains medical records organized by hospital and therein alphabetically by patient name (114 volumes), and series F2 contains records concerning Special care for refugees (Speciell flyktingsjukvård), 1950-1955 (4 volumes).
In addition to personnel cards, lists, circular letters, memoranda, correspondence concerning the estates of deceased refugees, diagnostic lists from Vrigstadshemmet and Kummelnäs, settlement records from Böö herrgård, reports from Målilla sanatorium are found in the miscellaneous file F3: 1. There are also reports from Solhem sjukhus, Krönbaden, Ekolsund, Skårby gård, Mälarbaden, Stråssa, Lövsätra, Viggbyholm and the Foreigners Commission (Utlänningskommissionen), as well as information on the arrival and departure of refugees.
In the archive of the board's divison Medicinalbyrån, the series Flyktingbarnverksamheten by Dr. Kjellberg, 1944-1946 (vol. F 30:1-3) are reports from inspections of various facilities, including Dr. Arvid Myrgård's inspections of the State Foreigners Commission's camps where Holocaust survivors were accommodated and cared for.
Sources
Carlsson, Carl Henrik. Källor till judarnas historia i Sverige: arkivguide. Skrifter utgivna av Riksarkivet 44. Täby: Riksarkivet, 2022.
Roos, Lena. ‘Barmhärtiga Svenskar Och Tacksamma Flyktingar. Ett Beredskapssjukhus Sommaren 1945 i Svensk Press’. Nordisk Judaistik • Scandinavian Jewish Studies 26: 1–2 (2008): 133–56.
Zetterström Geschwind, Britta, Markus Idvall, and Fredrik Nilsson. Den medicinska spärren: smitta och gränsarbete i skuggan av Förintelsen. Makadam förlag, 2023.
Rules and Conventions
EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0