Elias Joelsons samling

Elias Meyer Simonovich Joelson was born in 1887 to a German-speaking Jewish family in Friedrichstadt (today's Jaunjelgava) in the Russian Governorate of Kurland, south of Riga. He first trained as a pharmacist at the University of Jurieff, now Tartu in Estonia.

Joelson then went to St. Petersburg and entered a painting school. But after 1-2 years he started working in pharmacies, in St. Petersburg and Riga. He came to Sweden at the age of 28 during the First World War. In 1921 he was naturalized and in 1922 he married a Swedish woman, Helena Gustafsson.

During the Second World War, Joelson kept himself well informed about the situation of the Jews of Europe. His best friend was part of a group that gathered information on the situation of Baltic Jews.

In the spring of 1961 Elias Joelsson suddenly fell ill and within three weeks he was dead.

Elias Joelson left this collection behind when he died in 1961 in Stockholm, aged 74.