[11] Shira Schoenberg in http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/folke.html
Count Folke Bernadotte [then about age 50] was the nephew of King Gustav V of Sweden and had held various positions with the Swedish Red Cross. The Count had managed to save thousands of Jewish people from the gas chambers by negotiating with Heinrich Himmler. But, the Count had just four years to live because the Jewish extremist underground group LEHI felt that he could have saved additional Jewish people in WW II. LEHI felt that his proposed 1948 partition plan for Palestine into Jewish and Arab sections of one country was flawed for the Jewish people [it probably would have been an unpractical solution]. On 17 Sept 1948, while serving as a U N peace mediator in Palestine, the Count was assassinated by the LEHI group.

[12] Time Magazine, 7 May 1945: The Reader's Digest Headquarters was located in Pleasantville, N Y. Count Folke Bernadotte had married Estelle Manville in 1928. She was a Johns Manville Company fortune heiress from Pleasantville, N Y.

[13] National Archives, Department of State Records [Decimal File 1940-44, 711.62114 from SICK/ 9-1444 to /12-3044, Box No. 22141. Dr. Michael Hussey of the Archives kindly supplied me with copies of 22 documents related to the 9/11/44 Nazi boarding episode. They were declassified on 23 Aug 2006. Abstracts of several of these items appear below in chronological order:

(a) 17 Oct 1944: State received telegram # 4224 from the Stockholm Legation, which was then paraphrased and sent on to the FBI and the Navy. Ominously, it said Hansen went to Germany for indefinite internment. The Germans "supposedly" had released Kelly for transport back to Sweden.

(e) 22 Oct 1944: Mrs. Blanche Kelly of Mission, TX sent a telegram to Cordell Hull of State. She wanted to know how she could communicate with her son Robert Raymond Kelly.

(h & j) 30 Oct 1944 and 2 Nov 1944: Communications from State to Bern and to American Export Lines. They said that Kelly had not yet been released to Sweden.

(k) 8 Nov 1944: A secret telegram from State to their Stockholm Legation: They were to obtain Kelly's fingerprints and send them by the "most urgent means" to State. State also wanted to know (1) what arrangements Swedish American Lines were making for Kelly's early return to the U S and (2) if Swedish authorities were aware of the reasons for the continued detention of Hansen. Conclusion: State was suspicious that the Nazis may have replaced with an agent.

(m) 9 Nov 1944: A hand-written letter on Moore Field stationary [a Texas air base that trained
6, 000 fighter pilots during WW II], from Mrs. Blanche Kelly of Mission, TX to A. E. Clattenburg [Special War Problems Section] of State asking him where was her son Robert Raymond Kelly. She said . . . "I think this boy has been through enough doing the kind of work he did for four years in these times when sailing the seas was no pleasure "
Conclusion: Kelly's was born 2 Jan 1924 [footnote [16] below]. He must have gone to sea when he was about 17. We know separately [see #14B below] that he had first met Erik Hansen in the period Jan to June 1943. Did Kelly and Hansen first meet in an intelligence "boot-camp"?

Events then began to move faster than the various U S Government agencies could react:

(n) 10 Nov 1944: A four page draft of an informal memo by Frederick B. Lyon for S. W. P. of the State Department. Items I to III below summarize the main portions of this informative memo:

I - Erik Hansen was a Dane from a prominent Copenhagen family whose father was the editor the Danish newspaper "Berlingske Tidende". His uncle K. K. Streincke, was formerly the Minister of Justice in the Danish Cabinet. He gave as a reference Christmas Muller, President of the Danish Council in London. Erik joined the 1,010 Danes who went to Finland's aid when she was attacked by Russia in the "Winter War" of Dec 1939 to Apr 1940. He returned to Denmark in April 1940, but he left two days before the Germans invaded [did his wife accompany him out?]. He then joined the Norwegian Air Force, went to Canada for training, and served in Iceland. He was discharged on his own application in Canada [was this because Erik was an epileptic?].

In 1942, Erik joined the Allied Merchant Marine. He "jumped ship" in Iran, traveled thru Iraq, and arrived in New York in Aug 1942 [this was no small wartime feat, so I suspect that he already was doing Allied intelligence work] and then he worked for Army Intelligence. He made an OWI overseas broadcast to Denmark on 26 Mar 1943 and then worked in New York for the Army Service Force compiling a Danish Dictionary.

His wife [was she in the U S with him?] had telegraphed her cousin in Sweden that Erik was in route to Sweden [had this been intercepted by the Nazis?]. And, Erik contacted her relatives while there. Lyon said that Erik may have also contacted the Danish underground while there, "if for no other reason than to obtain information regarding his parents in Copenhagen".
Conclusion: Erik Hansen was obviously more than just a dining steward on the "Gripsholm".

II - Erik apparently first met up with Robert Kelly in the New York area during Jan to June 1943. They met again about two weeks prior to the 23 Aug 1944 departure of the "Gripsholm" from New York. The State Department did not know if Kelly persuaded Hansen to sign on the "Gripsholm" voyage or vice versa. Kelly had been questioned by certain intelligence agencies because so many of his ships were torpedoed. State suspected that Kelly might be a [German] informer, which Lyon thought would have accounted for his subsequent release by the Nazis [more on this later].

Lyon mentioned that Kelly & Hansen's removal from the "Gripsholm" occurred shortly before the Nazi's arrested a lot of Danes connected with the Danish underground. See footnote [14] below.
Conclusion: How could Kelly have transmitted information to the appropriate German submarines? I doubt that Kelly was an informer. Torture may have been more expedient to use with Erik Hansen because he suffered from epilepsy. The Germans could have taken advantage of this ailment.

III - S. W. P. of State thought it advisable to have the London Embassy ask Mr. Christmas Muller if the information on Hansen in (A) were correct. The Stockholm Legation was told to make a discreet investigation of the background of Harry Sahlin [the cousin of Erik's wife] in the town of Soderhamn, Sweden [on the Baltic Coast about 150 miles north of Stockholm]. They were also told to determine the nature of Sahlin's contact with Erik in Goteborg.
Conclusion: State was suspicious that Harry Sahlin might then have either accidentally talked to the "wrong" person or been a German sympathizer who had betrayed Erik to the Germans.

(p) 22 Nov 1944: The Secretary of State received a secret telegram #4794 from "Johnson" in Stockholm to the effect that "Kelly had been put on board an unnamed Swedish vessel which departed from Kristiansand [Norway] and on an unnamed date westbound for ports overseas". The State Department forwarded the contents of the telegram on to the FBI and ONI on 27 Nov 1944.

(r) 24 Nov 1944: A Memorandum of Conversation between Commander Drury of the Coast
Guard and Mr. Hibbard. It focused on Kelly's alleged release by the Germans. The exact words used were it would be best not to notify the British Government for the information of the British Control Ports because of a feeling that should the British have an opportunity, they might examine Kelly so thoroughly that his usefulness to this Government would be considerably reduced."

(s) 4 Dec 1944: A State Department telegram to the Legation in Stockholm. It had an excerpt
from Bern's no. 7475 [dated I1 Nov 1944]: The Germans had told the Swiss that they received information after the "Gripsholm" had left Goteborg [on the 10 Sept.] that Hansen & Kelly had violated German security regulations. Interrogation of the two men [was torture used.?] had confirmed [German] suspicions that their intention was to transmit documents of a secret character to the enemy [Danes or the Allies]. That Hansen was communicating with Danish partisans was said [by the Germans] to have been proved. Hence, they had arrested Hansen. Kelly was supposedly being sent to Sweden as his offence appeared insignificant [Did Kelly's "cover" story hold ?].

The Germans regarded the U S protest [original protest of the 9/11/44 boarding] to have been groundless. They therefore rejected it. Acting Secretary of State E. R. Stettenius now instructed the Stockholm Legation to get the name of the Swedish vessel carrying Kelly, his capacity on that ship [as a passenger or crew member?], its date of departure, ports of call and date of arrival at each port.

(t & u) 4 Dec 1944: Airgrams were sent to all U S Embassies and U S Consulates in Central American, Caribbean, and South American countries alerting them to look for a west-bound Swedish ship from Kristiansand, Norway carrying Kelly. They gave a description of Kelly [5'6", brown hair & eyes, scar over left eye] and said ONI representatives have been similarly informed.

Conclusion: The State Department sent out an "all-points" bulletin south alerting all embassies to "Kelly". That was where they thought "Kelly" was heading. State must have thought a person posing as "Kelly" was a German spy who was out on mission to do no good. The Germans had held the passport and papers of Kelly for 2.5 months. They could easily have changed the photo and sent a German agent [posing as Kelly] to wherever the ship was going.

(v) 7 Dec 1944: Blanche Kelly sent a letter to A. E. Clattenburg, Jr. of State saying that she had received two telegrams from her son. One, dated 24 Nov 1944 said ..."Now free in Scotland", sent from Glasgow, signed "Robert Kelly". The second, dated 27 Nov 1944 said . . ."All well and safe, please don't worry", sent from Sansorigine [a place without origin] via "Mackay" [a marine radio company], signed simply "Kelly" [were the Germans aware that Kelly's mother was nervous?]. The Germans would probably have found her address in his papers. And, why were two telegrams sent?

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