PostNords "The Service of Humanity"

POSTNORDS (Sweden) on 10 August 1987 issued three First Day Cover stamps honouring Swedish diplomats in "The Service of Humanity", chiefly Raul Wallenberg, Dag Hammarskjold and Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg.Each of these men died while either securing the release of political prisoners or mediating conflicts. The Designer/Engraver was Gunnar Brusewitz and Majvor Franzén. The printer was PostNords frimärkstryckeri.

Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (1912 – disappeared in 1945)  saved thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian fascists during the later stages of World War II. While serving as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest between July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings which he declared as Swedish territory.

 

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (1905 – 1961)  carried out many responsibilities for the United Nations in the course of its efforts to prevent war and serve the other aims of the Charter. These included diplomatic activity in the Middle East, and negotiations with China for the release of detained American military pilots. In September 1961, Hammarskjold was on a diplomatic mission to the Congo when the plane carrying him and 15 other passengers crashed in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Hammarskjold was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after being nominated before his death.

 

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg ( 1895 – 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II he negotiated the release of about 450 Danish Jews and 30,550 non-Jewish prisoners from many nations from the Nazi German Theresienstadt concentration camp. After the war, 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 paramilitary Zionist group Lehi while pursuing his official duties. Upon his death, Ralph Bunche took up his work at the UN, successfully mediating the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and Egypt.

 

Source: Wikipedia