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Elsa Brandstrom
Swedish Red Cross
from:United States
Elsa Brandstrom, was the daughter of the Swedish ambassador to Tsar Nicholas II and was in Russia during the outbreak of WWI. Determined to help, she volunteered and put her nursing skills to use with the Russian army.
In 1915, Brandstrom was in Siberia treating German prisoners of war with the Swedish Red Cross. Matters got more complicated when her Russian work permit was revoked, but that didn’t stop her. Brandstrom continued traveling to Siberia illegally for two years, until the Russian authorities arrested her in Omsk in 1920. Upon her release, she went back to Sweden and launched a campaign to help POWs. Her efforts included fundraising and founding a children’s home with room for more than 200 orphans. Eventually, she married and moved to the United States. But even there she dedicated herself to helping German and Austrian refugees.
