Harald Edelstam

Who was Harald Edelstam?

Gustav Harald Edelstam was a Swedish diplomat. During World War II he earned the nickname Svarta nejlikan for helping SOE agents and saboteurs escape from the Germans. During the 1970s he was stationed in Santiago, Chile, and became known as the "Raoul Wallenberg of the 1970s" when he helped Cuban diplomats and Uruguayan refugees and Chilean political active people escape persecution by Augusto Pinochet.

During the 1973 military coup against President Allende, the Cuban embassy was under fire by tanks and Cubans were returning fire from the windows; Edelstam took a Swedish flag in hand and walked in front of the tanks as bullets hurled past. He fetched the Cubans out of the embassy and took them to the Swedish embassy, then got them out of Chile to safety. Edelstam also helped many other Cubans to escape from Chile and was honored by Fidel Castro as a hero.

Due to his remarkable courage and moral integrity, Edelstam is today considered as a true modern-day hero among millions around Latin America, and particularly so among the hundreds of thousands of Chileans who were forced into exile by the dictatorial regime.