Harald Edelstam

Edelstam was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and was the son of chamberlain Fabian Edelstam and Hilma Dickinson.[2] He was the older brother of the ambassador Axel Edelstam and grandson of member of parliament Ernst Edelstam. Edelstam passed studentexamen in 1933 and earned a Candidate of Law degree in Stockholm in 1939 before becoming employed as an attaché at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm the same year.[3]

He served in Rome in 1939 and the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm in 1940, in Berlin in 1941, and in Oslo in 1942 where Edelstam became acting Second Vice Consul in 1944.[3] As a diplomat in Nazi-occupied Norway, Edelstam saved the lives of hundreds of Jews and anti-Quisling freedom fighters.

He was acting Second Secretary at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm in 1944 and was Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1946 to 1948. Edelstam was Second Secretary at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm in 1946, acting First Secretary in 1948 and First Legation Secretary in The Hauge in 1949 and in Warsaw in 1952. He was then First Secretary at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm in 1953 and acting Director there in 1956. In 1958 Edelstam was sent to Vienna as Embassy Counsellor and in 1962 to Istanbul as Consul General.[3] He stayed in Istanbul until 1965 and was thereafter ambassador in Jakarta, also accredited to Manila from 1966 to 1968. Edelstam was then sent to Central America where he was ambassador in Guatemala City, also accredited to Managua, San José, San Salvador, and Tegucigalpa from 1969 to 1972. In 1972 he was sent to Santiago de Chile as ambassador.[2]

After the 1973 military coup against Chilean President Salvador 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.[4] After the incident, the Cuban Embassy in Santiago de Chile remained under Swedish protecting power for 18 years until 1991.[5] Prime Minister Olof Palme gave him all his support.[6]

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.

The Chilean military regime did not appreciate Edelstam's engagement and declared him persona non grata in December 1973.[5] Edelstam came back to Stockholm and was available for the Foreign Minister during 1974 before being sent as ambassador to Algiers[2] on the advice of Edelstam's greatest enemy, diplomat Wilhelm Wachtmeister.[5] He left the position and retired in 1979.[2]

The grave of Harald Edelstam, September 11, 2010, at Ekerö church close to Stockholm. The celebration of him helping the Chilean and others to escape during the 1973 military coup.

He was married 1939–1958 to Countess Louise von Rosen (born 1918), the daughter of Count Hans von Rosen and Dagmar (née Wikström)[2] and 1959–1963 to Natascha Michéew.[3][7] Edelstam married a third time in 1981 with Christine Colmain.[2] In the marriage with von Rosen he had three sons: Carl (born 1941), Hans (born 1943) and Erik (born 1946).[3] Edelstam died from cancer in 1989.

A film about Edelstam's activities in Chile, The Black Pimpernel, was released in September 2007. He was portrayed by Michael Nyqvist.

In 2019, he was portrayed by Mikael Persbrandt in Finnish-Chilean television series Invisible Heroes, depicting his efforts with Finnish Chargé d'affaires Tapani Brotherus to save refugees from Chile during the military coup.

Edelstam's awards:[3]

• Knight of the Order of the Polar Star
• Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau
• Commander of the Austrian Order of Merit
• Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav
• Officer of the Order of the White Elephant
• Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog
• Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy

• Edelstam Prize
• Roberto Kozak
• Raoul Wallenberg

• Edelstam, Erik H. (2013). Janusansiktet: berättelsen om diplomaten Harald Edelstams liv och tid [The Janus Face: the story of diplomat Harald Edelstam's life and time] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Carlsson. ISBN 9789173315968. SELIBR 13993674.
• Fors, Mats (2009). Svarta nejlikan: Harald Edelstam - en berättelse om mod, humanitet och passion [The Black Pimpernel: Harald Edelstam - a story of courage, humanity and passion] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Prisma. ISBN 978-91-518-5261-4. SELIBR 11206954.
• Perotti, Germán; Sandquist, Jan (2013). Harald Edelstam: héroe del humanismo, defensor de la vida [Harald Edelstam: humanism hero, defender of life] (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Santiago: LOM. ISBN 9789560004116. SELIBR 16235396.
• Perotti, Germán; Sandquist, Jan (2011). Harald Edelstam: la vida por sobre todo : ensayo biográfico [Harald Edelstam: life above all : biographical essay] (in Spanish). Stockholm: Ediciones Taller Estocolmo. ISBN 978-91-979451-1-0. SELIBR 12277403.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harald Edelstam.

• Isabel Allende interview with Amnesty International Denmark Isabel Allende on Harald Edelstamm in an interview with Amnesty International.
• Harald Edelstam on P3 Dokumentär