Gustavsson Pär, Nilsson Peter M
Department for History of Medicine, Lund University.
Sven Med Tidskr. 2006;10(1):153-76.
The fact that Sweden has been spared from war on its soil for almost 200 years, has not stopped Swedish citizens from participating in conflicts worldwide during this period. This has been described, especially from the soldiers perspective. The contribution of Swedish physicians has not been written about to the same extent. When Mussolini's Italy in October 1935 invaded the poor and underdeveloped country of Ethiopia (former Abyssinia) an ambulance was immediately organized by the Swedish Red Cross. To lead such an expedition, a great knowledge of Ethiopian culture och maybe most importantly, of the weather and geographical conditions, was undoubtedly demanded. Therefore, the Swedish Red Cross turned to two Ethiopian veterans. Doctor Fride Hylander, a missionary-son who had been working on a hospital project in the Ethiopian province of Harrar and his friend since school years, doctor Gunnar Agge, were assigned the leadership of the ambulance. Dr Agge had also participated in improving the Ethiopian health care both in Harrar and later as civilian and military doctor in the province of Ogaden, where he was medically responsible for the more than 9 000 men strong army that the Ethiopian emperor had stationed there after Italian provocations. Most of the other members of the ambulance were handpicked by these two leaders and many of them had, just like themselves, a stong religious belief. A money-raise was immediately initiated and in less than six weeks 700 000 Swedish crowns had been collected, more then twice the sum the ambulance was calculated to cost. In early november 1935 the ambulance was clear to go. Their primary objective was to travel through British Somaliland and establish a field-hospital in the province of Harrar. However, the Ethiopian emperor had other things in mind. He wanted to reorganize the ambulance and divide it in two and place it closer to the front line. The ambulance decided to go along with his wish. Both groups started eventually their dangerous journey towards the front, in the erratic hands of the weather-gods and the harsh environment. Roads, in a European sense, almost never existed and when the rain turned them into fields of mud, in which the cars constantly got stuck, the prospect of the ambulance did not seem good. For the minor group, for which Dr Agge was the assigned leader, it took more then two months to reach the eastern parts of Ethiopia. The other larger group reached its destination Mälka Dida on december 19th. It didn't take long before the Italian airforce started to show an alarming interest for their camp. On December 30th, despite the fact that the field-hospital was marked with the flag of the Red Cross according to the Geneva Convention, Italian pilots dropped more then one hundred bombs over the area and totally destroyed the field-hospital and more or less all medical equipment. This day remains as maybe the darkest in the history of the International Red Cross. The Swedish medical orderly Gunnar Lundström later past away due to the injuries he suffered. Doctor Hylander was also seriously wounded but fortunately he could fully recover. The remaing crew of the ambulance was forced to retreat and after spending some time in the capital Addis Abeba they joined the smaller group. In the beginning of May 1936 it was time for the ambulance to try to make its way home. The crew was running out of medical equipment and it seemed just like a matter of time before the Italian pilots would detect them. After a hazardous journey through a nation in complete anarchy after the collapse of the Ethiopian military they could finally put themselves in security in British Kenya. This paper concludes that the ambulance indeed made a great humanitarian effort, by making its way through the harsh environment, establishing it close to the front line and treating thousands of patients, including both civilians and soldiers. This was an extraordinary performance that brought some balance to the view of the Ethiopian people of the "white world" Gunnar Agge was driven by his strong religious beliefs and a great sense of humanism and compassion. This followed him throughout his lifetime an he can without a doubt be compared with another well-known physician, the Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune (1890-1939). His work was characterized by soldarity and a foundamental and honest view of equity with a people living in a different continent, that was in many ways the opposite to the general view held in Europe.
瑞典本土近200年来未遭受战争，但这并未阻止瑞典公民在此期间参与世界各地的冲突。这一点已有描述，尤其是从士兵的角度。瑞典医生的贡献却没有得到同样程度的记载。1935年10月，墨索里尼统治的意大利入侵贫穷落后的埃塞俄比亚（前阿比西尼亚）时，瑞典红十字会立即组织了一支救护车队。要领导这样一次远征，无疑需要对埃塞俄比亚文化有深入了解，也许最重要的是，要熟悉当地的天气和地理条件。因此，瑞典红十字会求助于两位埃塞俄比亚退伍军人。弗里德·海兰德医生是一名传教士之子，曾在埃塞俄比亚哈拉尔省参与一个医院项目，他从学生时代起的朋友贡纳尔·阿格医生被任命为救护车队的负责人。阿格医生还曾参与改善埃塞俄比亚的医疗保健工作，先是在哈拉尔，后来作为平民和军医在欧加登省工作，在那里，他负责为埃塞俄比亚皇帝在意大利挑衅后派驻当地的一支9000多人的军队提供医疗服务。救护车队的其他大多数成员都是由这两位负责人精心挑选的，他们中的许多人，和他们一样，都有坚定的宗教信仰。一场募捐活动立即启动，不到六周就筹集到了70万瑞典克朗，这比预计的救护车队费用多出了两倍多。1935年11月初，救护车队准备出发。他们的主要目标是穿越英属索马里兰，在哈拉尔省建立一所野战医院。然而，埃塞俄比亚皇帝另有想法。他想重组救护车队，将其分成两队，并将它们部署在更靠近前线的地方。救护车队决定听从他的意愿。两队最终都开始了前往前线的危险旅程，任由变幻无常的天气和恶劣的环境摆布。从欧洲人的角度来看，那里几乎没有道路，下雨时道路变成泥沼，汽车经常陷在里面，救护车队的前景似乎不妙。由阿格医生领导的较小一队花了两个多月才抵达埃塞俄比亚东部。另一支较大的队伍于12月19日抵达目的地马尔卡迪达。没过多久，意大利空军就开始对他们的营地表现出令人担忧的兴趣。12月30日，尽管野战医院按照日内瓦公约挂着红十字旗，意大利飞行员还是在该地区投下了一百多枚炸弹，彻底摧毁了野战医院和几乎所有医疗设备。这一天可能仍然是国际红十字会历史上最黑暗的一天。瑞典医疗勤务兵贡纳尔·伦德斯特罗姆后来因伤去世。海兰德医生也受了重伤，但幸运的是他完全康复了。救护车队的其余人员被迫撤退，在首都亚的斯亚贝巴待了一段时间后，他们与较小的一队会合。1936年5月初，救护车队试图回家。他们的医疗设备即将耗尽，而且意大利飞行员迟早会发现他们，这似乎只是时间问题。在埃塞俄比亚军队崩溃后，这个国家陷入了完全的无政府状态，他们经历了一段危险的旅程，最终在英属肯尼亚获得了安全。本文的结论是，救护车队确实做出了巨大的人道主义努力，他们穿越恶劣环境，在前线附近建立医院，并治疗了数千名患者，包括平民和士兵。这是一次非凡的表现，为埃塞俄比亚人民对“白人世界”的看法带来了一些平衡。贡纳尔·阿格受他坚定的宗教信仰以及强烈的人文主义和同情心的驱使。这伴随了他一生，毫无疑问，他可以与另一位著名医生、加拿大外科医生诺曼·白求恩（1890 - 1939）相提并论。他的工作体现了团结以及对生活在不同大陆的人民基本而真诚的公平观念，这在很多方面与欧洲的普遍观念相反。
