14 Facts About Harald Edelstam

Harald Edelstam was the older brother of the diplomat Axel Edelstam and grandson of the lawyer, the civil servant and the politician Ernst Edelstam.

Harald Edelstam passed studentexamen in 1933 and earned a Candidate of Law degree in Stockholm in 1939 before becoming employed as an attache at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm the same year.

Harald Edelstam 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.

Harald Edelstam 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.

Harald Edelstam was Second Secretary at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm in 1946, acting First Secretary in 1948 and First Legation Secretary in The Hague in 1949 and in Warsaw in 1952.

Harald Edelstam was then First Secretary at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm in 1953 and acting Director there in 1956.

In 1958 Harald Edelstam was sent to Vienna as Embassy Counsellor and in 1962 to Istanbul as Consul General.

Harald Edelstam stayed in Istanbul until 1965 and was thereafter ambassador in Jakarta, accredited to Manila from 1966 to 1968.

Harald Edelstam was then sent to Central America where he was ambassador in Guatemala City, accredited to Managua, San Jose, San Salvador, and Tegucigalpa from 1969 to 1972.

Harald Edelstam fetched the Cubans out of the embassy and took them to the Swedish Embassy, then got them out of Chile to safety.

Harald Edelstam helped many other Cubans to escape from Chile and was honored by Fidel Castro as a hero.

Harald Edelstam came back to Stockholm and was available for the Foreign Minister during 1974 before being sent as ambassador to Algiers on the advice of Harald Edelstam's greatest enemy, diplomat Wilhelm Wachtmeister.

Harald Edelstam married a third time in 1981 with Christine Colmain.

Harald Edelstam was interred on 7 June 1989 at Ekero Cemetery at Ekero Church in Ekero Municipality, Stockholm County.