It is August 27, 1989. My AFU friend and colleague
Anders Liljegren and I are traveling by car to an apartment in Bromma, outside
Stockholm, where the late Swedish UFO research
pioneer K. Gösta Rehn spent his last years. He died on June 17, 1989 at
the age of 98. Already in 1978 Rehn had donated part of his collection of books
and magazines to AFU. He had also told his daughter, Greta Frankel, that the
remaining archive, mainly consisting of correspondence, would go to AFU after
his death.
K. Gösta Rehn
Eager and expectant we enter the apartment and are
met by Greta Frankel. Stunned and surprised we find only a few remaining books
and magazines on the shelfs. We naturally ask Greta Frankel where all the
correspondence is placed? Shocked and dismayed we are told that, about a week
ago, she had dumped all correspondence in a container at the back of the house.
Disheartened we walk to the back of the house and in a container filled with
lots of trash we locate 32 binders of correspondence, all in good condition. In
a state of euphoria we load the binders into our car for transportation to AFU.
During the travel back to Norrköping we praise fate for our almost incredible luck
and success in this endeavor.
These 32 binders contain, especially for
researchers, invaluable correspondence with UFO witnesses, ufologists and
scientists from all over the world. A treasure trove of fascinating data giving
personal insights into the UFO movement of the 1950s. 60s and 70s. As K. Gösta
Rehn was the Swedish representative of APRO there are 220 letters exchanged
between Rehn och Jim and Coral Lorenzen. Part of APRO correspondence was an
important source of data for David Booher when writing his recently published
No Return. The Gerry Irwing Story, UFO Abduction or Covert Operation?
I have never really understood people who find
archives dull and unimportant. Perusing a recently donated archive at AFU is
for me like entering a new and unknown universe full of fascinating
information. In September 1989 I spent a week reading all the Rehn
correspondence, resulting in a large biographical article and later a chapter
in my first UFO book UFO – i myt och verklighet, 1993 (UFO – In Myth and
Reality). By reading the complete correspondence file of K. Gösta Rehn I
received an unprecedented insight into the personal life, research and theories
of one of the real pioneers of Swedish UFO research.
Another pioneer in the Swedish UFO movement was Ms
Edith Nicolaisen (1911-1986), founder of the publishing house Parthenon in July
1957. Edith Nicolaisen began
corresponding with George Adamski in 1954 and the first book published in
Swedish in October 1957, was Flying Saucers Have Landed by
Desmond Leslie and George Adamski. Her second aim was to form as many UFO
and new age groups in Sweden as possible. Parthenon published several of the
classic contactees of the 1950s: George Adamski, Daniel Fry, Ray and Rex
Stanford, Elisabeth Klarer. Edith Nicolaisen corresponded with hundreds of
ufologists, contactees, esotericists and new-age activists from around the
world between 1950-1986.
In 1985 Carl-Anton Mattsson and Mats Nilsson,
UFO-Sweden, became concerned for the future of Parthenon and the large archive
of the publishing house. Mats Nilsson wrote a letter to Edith Nicolaisen
resulting in a meeting, October 1985, at Nicolaisen´s apartment in Helsingborg.
Edith was by then old and frail and during the meeting decided donating the Parthenon
archive and in the future also the publishing house, provided Carl-Anton
Mattsson and colleagues continue publishing UFO and New Age literature. On
November 9, 1985 Carl-Anton Mattsson and I travelled to Helsingborg loading our
hired van with lots of boxes filled with books and magazines. Several trips
were made before the entire archive was safely housed at AFU. About three
months later, February 28, 1986, Edith Nicolaisen died, 74 years old. The very
extensive and voluminous correspondence from K. Gösta Rehn and Parthenon has
been digitized by Leif Åstrand at AFU.
In the 1990s I began a systematic effort to locate
old Swedish ufologists and representatives of UFO groups no longer active, to
retrieve as many archives as possible. In this way much of Swedish UFO history
was saved for future research. Practically all people contacted generously
donated their archives but now and then my inquiry came to late and I was
informed that all material had been burnt or dumped not long ago. A sad message
when the collection was especially large or valuable. But many times Anders
Liljegren and I could celebrate a happy ending to our efforts when travelling
home to AFU with still another archive in the car.
Edith Nicolaisen
Carl-Anton Mattsson at AFU, August 14, 2010
The fate of an archivist. Anders Liljegren working hard with a new donation August 8, 2011
In the 1990s Clas Svahn, together with UFO-Sweden
colleagues, expanded the archive retrievals to include several European countries,
especially England. As there is no archive institution like AFU in England many
British ufologists have donated their collections for preservation in Sweden.
Large Schenker lorries are regularly unloading boxes of archival material at
AFU, with donations from all over the world. We are especially grateful to be
the custodians of the Flying Saucer Review (FSR) and Borderland SciencesResearch Foundation (BSRF) archives. Clas Svahn and colleagues have by now made
at least 25 journeys across Europé in pursuit of archives. While I am writing
this Clas Svahn and Carl-Anton Mattsson has just arrived at AFU after yet
another successful trip to England. We are now expecting the next Schenker
lorry with around 150 boxes of material.
Although our efforts to save UFO, Fortean and
paranormal archives around the world has been a success story we have also
experienced failures and listened to the sad stories of dumped and destroyedarchives. Here just a few examples:
Clas Svahn with the archive of Boris Jungkvist
313 boxes in London 2012, on their way to AFU
Ivan Troeng, first generation Swedish ufologist. We
were promised his archive but relatives dumped the entire collection in a
container 2004.
Sven Olov Larsson, first generation Swedish
ufologist. His brother dumped the archive although we had been promised to have
all material.
Bjarne Håkansson (Zacharias Brandt), active in
Swedish ufology since early 1960s. He threw away his large personal archive but
regret the mistake today.
Kolbjörn Stenødegård (1937-1997), Norwegian
ufologist. Representatives from the municipality in Norway emptied his apartment
and dumped a very large UFO archive.
Dr. Helmut Lammer, author of MILABS: Military Mind
Control and Military Abductions (1999). In an email to me April 2011 Dr.
Lammer claimed to have thrown away his entire archive.
My AFU colleagues and I hope that everyone reading
this blog will not repeat the same tragic mistakes as shown above. If you do
have material of interest to AFU or know of archives in danger of being
destroyed, contact us as soon as possible. We will do our best to save the
collection for future research.
