Children…

The Nazi temptation
A Nazi rally at Hötorget in
Stockholm, 1932. During
the 1930s and early
1940s, pro-Nazi gatherings
and demonstrations
were a common sight all
over Sweden. They were
initially well-attended,
but participation gradually
diminished.
During the inter-war period, many Europeans questioned
the benefits of democracy and felt a certain
attraction towards Hitler and Nazism’s messages. However,
in Sweden, Social Democratic Prime Minister Per
Albin Hansson and other leading politicians managed to
keep Sweden’s political scene free of significant fascist
and authoritarian influences. No notable Nazi or fascist
movements secured a foothold in Sweden. Nazi influence
was marginalised by measures such as the May 1933
agreement between the Farmers’ League and the Social
Democrats. When the war broke out in 1939, there was
hardly any direct Nazi influence in Swedish politics.
Yet, thousands of Swedes were attracted to Nazi
doctrines. The Nazi goal of creating an ethnically “pure”
nation state struck a chord with many people. Simultaneously,
elements of Swedish society increasingly feared
immigration to Sweden in the 1930s. Many from the
social elite, such as academics, doctors, military officers
and vicars, often found a great deal to admire about
Hitler’s “new Germany”. During the war some newspapers,
not only those with Nazi sympathies, sided with
Germany. For years, publications such as Aftonbladet,
Helsingborgs Dagblad, Norrbottens-Kuriren and Östgöta-
Correspondenten expressed their support for Nazi Germany,
while at the same time criticizing the Allies and
those Swedes who backed them against Nazi Germany.
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