Children…

“My friend led me to believe that
Germany would be very pleased
to see a volunteer’s movement in
Sweden and that it would also benefit
us greatly. Quite naturally, by the
way. (…) Should we not find some
way to actively display our interest
in contributing to the obliteration of
the Soviet Union? Surely we ought
to make up for P.A. H(ansson)’s
watered-down speech yesterday?
Is there nothing we can do?”
AN EXCERPT FROM A LETTER FROM COMMANDER ANDERS
FORSHELL, SWEDISH NAVAL ATTACHE TO
BERLIN, TO THE HEAD OF THE SWEDISH MILITARY INTEL­
LIGENCE, CARLOS ADLERCREUTZ, 30 JUNE 1941
Sweden after “Operation Barbarossa”
The war in Europe took a new turn after Germany
invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. The Germans
would fight a “war of annihilation”, urging all
Europeans to join in their “crusade against Bolshevism”.
In many countries, thousands responded to this
call. The Swedish Government resisted abandoning its
policy of neutrality, but reluctantly let the Wehrmacht’s
Engelbrecht division transit from occupied Norway
across Swedish territory to Finland. Some Swedes were
unhappy with the Government’s reluctance, preferring
more active participation on the German side.
In December 1941, Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor
and Hitler’s declaration of war brought the US into
the war alongside the Allies, essentially guaranteeing
Germany’s eventual defeat. Despite the Soviet Union’s
massive losses it stood victorious at war’s end; a fact
lamented by some Swedes. Though public opinion had
vacillated during the war, most Swedes supported the
Allies throughout.
First reports of mass murder
News that Germany’s brutal policies had taken an even
more murderous turn after June 1941 reached Swedish
citizens and government officials through various channels.Although
reports were sporadic, some newspapers
published information about them frequently. In September
1941, both Stockholms-Tidningen and Dagens
Nyheter quoted the Italian newspaper La Stampa, when
it wondered where Croatia’s Jews had disappeared to.
According to La Stampa, an investigation into the matter
had “not been able to reveal what fate has befallen
these 50,000 Croatian Jews”.
Swedish officials often received information on how
Germany’s policies were becoming increasingly radical.
In mid-October 1941, Sweden’s Military Attaché at the
Legation in Berlin, C.A. Juhlin-Dannfelt, reported on
mass death among Soviet prisoners-of-war, which he
thought might prove to be “history’s greatest decimation”.
Twelve days later, he reported that “in occupied
parts” of the Soviet Union, Jews were being shot by SS
special units, “including women and children”.
But how, and when, do random pieces of information
turn into knowledge and an understanding which leads
to a change in attitudes and actions? Sweden received
several pieces of the mass murder jigsaw, but an overall
understanding was difficult to achieve. The will to
actually believe the information and acknowledge this
broader perspective was crucial to the individual’s ability
to comprehend what was happening. For example,
such a willingness existed in some Christian circles. In
August 1943, Fl. Hällzon, editor of Hemmets Vän, wrote:
“The mass graves of Jews cry out to the world; yes, they
scream, and the screams pierce the skies up to God in
Heaven. Woe betide Germany and those responsible
when the bloody crops are harvested. Woe betide the
world, which through its sins has participated in this
blood-soaked crime being committed in our days.” By
the end of 1942, many were already more or less aware
of what was happening, which had a significant impact
on Sweden’s official reaction to the genocide. Despite
this, when the war ended, there were still those who
denied that Germany had perpetrated such crimes.
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