It was extremely complicated! - And not only in Sweden. I'll get back to that.
I was referring to the sense of betrayal many Norwegians felt against Sweden after WWII. The two countries had been in a union for 100 years and they were close neighbors and many Norwegians felt a close bond with Sweden, so there was a considerable disappointment that Sweden were not able or willing to help more. Not least in the light that a large segment of the Swedish establishment (From the King and down) certainly did not disapprove of the Nazi basic attitudes: Order, discipline, nationalism, traditional virtues, rising by merit and very much also white supremacy. Antisemitism wasn't really a thing in Sweden. But first and foremost: "The Nazis will protect us from the Communists."
Looking back it is difficult to truly see how polarized Europe was during the 1930s and increasingly so. And it all ignited with the start of WWII.
Very simplified:
The Europeans were split into three political segments: The fascists/Nazis on one side (even though, being totalitarians,they were perfectly able to co-operate with other totalitarians when it suited them.) who sought order and stability through reestablishing traditional virtues combined with eradicating the class system and being able to rise by virtue. Combined with the centuries old European tradition of blaming the Jews. Oh, and BTW: Whites rules. With a firm but guiding and just hand...
On the other side were the Communists, who sought to obtain true social, economic, political and legal justice for all. If all are equal, none are oppressed and no-one are masters.
And then there were those who preferred a more or less flawed but certainly more desirable democracy. They were Social Democrats, representing the working class. The agrarian liberal parties with their belief in each man creating his own life and happiness. The intellectuals who wanted reforms but based on sound principles and common sense rather than ideology. The Christians parties with their humanist outlook who mostly looked in horror at both the Communists and the excesses of the Fascists. And finally the Conservatives who believed in God, King and country and who weren't keen on seeing it all being toppled by Communists or perverted by Fascists.
So during WWII in Europe there were basically two parallel wars going on:
The big one between the Axis powers and the Allies.
And the equally intense, albeit on a much smaller scale, civil war between Communists and anti-communists - and their often very strange bedfellows!
Trying to figure out why people fought who is hopeless. Let's take a couple of twins. They are both Conservatives and voted Conservative before the war and they live in a country that was occupied by Germany.
Brother A joins the Communist resistance due to his loathing of the occupation and wish to fight the occupiers and Nazis. Even though he is fearful of ending up living under a Communist regime "but at least they are doing something! The Communists are fighting!"
Brother B joins the Fascists. Even going so far as to volunteer for Waffen SS on the Eastern Front. Because the Communists will tear down everything that is beautiful and right and what we believe in, even God! The Fascists are nasty brutes and knuckle-walkers but at least they won't ruin our world. We can deal with them, we can influence them, we can humanize them. When the Communists are defeated.
See my point? You can make countless combinations with such twins as examples.
- And BTW are anyone else also getting concerned with these parallels to the current political movements in a number of countries?
But back to Sweden.
The security political situation in Sweden was, to put it mildly, precarious!
Finland was invaded by the Soviets and the support for the Finns was pretty universal in Scandinavia, even among those who harbored Communists sympathies. But who could be next? Would Stalin invade and take the Island of Gotland? (It's something that concerns the Swedes even today.) After all he invaded Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and split Poland between the Soviet Union and Germany.
So the fear of both a Communist coup, political victory by election or a Soviet invasion was very real in Sweden in the beginning of WWII!
On top of that Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Norway held out for months even though it was a hopeless struggle. The Allies were not logistically able to help Norway enough to prevent a final defeat. So helping the Norwegians militarily would certainly lead to a German invasion - and ultimately a defeat. (I have read modern estimates that even towards the middle of the war Sweden would only be able to resist a German invasion, which aimed at taking the largest ports, the mines at Kiruna and the railway connections to Norway and across Sweden, for no more than a few weeks. Don't know if that's correct but it seems plausible IMO.)
So there was also a very real threat of Germany invading Sweden.
In fact had the Germans decided to invade Norway and Denmark just a few days later, the Allies would have landed at Narvik, pretty uninvited mind you, marched across Norway and tried to take the mines in northern Sweden at Kiruna. Which means that Sweden (and Norway as well?) would have ended up being an ally of Nazi-Germany just like Finland.
So what to do? Fight and die or comply and survive.
So while Norway fought, Sweden did nothing.
For the first half of the war Sweden exported vital iron ore to Germany, allowed German supply trains and troop transport going through Sweden. Sweden wasn't "accidentally" bombed by the Allies as Switzerland was but I imagine it was close!
Sweden however managed to walk the tightrope and suck up (discreetly) to the Allies as the tide turned.
Not because all Swedes have pretty blue eyes, but because it's useful with a neutral state in the middle of things to do stuff... And not least because of the very real risk of: Where will the Soviets stop?
Towards the end of WWII Finland was defeated and most of the Baltic coast including Poland and what became East Germany was in Soviet hands. The Danish island of Bornholm was occupied. Would the Soviets leave? They did, fortunately.
Would they invade the Swedish island of Gotland and thus control the whole of the Baltic Sea? Would Finland be occupied as well? Would Finland become a Soviet client state, just like Poland?
So all in all even a neutral Sweden was desirable.
www.svenskdam.se
www.aftonbladet.se
how many wars have we fought between us, haha. We have the world record when it comes to declare each other war, don't remember the exact figure right now but it's over twohundred times.
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