What Did You Do In The War, Sweden?
by Pelle Neroth Taylor /
2015 / English / EPUB
177.8 KB Download
Probably nearly every book that could have been written about the Second World War has been written. But here is a rare fresh perspective: that of a coddled welfare state living peacefully with Nazism, deep inside Hitlers European Empire. In neutral Sweden there were daily flights to Berlin and the ferry to occupied Copenhagen ran uninterrupted through the war years. The Swedish king visited Berlin, as did acting troupes and sports teams which competed in European Championships in which only Sweden and the German satellites participated. It was not very dignified war existence, but Sweden survived, thanks to a number of shoddy compromises and deals with both sides that helped put Sweden ahead of the competition after the world war. Thanks to a very sharp eye for self-promotion and what looks good with the international public, Swedens World War II record is little-known compared to its reputation today as an outspoken humanitarian superpower. This pamphlet gives the reader interested in Sweden scholarship and background to an interesting period in Swedens history, when Stockholm was a playground for Allied and Axis spies and democracy teetered on the edge, surviving thanks to appeasement and far-reaching compromise with dictatorship.
