Wartime Wednesday: Sweden During World War II

Wartime Wednesday: 

Sweden During WWII

Sweden (formerly the Kingdom of Sweden) is located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe bordering Norway, Finland, and the North and Baltic Seas. It is the largest of the Nordic countries and by area and population, the fifth-largest country in Europe. The capital is Stockholm, and intriguingly, a whopping 88% of the population lives in urban areas. Sweden’s history goes back thousands of years.

During World War II, Sweden declared its neutrality, but scholars argue if that is the case. Before the war commenced, Germany had over 130 corporations in Sweden, and there was some number of firms that were thought to be financed by German Corporations of German nationals such as Siemens and I.G. Farben. There were also almost two hundred Swedish corporation that had “an identity of interest” with German corporations such as patent and trademark agreements, contractual agreements, and representation of German companies through Swedish sales agencies. Two sources indicate that German “influence was significant in the following Swedish industries: iron-ore and mining, coal import and distribution, machine and machine tool manufacture, forestry, shipbuilding, and steel.

Germany was allowed to mine the Öresund channel which thwarted Allied shipping. Germans were also

permitted to use Swedish facilities and the Swedish cipher to send secret messages to its overseas embassies. In addition, citizens could volunteer to fight alongside German troops. On the other hand, Sweden aided the Norwegian resistance in many ways including the creation of training camps along their mutual borders, claiming the camps were for police training. In 1943, Sweden helped rescue Danish Jews from deportation to concentration camps. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and his colleagues also worked to save Hungarian Jews.

The Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union began in November 1939, and Sweden declared itself a “non-belligerent” in this conflict as well, however, sent financial aid, medicine, food, clothing, and weapons to Finland, and laid mines to deter Soviet submarines.

Both the Allies and Germany blockaded Sweden during the war, dropping trade with Britain by seventy percent and causing a dearth of food and supplies for its citizens. Rationing of fuels and food commenced, and fuel substitutes were created such as wood gas for motor vehicles and shale oil for bunker oil. The Soviet Union bombed Sweden, but by all reports, no one was killed in the events.

As a result of the bombings, the government ordered all residents to empty all contents from their attics to prevent large fires. Valuables from historic buildings were moved outside the cities, and the sculpture group Saint George and the Dragon was disassembled and moved underground.

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A Lesson in Love

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

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Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_during_World_War_II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYXfUXOEhKI
https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/civilian/rg-84-sweden.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_camps_in_Sweden_during_World_War_II
https://wwv.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206061.pdf
https://www.norwegianamerican.com/sweden-and-norway-during-world-war-ii/
https://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/18/was-sweden-really-neutral-in-world-war-two

Photo Credits:
Soldier: Courtesy History is Now Magazine
Map of Sweden: Google maps
St. George and the Dragon statue: By Ässet12 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.