Although Rania Ali-Svedsater ’26’s Commentary piece last week raised some good points, it ignored a fundamental aspect of Sweden’s purported neutrality: they weren’t really neutral at all, especially during World War Two and the subsequent Cold War.
During the disastrous Second World War which saw all of Sweden’s neighbors get invaded and the destruction of much of Europe, Sweden escaped relatively unscathed. This was not a result of neutrality but rather cunning manipulation of both sides of the conflict. Due to strong economic and cultural ties between Sweden and Germany and a powerful eugenics movement in Sweden, there was Swedish sympathy and even support for the Nazis. Several Swedes went so far as to volunteer for the Waffen SS, Hitler’s paramilitary death squad.
However, the biggest blow to ostensible Swedish neutrality was the continued shipment of crucial iron ore and ball bearings that were vital to the Nazi war machine. These materials helped facilitate the slaughter and invasion of Europe by providing precious raw materials to Nazi Germany.
Meanwhile, the Swedes allowed German troops to use Swedish railways to fight in Finland and invade Norway. The U.S. State Department estimates that German soldiers made over 250,000 trips through Swedish territory, and the Swedish Navy even escorted German warships through the Baltic Sea. Particularly cruel is the betrayal of Norway. German troops circumvented Norwegian defenses by traveling through Sweden, treachery that the Norwegians never really forgot. How can these actions be considered the actions of a neutral country?
Sweden’s supposed neutrality also had effects on the Holocaust. Although Sweden was generally a safe haven for Norwegian and especially Danish Jews, there is a darker legacy. If you have ever visited Germany, you have seen “stolpersteine” small brass plaques interred in the ground that commemorate people who had been kidnapped from that location and then murdered in the Holocaust. The harrowing thing about Sweden’s “neutrality” is that there are stolpersteine in Stockholm, remembering Jews who had escaped Nazi-occupied Europe to Sweden only to be deported back to Europe, where they would later die in concentration camps.
All of these programs which helped the Nazis stopped when the tide of the war shifted. Under duress from the Allies, Sweden forbade German troops moving through Sweden in 1943, and later in the war would allow the Allies to train Danish and Norwegian troops there. As Winston Churchill reportedly said, Sweden “ignored the greater moral issues of the war and played both sides for profit.” This Machiavellian strategy was worse than simple passive neutrality, but it was not neutrality, no matter who tries to claim that.
