The Swedish situation during the second world war

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Introduction
This is a report about Sweden during the second world war. I will analyse if Sweden was neutral during the entire war and I will also analyse some opinions from different people, about Sweden’s neutrality, but they don’t speak for the Swedes in general.
When the war broke out in September 1939, when Germany attacked Poland, Sweden’s government proclaimed Sweden neutral. Those who fought were the Allies and the Axis. In 1942, the Allies were Great Britain, USA and the Soviet Union. The Axis were Germany, Italy and Japan. In the beginning of the war, Soviet and Germany fought together, but that changed in 1941. The war ended in May 1945 (in Europe), when Germany capitulated, and it was first then, that the rest of the world understood what a cruel dictator Germany had had. Hitler and his Nazi party had tried to exterminate a whole nation, the Jews. He had also tried to kill or hush up his enemies. This is called the Holocaust.

Report
The Finnish winter war
When Soviet attacked Finland in November 1939, the war came suddenly very close to Sweden. The Swedish government was rearranged into a coalition government, where all parties were represented except the Communists. The Prime Minister was the Social Democratic party leader Per Albin Hansson. This writes Sten Carlsson about in ”Sverige under andra världskriget” Den Svenska Historien Del 14.
In this war, Sweden sent about 8000 soldiers from the volunteer corps. We also sent weapons and took care of Finnish children and disabled people. The material help is estimated to circa 500 million Swedish Crowns.
During this war, Sweden should have been counted as a nonbelligerent country, instead of a neutral country, since Sweden hadn’t proclaimed a particular neutrality statement for the Finnish winter war, writes Sten Carlsson further.

The Permittent traffic
The 9th of April in 1941, both Denmark and Norway were attacked by Germany. By this time, Sweden was almost defenceless. In Denmark, the Germans took control quite fast, but the Norwegians kept fighting a long time, especially in the north. This is also to be read in Den Svenska Historien Del 14, by Sten Carlsson. The Swedish government didn’t want to transport German soldiers and weapons from the north of Norway to the south of Norway through Sweden as long as there were fights, but we did transport doctors, medical equipment and provisions this way, for Germany’s benefit. In conclusion, Sten Carlsson writes that Norway wanted Sweden to send volunteer soldiers, and also weapons and ammunition, but we didn’t, which irritated the Norwegians.
In the summer of 1940, Germany won in Norway. Germany was very strong this summer, and according to “Sverige och ockupationen av Danmark och Norge”, Teman till Historien efter 1914 by Bengt-Åke Häger had some of Sweden’s intelligence men told the Swedish government that Britain were about to conclude peace with Germany very soon, which could have been two reasons to why Sweden said yes to Germany when they made a demand on Sweden. The demand meant that Sweden would let unarmed soldiers and war material be transported to and from Norway and Finland across Sweden, under custody. This caused criticism in both Norway and Sweden, but it ended first in September 1943.

The Midsummer crisis
Germany and Soviet fought at the same side for almost two years, but in June 1941, the friendship was over. Germany had surprisingly attacked Soviet, so Soviet started to fight together with the Allies. Finland joined Germany, because they hoped that they could take back some territories from Soviet, which Soviet had conquered in the Finnish winter war.
Now, Germany put one more requirement on Sweden. The requirement was about that Germany wanted to send an armed division, the Engelbrecht division, from Norway to Finland, across Sweden.
There were a lot of different opinions in this question, one thing, which is written in Alla Tiders Historia A by Börje Bergström, is that the Swedish king, Gustav V, said that he wouldn’t hear of a no. The Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson interpreted this as if the king would abdicate if we didn’t said yes to the German’s. After discussions in the government and in the parliament, we said yes. In Per Albin Hansson’s diary by the 25th of June 1941 (Alla tiders historiska texter), we can read about how the king especially thanked the Prime Minister for his hard work.
KG Westman represented Bondeförbundet and he was the Minister of Justice at this time. In his diary, also on the 25th of June (Alla tiders historiska texter), he wrote that a Social Democrat called Wigforss said during the government discussion, that the government actually shouldn’t allow this, but he thought that it was a very important question and it was important that the government were united, so he declined to make a reservation in the report. Three other Social Democrats, Möller, Sköld and Gjöres, agreed with Wigforss, but none of them wanted to make reservations either. This made the Prime Minister the only Social Democrat in the government that wanted to allow the Germans to transport soldiers. Westman himself thought that the existing power conditions had to be taken into consideration.
Svenska Dagbladet (conservative) wrote the 26th of June that they thought that the decision were taken for the Sweden’s future welfare in a very delicate situation and they didn’t see it as a surrender.
Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning (liberal), on the other hand, wrote the same day (the 26th of June) that it was a perfidy from the government and they considered that we had been bad at being neutral in the beginning of the war, but now, we weren’t neutral at all. They also wrote that, unlike the Danes and the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t have any stamina left.
In Den svenska historien del 14 by Sten Carlsson, it says that Germany also was allowed to send German troops and weapons over Swedish territorial water.

The turning-point
When USA entered the war in December 1941, after attacks from Japan, the world political situation slowly changed. This writes Sten Carlsson about in “Sverige under andra världskriget”, Den Svenska Historien, del 14. USA didn’t like that Sweden was neutral, and nor did they like that we exported iron ore to the Germans or the Permittent traffic. They also said that they could reduce Sweden’s oil import, if Sweden kept helping the Germans. Sten Carlsson writes further that during the winter of 1942 – 1943, Germany had suffered big losses at Stalingrad and in North Africa, which lead to that it was the Allies that now had the most power and were in the position of making demands upon countries. Despite this, we improved our bargaining position with Germany and deteriorated it with the Allies.
The Prime Minister and the Liberals and Conservatives wanted Sweden to be neutral, but Wigforss (bf) and some trade specialists wanted us to adjust to the Allies, because they were the ones in power now. And that was what we did, we adjusted us to the Allies. One example was that we reduced the iron ore export to Germany with 25%. We also put an end to the Permittent traffic. Germany protested, but they didn’t do anything. Sweden also, gradually stopped the ball bearing export to Germany, after vague threats from USA, that they could “by mistake” bomb the ball bearing factory in Gothenburg.
According to Bengt-Åke Häger, in “Sverige och ockupationen av Danmark och Norge”, Teman till historien efter 1914, Sweden’s government collaborated with the Danish and Norwegian resistance movements. We smuggled weapons to them and also trained people from them to be a police force, that could take control if the German’s surrendered, and it actually came in force when the German’s did surrender. The Swedish government also said (after begging from the Norwegian government in London) that if the German’s tried to senseless destroy anything, as they had done when they retired from the north of Norway , Sweden wouldn’t just let it be, but we didn’t do it “officially” because the government thought that it wasn’t too big risks about it.

Opinions from some Swedes
The Swedish people had, of course, opinions about the war, the neutrality and the Jews. This writes Torbjörn Nilsson about in “Anpassningspolitik, tyskvänlighet eller ren nazism?” in Sök i det förlutna Del 2. For example, Otto Wallén (bf) and Gunnar Björck, a Conservative student, said in 1939 that they didn’t want Jews in general, respectively Jewish doctors in Sweden because they took jobs from the Swedes.
Rickard Lindström wrote in 1940 in Ny Tid (s) that he wanted to adjust to the world political situation, and he thought that everyone had to make things as good as possible for themselves in tough situations.
Torsten Kreuger, on the other hand, wrote in Aftonbladet (conservative and liberal) 30/6 1941 that Germany was our saviour from the Communists and that Germany was invincible and that Finland could be proud to help Germany with this assignment.

Conclusion
I don’t think that Sweden was neutral during the second world war. To call yourself neutral, you have to be it all the time not just when you like it. We were neutral sometimes, and sometimes we weren’t. Of the things I’ve written about was the first thing when we sent weapons to Finland. The soldiers were volunteers, so that wasn’t a deviation from the neutrality policy. Then, I think that we weren’t neutral when we helped Germany with doctors and medical equipment when they fought with Nor...