Sweden and the
Holocaust
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Danish refugees
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Sweden was involved in many efforts to save Jews from
Nazi brutality and murder. In 1942, Sweden allowed the
immigration of 900 Norwegian Jews. In October 1943,
Sweden gave asylum to more than 8,000 Danish Jews, the
whole Danish Jewish community, which came to Sweden via
small fishing boats. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg
saved thousands of Hungarian Jews in Budapest. Also,
Count Folke Bernadotte helped bring Jews and non-Jews out
of concentration camps.
Sweden also
profited from the Holocaust. It is known that
Wallenberg's relatives made money converting Nazi gold
into Swedish crowns and that Sweden provided iron ore and
ball bearings to the Nazis. Swedish documents reveal that
some Swedes actually sided with the Nazis and volunteered
to fight for Hitler. Some Swedes were members of the
Waffen SS and served in police batallions.
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Wallenberg
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A committee was established by the Swedish government in
1997 to investigate the transfer of Nazi gold to Sweden
during the war. It is reported that Sweden received 38
tons of gold from Nazi Germany (worth today US $430
million). Many Swedish companies, such as Ericsson, AGA
and Hasselblad Cameras, as well as the country's paper
and wood industries traded with Nazi Germany. Swedish
jewelers bought stolen diamonds, which were smuggled into
Sweden by civil servants working at the German legation
in Stockholm.
From:
The Virtual Jewish History
Tour
Sweden
By Rebecca Weiner
<.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Sweden.html#Holocaust>