This book investigates the memory of the Holocaust in Sweden and concentrates on early initiatives to document and disseminate information about the genocide during the late 1940s until the early 1960s. As the first collection of testimonies and efforts to acknowledge the Holocaust contributed to historical research, judicial processes, public discussion, and commemorations in the universalistic Swedish welfare state, the chapters analyse how and in what ways the memory of the Holocaust began to take shape, showing the challenges and opportunities that were faced in addressing the traumatic experiences of a minority. In Sweden, the Jewish trauma could be linked to positive rescue actions instead of disturbing politics of collaboration, suggesting that the Holocaust memory was less controversial than in several European nations following the war. This book seeks to understand how and in what ways the memory of the Holocaust began to take shape in the developing Swedish welfare state and emphasises the role of transnational Jewish networks for the developing Holocaust memory in Sweden.
This article aims to give an overview of Jewish archives and archival sources in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Besides describing significant existing collections, the article looks into ongoing archival projects, digitizing and infrastructure programs, and maps out future challenges.
This article deals with a subject that has been sensitive in the Jewish community in Sweden since the time of the Holocaust, namely the widespread image of the Stockholm Jewish Community as being negative towards letting Jewish refugees find a safe haven in Sweden during the Nazi persecution and mass murder. This image has previously been explained by the alleged ineffectivity of the Stockholm Jewish Community to aid the refugees and Swedish Jewry's failure to integrate them into the community. The present article, however, shows that this image was also a result of political differences between Jewish organizations, groups, and individuals, internationally as well as in Sweden. It was also due to an exaggerated belief in, and misconception of, the influence of the Swedish Jews on the Swedish administration of refugee aid, and resulted in personal feuds in which this negative image was accentuated. Furthermore, the image of the reluctant Swedish Jews has been reproduced and used by Swedish officials to avoid taking responsibility for the country's previous restrictive policy towards Jewish refugees. These accusations have cross-fertilized with the allegations from the inter-Jewish debate, further cementing the negative image of the Stockholm Jewish Community's responses to the Holocaust and the preceding persecutions.
This chapter deals with testimonies derived from legal processes and documents the creation of several bureaus for the provision of legal aid to Jewish refugees and survivors making claims against Germany, Poland and other countries between 1947 and 1950. Yet another bureau, The URO Bureau, was created in 1953 as a national branch of the international United Restitution Organisation to assist individuals who wanted to file claims for restitution in line with the German compensation laws of 1952. The files of these bureaus include both the applicants’ personal testimonies and the final accounts that were part of the applications, drafted in the more objective and detached style that is typical of legal testimonies. The author shows how claims for justice have influenced the narratives in these testimonies.
This article examines the private diplomatic efforts of Olof Lamm. A Swedish Jewish ex-diplomat and businessman, he used his personal network to protest against Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany, and informally lobbied the United States to increase its immigration quotas. Shedding light on these informal back-channel diplomatic networks, the author provides examples of the attitudes and obstacles Lamm faced when dealing with individuals, and reveals how those he petitioned justified their defense of Nazi ideology and actions and their own restrictive immigration policies.
This dissertation aims to provide new knowledge about Jewish responses to the Nazi persecutions and the Holocaust. This has been done through a study of the actions of the Jewish minority in Sweden during the Nazi era. The study focuses on the Jewish Community of Stockholm (Mosaiska församlingen i Stockholm, or MFST) but also looks at other Jewish organizations as well as Jewish individuals in Sweden and their differing responses, here conceptualized as political actions (like protesting and lobbying), refugee assistance and relief. This study seeks to contextualize the response of Swedish Jews through an evaluation of their room for maneuver and incitements to act. It has identified a number of factors that, to a varying degree, enhanced or limited Swedish Jews’ ability to aid the victims of Nazi terror, including Swedish immigration legislation and refugee policy, the availability of information about the extent of Nazi atrocities, the relative effectiveness of Jewish organizations, and the financial resources available to the various Jewish relief committees. The ‘liberal imagination’ of the Jewish elite, and a system of refugee aid based on traditional philanthropy also shaped the Swedish Jewish response – and neither was adequate to the scope and enormity of Nazi violence against the Jews. Nevertheless Swedish Jews engaged in a wide range of aid efforts. They raised a large amount of money for relief aid, and supported many refugees financially. They protested against German persecution, as well as Swedish and international indifference to the plight of the Jews. Swedish Jewish representatives repeatedly tried to influence the Swedish and US governments to adopt a more generous policy towards Jewish refugees. They negotiated with Swedish officials in order to raise the immigration quotas for Jewish refugees and introduce new categories of persons who might be eligible for entry. At the time there were two major international networks of Jewish organizations, one mainly Liberal and one predominantly Zionist. This dissertation also shows that the MFST not only was influenced by both of these networks, but also that it took an active role in them. Although previously described as divided, the study shows that the Swedish Jews acted for the most part in concert and that there was broad support among them for the aid policies of the MFST.