The neutral Nordic and continental European states of World War II, among them Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland composed their neutrality day after day. The Portuguese were worried about their territories in Africa. The Spaniards avoided the Allies in favor of the Axis. The Swedes supplied Germany with valuable iron ore and on the outbreak of the First Soviet-Finnish War Sweden declared itself to be "non-belligerent" in regard to this particular conflict, actively siding with Finland. The Swiss maintained their neutrality to protect their own banking interests and were dependent on German coal. Such equations, involving geography, economic interest, historical ties, strategic aims and emotional sympathies, defined policy. The image of Sweden and Switzerland, comforting because neutral, has taken on a darker hue. Their governments' apparent lack of interest in the source of the Nazi gold they received in exchange for sales to Germany has been widely criticized. Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland all became part of the Western family after 1945. Pressing them on their war records was not a priority in the West. Our vision of wartime ''neutrality'' was an illusion. But so, too, in some ways, was our vision of ourselves. As the British historian Norman Davies has pointed out, the only war crimes deemed worth investigating in 1945 ''were those committed by the defeated enemy.'' Credit: British-born author Roger Cohen and Wikipedia i.a. Top image: Swedish railway police guarding a German train transport in Östersund in August 1942. Sweden supplied the German war industry with steel and machined parts throughout the war and permitted the transit of the fully armed Engelbrecht division across Sweden to join Operation Barbarossa. Further, approx. 2.140.000 German soldiers were permitted to cross through Sweden travelling to and from Norway and Finland. Officially the trains transported wounded soldiers and soldiers on leave, which would still have been in violation of Sweden's proclaimed neutrality. Photo by Swedish military conscript O. Ekman. PD. Bottom image: German soldiers with Swiss counterparts on the French-Swiss border at Les Verrieres in July 1940. Photo by Adolf Hitler's official photog. Heinrich Hoffmann. Credit: Julius Backman. Heinrich Hoffmann Archive.
Sweden, Switzerland and Spain were all pro-Nazi during the Second World War. Many of their politicians and citizens were in fact engaged in close collaboration with Nazi Germany and their governments deliberately chose to draw a thick veil over their activities when the war ended.
ReplyDeleteThe Swedes and Swiss were nothing but neutral Nazis, just like many other nationals before and during the war.
ReplyDeleteThe world is not black or white. The logic of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' is ancient. These countries were anti-Communist rather than Nazi-oriented.
ReplyDeleteBehind the scenes, these nations were all allies of Germany against Soviet Russia.
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