During World War II even social-democratic Sweden engaged in ruthless profiteering with the Third Reich

 As Neill Lochery reminds us in “Cashing Out: The Flight of Nazi Treasure, 1945-1948,” this double game is hardly new. 

During World War II, not only Switzerland, but Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal and even social-democratic Sweden engaged in ruthless profiteering with the Third Reich under the guise of nonalignment.

Despite growing Allied scrutiny, the neutrals provided fleeing Nazis with passports, visas, bank accounts and escape routes to South America. 

In exchange for huge quantities of illicit gold, Portugal fed the Nazi war machine with tungsten. Sweden supplied iron ore and ball bearings.

Just as important were the neutrals’ success in rewriting their own stories. Highlighting its rescue missions, postwar Sweden reinvented itself as Europe’s great humanitarian power, Mr. Lochery notes, even as it “utilized the spoils of war to launch the Swedish economic miracle.”

WSJ 4 January 2024

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/cashing-out-review-the-spoils-of-neutrality-54cd3bc6


Storverket ”Landet utanför” lär bli en svensk klassiker

Henrik Berggren avslutar sitt verk om Sverige och andra världskriget. Han skriver mentalitetshistoria – binder samman storpolitik med kultur och vardagsliv i ett berättande flöde. Ett gigantiskt arbete

Olle Svenning.DN 16 oktober 2023

https://www.dn.se/kultur/storverket-landet-utanfor-lar-bli-en-svensk-klassiker/


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