The Swedish Jews and the Holocaust

297 Pages·2017·2.986 MB·English

by  Pontus Rudberg

The Swedish Jews and the Holocaust
“We will be judged in our own time and in the future by measuring the aid
thatwe,inhabitantsofafreeandfortunatecountry,gavetoourbrethreninthis
time of greatest disaster.” This declaration, made shortly after the pogroms of
November 1938 by the Jewish communities in Sweden, was truer than anyone
could have forecast at the time. Pontus Rudberg focuses on this sensitive
issue – Jewish responses to the Nazi persecutions and mass murder of Jews.
What actions did Swedish Jews take to aid the Jews in Europe during the years
1933–45 and what determined their policies and actions?
Specific attention is given to the aid efforts of the Jewish Community of
Stockholm, including the range of activities in which the community engaged
and the challenges and opportunities presented by official refugee policy in
Sweden.
Pontus Rudberg holds a PhD in history. He is currently a postdoctoral
research fellow at the Hugo Valentin Centre at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Routledge Studies in Second World War History
The Second World War remains today the most seismic political event of the
past hundred years, an unimaginable upheaval that impacted upon every
country on earth and is fully ingrained in the consciousness of the world’s
citizens. Traditional narratives of the conflict are entrenched to such a degree
that new research takes on an ever important role in helping us make sense of
World War II. Aiming to bring to light the results of new archival research and
exploring notions of memory, propaganda, genocide, empire and culture,
Routledge Studies in Second World War History sheds new light on the
events and legacy of global war.
Recent titles in this series
The Swedish Jews and the Holocaust
Pontus Rudberg
The Swedish Jews and the
Holocaust
Pontus Rudberg
Firstpublished2017
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2017PontusRudberg
TherightofPontusRudbergtobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen
assertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,
DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
fromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered
trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithout
intenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Acatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenrequested
ISBN:978-1-138-04588-0(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-17174-6(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 The first phase: 1933–1938 49
2 The second phase: From November 1938 to the outbreak
of the war 111
3 The third phase: From the outbreak of the war to September 1941 159
4 The fourth phase: Holocaust 186
Conclusions 257
References 260
Index 282
‘Pontus Rudberg has opened up yet another, and a new, chapter in the history
of the Holocaust. How the relatively small Jewish community of Sweden
responded to the catastrophe that took place just on their neutral border offers
a fascinating picture of humanitarianism, solidarity, anxiety, and the limitations
of possible action in the face of grave crisis.’
Hasia R. Diner, Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American
Jewish History and Director, Goldstein-Goren Center for American
Jewish History, New York University, USA
‘GoodSamaritansorself-interestedbystanders–howdidJewsinneutral Sweden
reacttothepredicamentofEuropeanJewryintheHitlerera?Inthisbook,based
on sound and careful scholarship, Pontus Rudberg examines a historical issue of
profound moral consequence. He offers judicious and fair-minded treatment of
the conduct of the main institutions involved as well as insight into the motiva-
tions, attitudes, and human limitations of the chief protagonists. By turning the
spotlight on this little-known aspect of Swedish and Jewish history, Rudberg
illuminesourunderstandingofindividualandcollectiveresponsestothechallenge
posedbyNazigenocide.’
Bernard Wasserstein is Professor emeritus of Modern Jewish history at University
of Chicago and currently Allianz Visiting Professor of Modern Jewish
History at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität, Munich
He is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy
Acknowledgments
My warmest thanks go out to all the people who have helped me to complete
my doctoral dissertation, The Swedish Jews and the victims of Nazi terror, 1933–
1945, that this book is based on. Especially my supervisors at the Department of
History at Uppsala University, Dr Lars M. Andersson, Professor Torkel Jansson
and Professor Margaret Hunt who have all read several drafts at various stages
throughout the process and who were always there to answer my questions,
encourage me and point me in the right direction. I am also indebted to Pro-
fessorsJan Lindegren and KlasÅmark who read the manuscript at a stage when I
thought that it was almost finished. They helped me realize that it was not. I
wouldalsoliketothankDrPärFrohnertforhisreadingandcommentingonthe
dissertationaswellasDrClemensMaier-WolthausenandDrKarinKvistGeverts
for their support and good advice throughout the process. Professor Bernard
Wasserstein, the faculty opponent at the public defence in Uppsala, elegantly
pointed out how the dissertation could be improved. Thank you, Bernard.
My research project would have been impossible if it was not for the fantastic
help I received at the various archives I visited during the course of my research.
First, I would like to thank the Jewish Community of Stockholm for granting
meaccesstoitsarchives.I alsoowea specialthankstoLars HallbergandMikaela
Nybohm at the Swedish National Archives who with great expertise helped me
to navigate through the records and files. I would also like to thank the staff at
theCentralZionistArchivesandthearchiveof YadVashemin Jerusalem.Atthe
JDC archives in New York I received great help from the director of the
archives andrecordscollection,SherryHyman,aswellasfromreferencehistorian
Shelley Helfand and senior archivist Misha Mitsel. I would also like to thank the
staff at the Center for Jewish History in New York, especially YIVO’s archivists
Gunnar Berg and Leo Greenbaum. Last but not least, my wife Elin has lived
with this project for a long time and I owe her not only for the many readings
and valuable comments. This book is dedicated to her.
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction
The Jewish response to Nazi persecution and the Holocaust is still a sensitive
and controversial topic in many countries. It caused heated debate even before
the full extent of Nazi crimes against the Jews became known to the world.
Sweden is no exception.Thequestionhaspoliticalandreligiousdimensions,and
it also touches upon issues of identity. Allegations that Swedish Jews and their
foremost representative organization, the Jewish Community of Stockholm
(Mosaiska Församlingen i Stockholm, MFST), did too little, too late, or even
tried to obstruct the efforts of others to aid the Jews of Europe, have recurred
from time to time ever since the Holocaust. The Swedish Jewish leadership has
been called passive, pusillanimous, and incompetent because of their alleged
failure to respond generously and effectively. Several scholars have claimed that
Swedish Jews feared that aiding more Jews to come to Sweden would cause an
increase in anti-Semitic sentiments and that this explains their purported
passivity. It has also been suggested that Swedish Jews saw Jewish refugees as a
threat to their relatively newly achieved position, given that Swedish Jews were
generally well integrated in Swedish society.1
Charges against the Jewish leadership in Stockholm were made already
during the first years of the Holocaust and climaxed in the immediate post-war
years. In a speech in the Swedish Parliament in January 1945, Gustav Möller,
the social democratic Minister of Health and Social Affairs, one of the politi-
cians primarily responsible for the country’s policy towards Jewish refugees,2
admitted that the official Swedish policy regarding Jewish refugees had been
restrictive. However, Möller tried to put the blame on the MFST claiming that
“the Swedish Government was at least as generous in letting the Jews into this
country as the Jewish Community of Stockholm”.3 This claim was later repe-
ated by the undersecretary to Minister Möller’s office, Per Nyström. Over the
years, similar accusations have resurfaced from time to time in the Jewish press,
in popular fiction and non-fiction books and even in scholarly studies.4
It is no coincidence that the dominant narrative is one of a Jewish establish-
ment failing in its duty to their brethren out of fear or self-preservation. This
narrative served to displace blame for Sweden’s restrictive policy towards Jews
before 1943 and also as a battering ram in the Jewish debate and struggle for a
new post-Holocaust identity. In this sense, the Swedish Jewish debate was not