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ESSAY

Myths of neutrality
Ignoring the Holocaust in Sweden and Switzerland.
By Arne Ruth

I t was not until the 1980s that the


Holocaust experience was integrated
as a universal issue into the
various national projects constituting
Europe. Sweden and Switzerland, both
the UN and other new international
structures.
In the post-war negotiations between
the Allies and the Swiss government on
the handling of German assets and looted
This seemingly open-minded position
was very much in line with tradition. After
the war, Sweden chose compassion as its
own special quality, based on a recently
established redefinition of the national
neutral during the war, are two prime gold, Swiss politicians at home defined project. A form of social change had
examples of how, for a long time, issues the issue as a case of David versus Goliath. been instituted in the 1930s that could
of complicity and collaboration were A strong body of opinion saw the struggle now be proclaimed as the incarnation of
avoided. The Nazi Gold controversy of as a vain attempt to uphold the sanctity modernity.
the late 1990s shattered the established of private property against infringements The moral basis was enhanced by the
national perspectives of both countries. by the Great Powers. Allied victory over fascism. When social
In its wider application, the controversy In November 1946, the chief Swiss democrats like Bruno Kreisky and Willy
was instructive: in order to build real negotiator, Walter Stucki, accused the Brandt returned from Sweden to their
universality into the European project, Allies of having violated the principles native countries after the war, they took
cross-border provocation is a crucial embodied in their own Atlantic Charter. with them a blueprint for the European
element. The fact that, in March 1945, Switzerland society of the future: the welfare state,
At the end of the war, Sweden and had bowed to American pressure and the all-inclusive definition of citizenship.
Switzerland were accused of using their agreed to freeze all German assets, The ideology of participatory democracy
neutrality for enrichment and not, as they prohibit dealing in foreign currencies, as the true legitimation of modern nation-
had maintained, as a way of participating and restrict the purchase of gold from states became firmly embedded in most
in the epochal struggle for the future of Germany, was, he stated, the result of western European countries. Sweden
the human race. Switzerland faced the pressure worse than anything Göring had was thought to point the way out of a
particular charge of unconditionally ever attempted, a violation of principles cumbersome historical tradition.
accepting to keep looted gold from in a world “lacking material and moral Sweden could afford to base her
Germany in its banks. foundations,” where Switzerland found position vis-a-vis Europe on moral
The post-war response of these two itself in “dangerous political isolation.” considerations. Compassion was directed
countries was to define their own national The irony of a singularly narrow- principally at Third World countries. At
projects as unique attempts to achieve minded definition of Swiss national the beginning of the 1960s, European
universal values. Their separateness from interest proclaiming itself to be the integration was defined by a prominent
Europe in general was, they maintained, embodiment of universal norms only young intellectual and author, Lars
a means of upholding the common good. became apparent to the world five decades Gustafsson, as the transcendence
While supposedly embracing the liberal later, when the World Jewish Congress of nationalism: “This awakening of
universe at the national level, they chose and the Eizenstat report confronted international conscience, I believe,
different roads. Switzerland, by remaining the Swiss authorities on the matter of represents a way out of, and perpetual
the centre of financial transactions, wartime Jewish property. consolation for, what we experienced for
presented itself as the guardian of the As for Sweden, after the war it had so long as isolation. If Swedish patriotism
free market of the world, as it pretended been easier to prod officials there into exists nowadays, it consists of our desire
to have been against all odds during the admitting an element of guilt in the to make ourselves heard in the context of
war. commerce with the Third Reich. Dean this new solidarity.”
Claiming special entitlement to Acheson reflected on the matter in his The idea of being the most
another universal value, national memoirs: “If the Swedes were stubborn, emancipated country in the world was
sovereignty, Switzerland refused to enter the Swiss were the cube of stubbornness.” integral to the Swedish model. It was
the emerging structure of transnational Facing the Nazi Gold question, Swedish traditional nationalism turned upside
bodies such as the United Nations. officials tried to avoid confrontation. down. The psychological impact was
Its separateness, it appeared, gave With Prime Minister Göran Persson’s exactly the same as in the old-fashioned
Switzerland a special role as the central inauguration of a massive education version: Swedish elites could be very
venue for international deliberations. project on the Holocaust at the end of proud of their eminence in being non-
Sweden took the opposite road to the 1990s, Sweden, in the eyes of the nationalists. They became used to feeling
universality: its foreign policy objectives world, was now dealing openly and morally superior due to the fact that they
were symbolically channelled through conscientiously with the moral issues. were no longer fettered by tradition.

42 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009 Independent World report


Leaving nationalism behind was the core project; a man is given the option of
of their achievement. returning to the crucial points of his life The fact that for decades
In hindsight, this use of anti- and altering the decisions he made at the
nationalism as a national paradigm must time. The constant revisions that ensue
Swedish historians
be one of the strangest social paradoxes on the surface, as the result of rational neglected totally the study
in political history. Politicians and decisions, turn into absurdities that make
diplomats were convinced that they had him realise that whatever pre-planned of Holocaust issues is now
a privileged insight into the future of course he takes it is the wrong one. itself the subject of analysis.
humanity. They projected the Swedish His play Biedermann und die brandstifter
attitude onto the world stage as a special (Biedermann and the arsonists, 1958) is a This is an extraordinary
sort of idealism. Sometimes, as in the case tragicomedy on doing business with the
case of insularity in a
of support for the anti-apartheid struggle devil. A man lets three arsonists enter
in South Africa (including material his house; he accepts them as residents, period when the Holocaust
support for the African National Congress with petrol cans, fuse and all. When they
when it was branded as a communist front need matches, he duly obliges. Frisch’s has been established
organisation) and the strong moral stand most famous play, Andorra (1961), based internationally as a major
on the Vietnam war, this self-confidence on an idea which had already appeared in
achieved something worthwhile. his breakthrough literary work, Tagebuch field of contemporary
But, there were other areas where mit Marion (Diary with Marion, 1947), is a history for at least three
the Swedish model turned into arrogance tragic and terrifying depiction of the
and negligence. The official attitude mechanisms involved in social inclusion decades.
towards the Baltic countries – regarding and exclusion, where the ritual of omitting
them as non-existent – is a prime case someone involves a kind of bonding for in the passports of German Jews was
in point (Sweden was the first Western those remaining. Out of sheer pettiness, raised in Switzerland immediately after
country to accept Soviet annexation in a man begins describing his stepson as a the war and re-emerged as a newspaper
1940). Reluctance to press the Soviet Jew; the boy, facing prejudice, comes to polemic in the mid-1950s, forcing the
Union into admitting it had arrested accept his given identity as an unalterable Swiss Bundesrat to start an official
Raoul Wallenberg is another. Generally fact. When the country is invaded by a investigation that was published in 1957.
speaking, closer to home, Swedish racially defined neighbouring state, his The report leaves no doubt about the
idealism tended to cede to Realpolitik. fate is sealed. shared responsibility of Swiss politicians
It is now common knowledge that the Frisch created a storm with an article, and officials in persuading the Germans
idealist consensus has eroded. Unbewältigte schweizerische vergangenheit to add the J.
The historian Friedrich Meinecke (Unreflected Swiss history), published in the Seven decades later, the role of the
interpreted German history as the victory weekly Weltwoche in March 1966, where Swedish government in this process
of Nationalstaat over Weltbürgertum. In he accused the younger generation of remains to be investigated. The issue
his view, every state was a law unto authors of neglecting to deal with the appeared briefly in the Swedish discussion
itself. Striving to embody the ideals of twelve years of Hitler’s rule and brought in the 1990s and then disappeared.
universalism, as Sweden and Switzerland the contemporary treatment of refugees Although it is not known to what extent
claimed to be doing after the war, could be into the discussion. He touched a national Sweden was involved in the J matter, there
seen as the exact opposite of the German nerve. Later that year, a solid analysis of the are strong indications that the change
tradition of historicism. But the nationally moral dilemma appeared in Alice Meyer’s was actively supported in Stockholm.
defined ideology of progressivism was still Anpassung oder widerstand: Die Schweiz Half a dozen books have been
based on an assumption of uniqueness. zur zeit des deutschen nationalsozialismus published in recent decades that deal
Historians in both countries, (Conformity or resistance: Switzerland at the with the Jewish part of Swiss history. All
pretending to demystify the course of time of German national socialism). discuss anti-Semitism and refugee policy
events, were able to use an established A year later, a well-documented in a very forthright manner. In Sweden,
concept of nationhood as their screen in pamphlet that rapidly achieved classic nothing comparable was published until
choosing and evaluating facts. They could status was published: Alfred A Häsler’s Das the 1990s. Moreover, the critical positions
stress apparently progressive elements, boot is voll: Die Schweiz und die flüchtlinge taken by authors and journalists in
and disregard the rest. But there are 1933-45 (The boat is full: Switzerland and Switzerland have affected the country’s
some interesting differences between the the refugees, 1967). Swiss collaboration political climate. The rehabilitation
two countries in how the hidden elements was carefully examined in Walter Wolf’s of Paul Grüninger is a case in point. A
were treated at the public level. Faschismus in der Schweiz (Fascism in police chief in the border areas fronting
Switzerland’s two most prominent Switzerland, 1969). And a major, four- on Austria and Germany, Grüninger was
post-war author-playwrights, Friedrich part history of Swiss neutrality, Edgar dismissed in 1940, accused of using false
Dürrenmatt and Max Frisch, continually Bonjour’s Geschichte der schweizerischen information to let Jewish refugees into
used their talents to describe a counter- neutralität (The history of Swiss neutrality), the country. He was rumoured to have
universe, an alternative to the hypocrisy was published between 1965 and 1970. It made money from the operation and died
masquerading as objectivity. Frisch’s gives a wealth of information about the semi-destitute at the end of the 1960s.
comedy Biografie (Biography, 1967) is a choices made. A Swiss journalist, Stefan Keller, made
satire on the concept of history as a The issue of the institution of a J a meticulous study of what occurred; he

Independent World report NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009 43


understanding of what it was all about: moral stand in relation to Jews taken by
Swedish trade with invisible, multinational networks of a few foreign office officials, and has put
influential people for whom trading with the singularities of Swedish historical
Germany, at least from the Third Reich was, at least for a while, research into perspective by pointing to
1943 onwards, helped to business as usual. a mentality of neutrality.
In Sweden, a general consensus lasting In Levine’s view, the long-time lack of
prolong the war. From from a year or two after the war until the interest from Swedish historians in the
this perspective, the late 1980s limited the terms of national Holocaust is a result of the dominance
discussion on war issues. Unlike in of this attitude. The established notion
wartime Swedish coalition Switzerland, the number of major literary has been that any concession made by
works dealing with Swedish morality Sweden during the war was morally
government can be accused during the war is very limited. Fiction defensible, since it kept the nation at
of indirectly adding to the dealing with the Holocaust experience peace. In contrast, Levine points to the
was almost entirely written by Swedes issue raised by the Nazi Gold controversy:
impact of the Holocaust. with Jewish background – Peter Weiss is that Swedish trade with Germany, at least
the most significant example. from 1943 onwards, helped to prolong the
forced the authorities to produce the The same general silence holds war. From this perspective, the wartime
minutes of the trial and the reports of true of historical research. It took a Swedish coalition government can be
the secret police. A cautious estimate 1989 pamphlet by journalist Maria-Pia accused of indirectly adding to the impact
is that Grüninger saved 3000 Jews from Boëthius, recently republished, to start of the Holocaust.
the Holocaust. There is no evidence that a process of revision of the established The long lasting avoidance of moral
he did so for personal gain. His breach positions. Boëthius strongly attacked the issues related to the war illustrates a
of the service regulations involved prevailing view among Swedish historians particular aspect of Swedish political
stamping a date of entry in the refugees’ and was immediately called over-zealous. culture during the welfare period:
passports that preceded the date on In the 1990s, however, an interpretation consensus as the prime objective of the
which Switzerland closed its borders of Swedish neutrality more in line with political class, regardless of party. It
altogether. Boëthius’ position has been emerging was strongly linked to the ideology of
Public opinion forced a reluctant among historians. Sweden’s unique universalism.
Swiss government to reopen the case, A significant sign of this change is The psychology of distance is also a
and the court referred in its verdict to an that Professor Emeritus Stig Ekman, major element in Swedish attitudes to the
ancient Swiss practice – the right to act who led a massive research project European Union. Formally, Sweden is a
in self-defence. Posthumously, Grüninger into Sweden’s war history in the 1970s, member state. But the fact that the union
was fully exonerated. Years after his has openly regretted the lack of moral project was initiated as a peace building
death, he has become the hero of wartime perspective in the definition of subjects: effort, and that it has been remarkably
Switzerland. And the documentation “Ultimately, indignation about Sweden’s successful in blocking military conflict
surrounding his fate has released the accommodation of Germany must be between major European states, is rarely
stink of Realpolitik at that time – a power seen in the light of the fact of Swedish touched on in Sweden.
game laced with accommodation and collaboration with the regime responsible The lack of an in-depth discussion of
discreet anti-Semitism. for the Holocaust.” Some of his younger the war experience as a founding element
The arrogant attitude held by the colleagues have done research in line with in the European project – including the
Swiss political and financial establishment this reappraisal. Some fifty years after the fact that the racist dimension made the
seems to have polarised opinion and Holocaust ended, young historians started war utterly different from earlier conflicts
ignited a continued discussion. In late to deal with aspects of the Holocaust that in Europe – illustrates how particularities
1960s, a small stream of independent affected Sweden. of national histories, unless confronted
investigation was set in motion that The fact that for decades Swedish by alternative interpretations, will affect
turned into a flood in the late-1980s and historians neglected totally the study of political attitudes long after the historical
early-1990s. This latter wave included Holocaust issues is now itself the subject events. Attitudes shaped by Swedish and
historical research of great significance, of analysis. This is an extraordinary case of Swiss neutrality during the war are still
such as Pierre Braunschweig’s Geheimer insularity in a period when the Holocaust part of the collective sub-consciousness.
draht nach Berlin (Secret wire to Berlin, 1989). has been established internationally as a The Nazi Gold issue rocked the
Virtually everything that fed the frenzy major field of contemporary history for boat in both countries and became a
about the gold transactions was described at least three decades. worldwide media controversy. It was
by the journalist Werner Rings in his book The first book dealing with Sweden effective because confrontation came
Raubgold aus Deutschland (Looted gold from in the relation to the Holocaust was from the outside: politicians in Sweden
Germany, 1985). written by an American historian, and Switzerland were forced to face the
Rings also published a popular history Steven Koblik, and published in 1987. A issues.
of the war period that dealt explicitly student of Koblik’s, Paul Levine, moved I will give two more examples of cross-
with the controversial issues of refugee to Sweden in the 1990s in order to finish border interaction on moral issues related
policy, anti-Semitism and collaboration. his PhD dissertation. Levine has added to universal rights of citizens. They are
Both Rings and Gian Trepp also looked important knowledge to the appraisal of both cases of a structurally based collective
at Sweden’s role. They share a basic Swedish refugee policy by describing the silence. In 1997, the newspaper of which

44 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009 Independent World report


I was then editor-in-chief, Dagens Nyheter, and houses. Their bank accounts had been
made an investigation into a matter that cleaned out, their life insurance policies The Nazi Gold issue rocked
had, until then, attracted very little public had been cancelled and their personal
attention: the forced sterilisation of some possessions scattered. The special office the boat in both countries
60,000 Swedes – most of them poverty- created by the Norwegians in 1942 to and became a worldwide
stricken women – between the 1930s and handle the assets of Norwegian Jews,
the mid-1970s. There existed an academic The Liquidation Board for Confiscated Jewish media controversy. It
dissertation dealing with the theme that Property, did not cease to exist after the was effective because
had conveniently gone unnoticed. liberation. Instead, it was renamed the
After we first ran the story – Reparations Office and some of its former confrontation came from
researched and written by Polish-born staff were used as experts in defining
journalist Maciej Zaremba – it took a week the terms of compensation. The only
the outside: politicians in
for it to become general news in Sweden. officials sentenced for treason were those Sweden and Switzerland
Other media stayed silent during the first who had been members of the Quisling
few days. In the meantime, Sweden was party. Thus, Jews trying to reclaim their were forced to face the
invaded by journalists from all over the assets in some cases faced officials who, issues.
world, including celebrated American three years earlier, had supervised the
television anchors. A later report by authorised theft of their property. that its definition of wartime resistance
the Swedish foreign office stated that In the mid-1990s, a young historian, largely excluded the Jews and that this
the international coverage of this story Bjarte Bruland, and a journalist, Björn exclusion continued in subtle ways
constituted two thirds of everything Westlie, exposed the wound that had even after the war. In France, where the
written about Sweden that year. been festering ever since the war’s end – complicity of the Vichy government had
The Swedish minister in charge of the who were those involved in handling the much wider ramifications, the conflict
issue was confronted with the question of assets that the Quisling regime confiscated between a heroic mythology and the
compensating the victims on a CNN news from Norwegian Jews? Such property, it actual facts is even more evident. It took
programme. Swedish media, including turns out, was much sought-after and was the effort of an American, Robert Paxton,
my paper, had until then neglected this sold at auctions and at special property to force French historians to start dealing
particular question; now the minister markets; the customers were normal with the issues.
had to apologise facing an international Norwegians who acted in full knowledge In my opinion, a meaningful
audience. of the items’ origin. Those who had good citizenship in Europe must include the
A similar case of media blindness in contacts within the government agency right and duty of everyone, regardless
relation to modern history occurred in managing the property could get special of nationality and background, to treat
Norway. deals. rights issues on a transnational basis.
Besides all its other dimensions, the The orderly lists of stolen Jewish Provocation across borders is necessary
extermination of the Jews was robbery property, meticulously registered and to build an element of real universality
on the grandest scale in history, with evaluated, were easily accessible in into the European project. Lord Acton
a network of fences and profiteers Oslo’s National Archive. But, until they once tried to define the issue in relation
extending across a continent. The moral were found by Westlie, no-one had to a specific mindset: “Our Waterloo must
conundrums posed by the extermination bothered to look through them. Westlie’s be one that satisfies French and English,
project affected occupied countries as disclosures were published on the fiftieth Germans and Dutch alike.”
well. Homes, businesses and valuables anniversary of the liberation, whereupon The comment by Swiss author Adolf
owned by Jews changed hands during the World Jewish Congress asked him to Muschg in relation to the Nazi gold
the war. A number of governments write a report in English. International controversy catches the core of the
discouraged survivors from confronting news agencies picked up the story when matter: “It was long ago: now we are
the new owners. In eastern Europe, Westlie’s report appeared in New York. paying for the sleepless nights that we
communism gave state authorities the Suddenly, the affair became frontpage did not have because of Auschwitz; now
option of treating Nazi confiscation of news in Norway. It had taken eight we are overtaken by all the concerns
Jewish assets as an instituted element in months and cross-border attention for which never affected us in relation to
the abandonment of private property. the matter to become a national scandal the building of Europe, drowsing in the
The Norwegian case shows that guilt and it stayed a dominant political issue sleep of the self-righteous, a state of mind
cannot easily be fitted into categories for months to come. The government was where tears turned dry.” �
of obedience, neutrality and resistance. forced to set up a commission of enquiry
Slightly over one third of the 2100 that ended in an all-party agreement on
Norwegian Jews were killed in 1942 a policy of economic compensation to
within three months of their assets being Norway’s Jewish community. Arne Ruth is former Editor-in-chief,
seized. Thanks to the very long border The controversy that erupted in Dagens Nyheter. He has published works
with Sweden, most of it passing through Norway illustrates a wider problem. on Nazi aesthetics, European culture and
uninhabited terrain, a majority of the Post-war nationhood in most occupied
politics, and human rights. This article
remaining Jews managed to escape. countries was built on myths of general
Those who survived the Holocaust resistance. After more than half a century, first appeared in Eurozine. Reprinted by
returned to find others living in their flats Norway was forced to confront the fact special arrangement.

Independent World report NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009 45

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