In Russian educational institutions, teachers together with students are busy preparing a lesson on peace. And if just a few years ago, let’s be honest, even in the teaching community the peace lesson held on September 1 was perceived as something more “on duty” than truly relevant, now the situation has changed radically. It has changed, since the very concept of “peace” has been updated against the background of well-known events.
And it’s difficult to stay outside of this actualization when very close by exactly the same people are experiencing the whole nightmare that war brings with it: they are losing loved ones and relatives, they are losing their homes, they are faced with the reincarnation of ideas of misanthropy.
Together with the realization that the lesson of peace is absolutely in any educational institution country ceases to be a “passing” event, but by definition must carry a very deep meaning, the increased interest of the younger generation (and not only the young) of Russians in history attracts attention. The reasons are basically the same - events in a neighboring state, where distortion of history is becoming one of the main drivers of the fratricidal war.
During a conversation with students, teachers involved in preparing a lesson on peace, we touched upon a very interesting topic. The topic concerns how, in the conditions of world wars, some states resist aggressive campaigns, while others, without hesitation, declare their neutrality and quite calmly turn enormous human grief into a more than profitable business. The topic seemed relevant also due to the fact that for a considerable number of representatives of modern students with whom they have the opportunity to work, information about the presence of “neutrals” in World War II who escaped the Nazi occupation and the need for armed resistance was a real revelation. And I will quote one of the questions voiced verbatim, especially since it, as they say, hits the nail on the head: “Was it possible?” It’s not that the young man who asked such a question wanted to say that the USSR also had to declare neutrality, it’s just that we are talking about a completely understandable surprise, which the very fact of the possibility of declaring neutrality in a WORLD WAR can cause.
Historiography tells us that one of the European states that declared neutrality in World War II was Sweden. This state and its “neutrality” will be discussed in the material. In order for the subject of discussion to be, as they say, illustrated, it is worth immediately presenting this entertaining photograph.
The photographer reports that the photo shows the diplomatic mission of the Third Reich in May 1945 in the Swedish capital. On the flagpole crowning the diplomatic mission, you can see the flag of Nazi Germany at half-mast in connection with (attention!) the death of Adolf Hitler... It would seem that this is some kind of phantasmagoria, a theater of the absurd: the victory of the Allies, May 1945, neutral Sweden and suddenly - mourning death the main ideologist of a monstrous campaign that claimed the lives of tens of millions of people around the world. Just one question: How is this possible?..
But this question is actually easy to answer. By and large, Sweden during the Second World War, declaring its neutrality, did not intend to be neutral at all. Quite definite sympathies for Nazi Germany and its leader showed themselves in the mid-30s. To be honest, at that time not only German citizens applauded Hitler’s speeches and raised their hands in a Nazi salute...
Even the occupation of Sweden's neighbor Norway by the Nazis, which began in 1940, did not cause a negative reaction from neutral Stockholm. After several meetings between the “neutral” Swedish king Gustav V and representatives of the top of the Third Reich, “independent” Swedish newspapers and magazines, as if by the wave of a conductor’s baton, suddenly stopped publishing articles that contained at least some hint of criticism of the actions of the Nazis in Europe. All this was called "temporary censorship due to the military situation in Europe."
A Swedish newspaper calls the war unleashed by Hitler "European liberation" --
And a few years before this, the Swedish church begins to speak out in the spirit that the National Socialists of Hitler’s Germany “are on the right path, since they are fighting for the purity of the Aryan race.” At the same time, the Swedish Church from about 1937-1938. officially distributes a circular in which local priests were prohibited from blessing marriages between ethnic Swedes and representatives of the so-called “Untermensch” - Jews, Slavs, etc. Such information became public knowledge after the end of World War II thanks to research conducted at one of the oldest universities in Sweden - Lund University.
From more ancient history: Sweden declared itself a non-aligned state in peacetime and a neutral state during wartime back in early XIX century. This happened in 1814 immediately after the signing of the truce agreement with Norway. The Declaration of Swedish Neutrality was officially proclaimed in 1834 by King Charles XIV Johan (the founder of the Bernadotte dynasty still ruling in Sweden). A remarkable fact can be considered that the non-aligned status of Sweden and its sovereignty in the event of a major war was announced by a man born as Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, who at the beginning of the 19th century received the rank of Marshal of the Empire in the Napoleonic army. Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte took part in the Battle of Austerlitz. In 1810, Bernadotte was dismissed from service in France and, according to historians, was officially invited to the post of Swedish and Norwegian monarch "in connection with his humane treatment of Swedish prisoners." After ascending to the Swedish throne, the newly-crowned Charles XIV Johann formed an alliance with Russia and began to fight on the side of the anti-Napoleonic coalition... After all these tossing and turning, the king-marshal was reportedly drawn to proclaiming the neutral status of the Kingdom of Sweden, which Sweden skillfully used.
Returning to the events of the Second World War, it should be noted that the “testaments” of Charles XIV Johan were applied exclusively from a pragmatic point of view. Thus, the grandson of King Gustav V, who ruled Sweden from 1907 to 1950, Gustav Adolf (Duke of Västerbotten) is known for the fact that before and during WWII, he conducted active “diplomatic” work with representatives of the Third Reich.
Among those with whom the Duke met were such people as, for example, Hermann Goering and Adolf Hitler. These meetings, it should be noted, predetermined the very strange (to say the least) neutrality of the Swedish crown. The first “neutral” agreement that attracts attention is the contract for the supply of Swedish iron ore to the Reich, which was not terminated at all after the start of Hitler’s expansion on the European continent.
Gustav V - on the right, Goering - in the middle, Gustav Adolf - on the left--
It is also noteworthy that Sweden’s neighbor, Norway, also declared its neutrality. And if during the First World War the Norwegians managed to “go” to a declaration of neutral status, then WWII did not allow the Norwegians to do the same. Hitler stepped over Norwegian “neutrality” quite calmly - declaring that Norway needed protection from “probable aggression of Great Britain and France.” Operation Weserübung-Nord began, during which official Oslo Berlin, of course, did not ask whether Norway really needed “protection from the probable aggression of the British and French.”
But Berlin did not step over the “neutrality” of Sweden... Well, just as it did not... More on that below. Most Swedish historians declare that Sweden’s neutrality in WWII is “understandable”, because only about 6 million people lived in Sweden, and therefore the country could not afford to compete with the powerful Third Reich, making all concessions to Berlin. An interesting statement... Interesting, especially considering that the population of Norway at that time was even smaller, but at the same time, firstly, the neutrality of the Norwegians quickly, excuse me, wiped out the authorities of the Third Reich, and, secondly, themselves The Norwegians organized a more or less “comprehensible” resistance movement against Nazi occupation.
So about the “neutrality” of Sweden... In fact, it was a typical fact of opportunism, in which Sweden was de facto occupied, but not in a military, but in a political sense. And the country’s authorities were quite pleased with this Hitlerite occupation. After all, for them, growing Germany was an excellent market for what was produced or created by Swedish companies. They sold at a reasonable price not only raw materials - the same iron and copper ore, but also goods created by Swedish companies. Swedish bearings were used to equip German equipment. Ships carrying rolled metal, weapons, machine tools, and lumber went to the Reich. At the same time, Sweden, through a whole network of financial agents, lent to the economy of Nazi Germany, having previously blocked the issuance of loans to its neighbors in Norway. In other words, economically, Sweden did everything in order to make dividends from the military successes of Nazi Germany and its commodity-money demands.
From Swedish official sources on the volume of supplies of goods to Nazi Germany (1938-1945):
Iron ore: 58 million tons,
cellulose – 7 million tons,
bearings – 60 thousand tons,
lumber – 13-14 million cubic meters,
vehicles and anti-aircraft guns - more than 2 thousand units.
Cargoes were delivered to the Reich under the protection of German and Swedish warships. Several Swedish ships (Ada Gorthon, Luleå, etc.) loaded with iron ore destined for Germany were sunk by Soviet submarines. After this, Swedish patrol ships dropped about 26 “neutral” depth charges into the sea with the aim of damaging Soviet submarines. Apparently, ever since then Sweden has had a special passion for searching for Soviet (Russian) submarines...
Further - more. Sweden’s “neutrality” was transformed into the creation in the country of so-called volunteer battalions, which sided with the Nazis. The Swedish armed formation Svenska frivilligbataljonen began to take shape in real strength, operating as part of the forces of the Hitlerite coalition immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union. The Swedish “volunteers” underwent training on Finnish territory - in Turku.
At the beginning of October 1941, the Swedish Nazi battalion was visited by Gustav V and Gustav Adolf (Duke of Västerbotten), highly appreciating its “neutral” actions on the side of the Nazi allies in the Hanko area... And after about a month, the Swedish monarch sent Hitler congratulatory telegram, in which he expresses admiration for the actions of the German army to “defeat Bolshevism.”
But after the defeat of the Nazis at Stalingrad and Kursk, “neutral” Sweden suddenly changes course... Stockholm informs its German friends that it is forced to block the sea routes along which German warships and transport vessels had previously passed through Swedish territorial waters. As they say, Stockholm felt the wind of change, and like a weather vane, it reacted almost instantly. In October 1943, a circular banning marriages with “Untermensch” was lifted in Sweden, and Jews who left the kingdom were allowed to return. At the same time, they did not close the embassy of the Third Reich (just in case...), suddenly the Reich would rise up...
An important fact of Sweden’s “neutrality” can be considered that, at the request of the USSR in 1944-1945. Stockholm extradited about 370 German and Baltic soldiers of Hitler's troops who, as Moscow reported, were involved in war crimes in the North-West of the USSR, including the Baltic republics. As you can see, the Swedish weather vane reacted here too...
During the war, the Swedish economy not only was not seriously tested, but even gained a lot. At the same time, the average earnings of Swedish workers fell, but the reduction in real terms amounted to only about 12% over 6 years, while the economies of most European countries, like the countries themselves, lay in ruins. The Swedish banking sector grew along with large industrial companies that supplied goods to Germany.
It can be stated that Sweden’s current non-aligned status is another declarative “parable”, behind which the real interests and sympathies of Stockholm are clearly visible... Such a story...
Author Volodin Alexey
62 states participated in World War II, but there were many countries that managed to maintain neutrality.
Switzerland
"We'll take Switzerland, that little porcupine, on the way back." A saying that was common among German soldiers during the French campaign of 1940.
The Swiss Guard is the oldest (surviving) military unit in the world, guarding the Pope himself since 1506. Highlanders, even from the European Alps, have always been considered natural-born warriors, and the system of army training for Helvetian citizens ensured excellent possession of weapons by almost every adult resident of the canton. Victory over such a neighbor, where every mountain valley became a natural fortress, according to the calculations of the German headquarters, could only be achieved with an unacceptable level of Wehrmacht losses.
Actually, the forty-year conquest of the Caucasus by Russia, as well as the three bloody Anglo-Afghan wars, showed that complete control over mountainous territories requires years, if not decades, of armed presence in conditions of constant guerrilla warfare - which the strategists of the OKW (German General Staff) could not ignore.
However, there is also a conspiracy theory about the refusal to seize Switzerland (after all, for example, Hitler trampled on the neutrality of the Benelux countries without hesitation): as you know, Zurich is not only chocolate, but also banks where gold was allegedly stored by both the Nazis and the British who financed them. Saxon elites who are not at all interested in undermining the global financial system due to an attack on one of its centers.
Spain
“The meaning of Franco’s life was Spain. In connection with this - not a Nazi, but a classic military dictator - he abandoned Hitler himself, refusing, despite guarantees, to enter the war.” Lev Vershinin, political scientist.
General Franco won the civil war largely thanks to the support of the Axis: from 1936 to 1939, tens of thousands of Italian and German soldiers fought side by side with the Phalangists, and they were covered from the air by the Luftwaffe Condor Legion, which “distinguished itself” by bombing Guernica. It is not surprising that before the new all-European massacre, the Fuhrer asked the caudillo to repay his debts, especially since the British military base of Gibraltar was located on the Iberian Peninsula, which controlled the strait of the same name, and therefore the entire Mediterranean.
However, in the global confrontation, the one with the stronger economy wins. And Francisco Franco, who soberly assessed the strength of his opponents (for almost half of the world’s population lived in the USA, the British Empire and the USSR alone at that time), made the right decision to focus on restoring Spain, torn by the civil war.
The Frankists limited themselves to only sending the volunteer “Blue Division” to the Eastern Front, which was successfully multiplied by zero by Soviet troops on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, simultaneously solving another problem of the caudillo - saving him from his own rabid Nazis, in comparison with which even the right-wing Phalangists were a model of moderation .
Portugal
“In 1942, the Portuguese coast became the last refuge of fugitives for whom justice, freedom and tolerance meant more than their homeland and life.”
Erich Maria Remarque. "Night in Lisbon"
Portugal remained one of the last European countries to retain extensive colonial possessions - Angola and Mozambique - until the 1970s. African soil gave untold riches, for example, strategically important tungsten, which the Pyreneans sold at a high price to both sides (at least on initial stage war).
In the event of joining any of the opposing alliances, the consequences are easy to calculate: yesterday you were counting trade profits, and today your opponents are enthusiastically starting to sink your transport ships that provide communication between the metropolis and the colonies (or even completely occupy the latter), despite the fact that there is no large army Unfortunately, the noble dons do not have a fleet to protect the sea communications on which the life of the country depends.
In addition, the Portuguese dictator António de Salazar remembered the lessons of history, when in 1806, during the Napoleonic Wars, Lisbon was captured and ravaged first by the French, and two years later by the British troops, so that the small nation did not have to turn into an arena for a clash of great powers again no desire.
Of course, in the Second world life on the Iberian Peninsula, the agricultural periphery of Europe, was not at all easy. However, the hero-narrator of the already mentioned “Nights in Lisbon” was struck by the pre-war carelessness of this city, with the bright lights of working restaurants and casinos.
Sweden
In 1938, Life magazine ranked Sweden among the countries with the highest standard of living. Stockholm, having abandoned all-European expansion after numerous defeats from Russia in the 18th century, was not in the mood to trade oil for guns now. True, in 1941-44, a company and a battalion of King Gustav’s subjects fought on the side of Finland against the USSR in different sectors of the front - but precisely as volunteers, whom His Majesty could not (or did not want?) interfere with - total number about a thousand fighters. There were also small groups of Swedish Nazis in some SS units.
There is an opinion that Hitler did not attack Sweden supposedly for sentimental reasons, considering its inhabitants to be purebred Aryans. The real reasons for maintaining the neutrality of the Yellow Cross, of course, lay in the plane of economics and geopolitics. On all sides, the heart of Scandinavia was surrounded by territories controlled by the Reich: allied Finland, as well as occupied Norway and Denmark. At the same time, until the defeat in the Battle of Kursk, Stockholm preferred not to quarrel with Berlin (for example, officially accepting Danish Jews who fled the Holocaust was allowed only in October 1943). So even at the end of the war, when Sweden stopped supplying Germany with scarce iron ore, in a strategic sense, the occupation of a neutral would not have changed anything, forcing it only to stretch the Wehrmacht’s communications.
Not knowing carpet bombing and property reparations, Stockholm met and spent the Second World War with the revival of many areas of the economy; for example, the future worldwide famous company Ikea was founded in 1943.
Argentina
The German diaspora in the country of Pampa, as well as the size of the Abwehr station, were among the largest on the continent. The army, trained according to Prussian patterns, supported the Nazis; politicians and oligarchs, on the contrary, focused more on foreign trade partners - England and the USA (for example, in the late thirties, 3/4 of the famous Argentine beef was supplied to Britain).
Relations with Germany were also uneven. German spies operated almost openly in the country; During the Battle of the Atlantic, the Kriegsmarine sank several Argentine merchant ships. In the end, in 1944, as if hinting, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition recalled their ambassadors from Buenos Aires (having previously introduced a ban on the supply of weapons to Argentina); in neighboring Brazil, the general headquarters, with the help of American advisers, hatched plans to bomb their Spanish-speaking neighbors.
But even despite all this, the country declared war on Germany only on March 27, 1945, and then, of course, nominally. The honor of Argentina was saved only by a few hundred volunteers who fought in the ranks of the Anglo-Canadian Air Force.
Türkiye
“As long as the life of the nation is not in danger, war is murder.” Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish state.
One of the many reasons for the Second World War was the territorial claims that all (!) countries of the fascist bloc had against their neighbors. Turkey, despite its traditional orientation towards Germany, however, stood apart here due to the course taken by Ataturk to abandon imperial ambitions in favor of building a national state.
The Founding Father's comrade and second president of the country, İsmet İnönü, who headed the Republic after the death of Atatürk, could not help but take into account the obvious geopolitical alignments. Firstly, in August 1941, after the slightest threat of Iranian action on the side of the Axis, Soviet and British troops simultaneously entered the country from the north and south, taking control of the entire Iranian Plateau in three weeks. And although the Turkish army is incomparably stronger than the Persian one, there is no doubt that the anti-Hitler coalition, remembering the successful experience of the Russian-Ottoman wars, will not stop at a preemptive strike, and the Wehrmacht, 90% of which is already deployed on the Eastern Front, is unlikely to come to the rescue.
And secondly and most importantly, what is the point of fighting (see Ataturk’s quote) if you can make a lot of money by supplying scarce Erzurum chrome (without which tank armor cannot be made) to both warring parties?
In the end, when it became completely indecent to prevaricate, on February 23, 1945, under pressure from the Allies, war on Germany was nevertheless declared, although without actual participation in hostilities. Over the previous 6 years, Turkey's population increased from 17.5 to almost 19 million: along with neutral Spain - the best result among European countries
62 states participated in World War II, but there were many countries that managed to maintain neutrality. It is about such states that we will talk further.
Switzerland
"We'll take Switzerland, that little porcupine, on the way back." A saying that was common among German soldiers during the French campaign of 1940.
The Swiss Guard is the oldest (surviving) military unit in the world, guarding the Pope himself since 1506. Highlanders, even from the European Alps, have always been considered natural-born warriors, and the system of army training for Helvetian citizens ensured excellent possession of weapons by almost every adult resident of the canton. Victory over such a neighbor, where every mountain valley became a natural fortress, according to the calculations of the German headquarters, could only be achieved with an unacceptable level of Wehrmacht losses.
Actually, the forty-year conquest of the Caucasus by Russia, as well as the three bloody Anglo-Afghan wars, showed that complete control over mountainous territories requires years, if not decades, of armed presence in conditions of constant guerrilla warfare - which the strategists of the OKW (German General Staff) could not ignore.
However, there is also a conspiracy theory about the refusal to seize Switzerland (after all, for example, Hitler trampled on the neutrality of the Benelux countries without hesitation): as you know, Zurich is not only chocolate, but also banks where gold was allegedly stored by both the Nazis and the British who financed them. Saxon elites who are not at all interested in undermining the global financial system due to an attack on one of its centers.
Spain
“The meaning of Franco’s life was Spain. In connection with this - not a Nazi, but a classic military dictator - he abandoned Hitler himself, refusing, despite guarantees, to enter the war.” Lev Vershinin, political scientist.
General Franco won the civil war largely thanks to the support of the Axis: from 1936 to 1939, tens of thousands of Italian and German soldiers fought side by side with the Phalangists, and they were covered from the air by the Luftwaffe Condor Legion, which “distinguished itself” by bombing Guernica. It is not surprising that before the new all-European massacre, the Fuhrer asked the caudillo to repay his debts, especially since the British military base of Gibraltar was located on the Iberian Peninsula, which controlled the strait of the same name, and therefore the entire Mediterranean.
However, in the global confrontation, the one with the stronger economy wins. And Francisco Franco, who soberly assessed the strength of his opponents (for almost half of the world’s population lived in the USA, the British Empire and the USSR alone at that time), made the right decision to focus on restoring Spain, torn by the civil war.
The Frankists limited themselves to only sending the volunteer “Blue Division” to the Eastern Front, which was successfully multiplied by zero by Soviet troops on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, simultaneously solving another problem of the caudillo - saving him from his own rabid Nazis, in comparison with which even the right-wing Phalangists were a model of moderation .
Portugal
“In 1942, the Portuguese coast became the last refuge of fugitives for whom justice, freedom and tolerance meant more than their homeland and life.”
Erich Maria Remarque. "Night in Lisbon"
Portugal remained one of the last European countries to retain extensive colonial possessions - Angola and Mozambique - until the 1970s. African soil gave untold riches, for example, strategically important tungsten, which the Pyreneans sold at a high price to both sides (at least at the initial stage of the war).
In the event of joining any of the opposing alliances, the consequences are easy to calculate: yesterday you were counting trade profits, and today your opponents are enthusiastically starting to sink your transport ships that provide communication between the metropolis and the colonies (or even completely occupy the latter), despite the fact that there is no large army Unfortunately, the noble dons do not have a fleet to protect the sea communications on which the life of the country depends.
In addition, the Portuguese dictator António de Salazar remembered the lessons of history, when in 1806, during the Napoleonic Wars, Lisbon was captured and ravaged first by the French, and two years later by the British troops, so that the small nation did not have to turn into an arena for a clash of great powers again no desire.
Of course, during World War II, life on the Iberian Peninsula, the agricultural periphery of Europe, was not at all easy. However, the hero-narrator of the already mentioned “Nights in Lisbon” was struck by the pre-war carelessness of this city, with the bright lights of working restaurants and casinos.
Sweden
In 1938, Life magazine ranked Sweden among the countries with the highest standard of living. Stockholm, having abandoned all-European expansion after numerous defeats from Russia in the 18th century, was not in the mood to trade oil for guns now. True, in 1941-44, a company and a battalion of King Gustav’s subjects fought on the side of Finland against the USSR in different sectors of the front - but precisely as volunteers, whom His Majesty could not (or did not want?) interfere with - with a total number of about a thousand fighters. There were also small groups of Swedish Nazis in some SS units.
There is an opinion that Hitler did not attack Sweden supposedly for sentimental reasons, considering its inhabitants to be purebred Aryans. The real reasons for maintaining the neutrality of the Yellow Cross, of course, lay in the plane of economics and geopolitics. On all sides, the heart of Scandinavia was surrounded by territories controlled by the Reich: allied Finland, as well as occupied Norway and Denmark. At the same time, until the defeat in the Battle of Kursk, Stockholm preferred not to quarrel with Berlin (for example, officially accepting Danish Jews who fled the Holocaust was allowed only in October 1943). So even at the end of the war, when Sweden stopped supplying Germany with scarce iron ore, in a strategic sense, the occupation of a neutral would not have changed anything, forcing it only to stretch the Wehrmacht’s communications.
Not knowing carpet bombing and property reparations, Stockholm met and spent the Second World War with the revival of many areas of the economy; for example, the future world famous company Ikea was founded in 1943.
Argentina
The German diaspora in the country of Pampa, as well as the size of the Abwehr station, were among the largest on the continent. The army, trained according to Prussian patterns, supported the Nazis; politicians and oligarchs, on the contrary, focused more on foreign trade partners - England and the USA (for example, in the late thirties, 3/4 of the famous Argentine beef was supplied to Britain).
Relations with Germany were also uneven. German spies operated almost openly in the country; During the Battle of the Atlantic, the Kriegsmarine sank several Argentine merchant ships. In the end, in 1944, as if hinting, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition recalled their ambassadors from Buenos Aires (having previously introduced a ban on the supply of weapons to Argentina); in neighboring Brazil, the general headquarters, with the help of American advisers, hatched plans to bomb their Spanish-speaking neighbors.
But even despite all this, the country declared war on Germany only on March 27, 1945, and then, of course, nominally. The honor of Argentina was saved only by a few hundred volunteers who fought in the ranks of the Anglo-Canadian Air Force.
Türkiye
“As long as the life of the nation is not in danger, war is murder.” Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish state.
One of the many reasons for the Second World War was the territorial claims that all (!) countries of the fascist bloc had against their neighbors. Turkey, despite its traditional orientation towards Germany, however, stood apart here due to the course taken by Ataturk to abandon imperial ambitions in favor of building a national state.
The Founding Father's comrade and second president of the country, İsmet İnönü, who headed the Republic after the death of Atatürk, could not help but take into account the obvious geopolitical alignments. Firstly, in August 1941, after the slightest threat of Iranian action on the side of the Axis, Soviet and British troops simultaneously entered the country from the north and south, taking control of the entire Iranian Plateau in three weeks. And although the Turkish army is incomparably stronger than the Persian one, there is no doubt that the anti-Hitler coalition, remembering the successful experience of the Russian-Ottoman wars, will not stop at a preemptive strike, and the Wehrmacht, 90% of which is already deployed on the Eastern Front, is unlikely to come to the rescue.
And secondly and most importantly, what is the point of fighting (see Ataturk’s quote) if you can make a lot of money by supplying scarce Erzurum chrome (without which tank armor cannot be made) to both warring parties?
In the end, when it became completely indecent to prevaricate, on February 23, 1945, under pressure from the Allies, war on Germany was nevertheless declared, although without actual participation in hostilities. Over the previous 6 years, Turkey's population increased from 17.5 to almost 19 million: along with neutral Spain - the best result among European countries
The deadliest war, 65 million killed and wounded, 62 participating states - any article about World War II will begin with these facts. But they are unlikely to talk about countries that were able to maintain neutrality during the years of this conflict.
Spain
General Franco won the civil war largely thanks to the support of the Axis: from 1936 to 1939, tens of thousands of Italian and German soldiers fought side by side with the Phalangists, and they were covered from the air by the Luftwaffe Condor Legion, which “distinguished itself” by bombing Guernica. It is not surprising that before the new all-European massacre, the Fuhrer asked the caudillo to repay his debts, especially since the British military base of Gibraltar was located on the Iberian Peninsula, which controlled the strait of the same name, and therefore the entire Mediterranean.
However, in the global confrontation, the one with the stronger economy wins. And Francisco Franco, who soberly assessed the strength of his opponents (for almost half of the world’s population lived in the USA, the British Empire and the USSR alone at that time), made the right decision to focus on restoring Spain, torn by the civil war.
The Frankists limited themselves to only sending the volunteer “Blue Division” to the Eastern Front, which was successfully multiplied by zero by Soviet troops on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, simultaneously solving another problem of the caudillo - saving him from his own rabid Nazis, in comparison with which even the right-wing Phalangists were a model of moderation .
Portugal
Portugal remained one of the last European countries to retain extensive colonial possessions - Angola and Mozambique - until the 1970s. African soil gave untold riches, for example, strategically important tungsten, which the Pyreneans sold at a high price to both sides (at least at the initial stage of the war).
In the event of joining any of the opposing alliances, the consequences are easy to calculate: yesterday you were counting trade profits, and today your opponents are enthusiastically starting to sink your transport ships that provide communication between the metropolis and the colonies (or even completely occupy the latter), despite the fact that there is no large army Unfortunately, the noble dons do not have a fleet to protect the sea communications on which the life of the country depends.
In addition, the Portuguese dictator António de Salazar remembered the lessons of history, when in 1806, during the Napoleonic Wars, Lisbon was captured and ravaged first by the French, and two years later by the British troops, so that the small nation did not have to turn into an arena for a clash of great powers again no desire.
Of course, during World War II, life on the Iberian Peninsula, the agricultural periphery of Europe, was not at all easy. However, the hero-narrator of the already mentioned “Nights in Lisbon” was struck by the pre-war carelessness of this city, with the bright lights of working restaurants and casinos.
Switzerland
The Swiss Guard is the oldest (surviving) military unit in the world, guarding the Pope himself since 1506. Highlanders, even from the European Alps, have always been considered natural-born warriors, and the system of army training for Helvetian citizens ensured excellent possession of weapons by almost every adult resident of the canton. Victory over such a neighbor, where every mountain valley became a natural fortress, according to the calculations of the German headquarters, could only be achieved with an unacceptable level of Wehrmacht losses.
Actually, the forty-year conquest of the Caucasus by Russia, as well as the three bloody Anglo-Afghan wars, showed that complete control over mountainous territories requires years, if not decades, of armed presence in conditions of constant guerrilla warfare - which the strategists of the OKW (German General Staff) could not ignore.
However, there is also a conspiracy theory about the refusal to seize Switzerland (after all, for example, Hitler trampled on the neutrality of the Benelux countries without hesitation): as you know, Zurich is not only chocolate, but also banks where gold was allegedly stored by both the Nazis and the British who financed them. Saxon elites who are not at all interested in undermining the global financial system due to an attack on one of its centers.
Sweden
In 1938, Life magazine ranked Sweden among the countries with the highest standard of living. Stockholm, having abandoned all-European expansion after numerous defeats from Russia in the 18th century, was not in the mood to trade oil for guns now. True, in 1941-44, a company and a battalion of King Gustav’s subjects fought on the side of Finland against the USSR in different sectors of the front - but precisely as volunteers, whom His Majesty could not (or did not want?) interfere with - with a total number of about a thousand fighters. There were also small groups of Swedish Nazis in some SS units.
There is an opinion that Hitler did not attack Sweden supposedly for sentimental reasons, considering its inhabitants to be purebred Aryans. The real reasons for maintaining the neutrality of the Yellow Cross, of course, lay in the plane of economics and geopolitics. On all sides, the heart of Scandinavia was surrounded by territories controlled by the Reich: allied Finland, as well as occupied Norway and Denmark. At the same time, until the defeat in the Battle of Kursk, Stockholm preferred not to quarrel with Berlin (for example, officially accepting Danish Jews who fled the Holocaust was allowed only in October 1943). So even at the end of the war, when Sweden stopped supplying Germany with scarce iron ore, in a strategic sense, the occupation of a neutral would not have changed anything, forcing it only to stretch the Wehrmacht’s communications.
Not knowing carpet bombing and property reparations, Stockholm met and spent the Second World War with the revival of many areas of the economy; for example, the future world famous company Ikea was founded in 1943.
Argentina
The German diaspora in the country of Pampa, as well as the size of the Abwehr station, were among the largest on the continent. The army, trained according to Prussian patterns, supported the Nazis; politicians and oligarchs, on the contrary, focused more on foreign trade partners - England and the USA (for example, in the late thirties, 3/4 of the famous Argentine beef was supplied to Britain).
Relations with Germany were also uneven. German spies operated almost openly in the country; During the Battle of the Atlantic, the Kriegsmarine sank several Argentine merchant ships. In the end, in 1944, as if hinting, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition recalled their ambassadors from Buenos Aires (having previously introduced a ban on the supply of weapons to Argentina); in neighboring Brazil, the general headquarters, with the help of American advisers, hatched plans to bomb their Spanish-speaking neighbors.
But even despite all this, the country declared war on Germany only on March 27, 1945, and then, of course, nominally. The honor of Argentina was saved only by a few hundred volunteers who fought in the ranks of the Anglo-Canadian Air Force.
Türkiye
One of the many reasons for the Second World War was the territorial claims that all (!) countries of the fascist bloc had against their neighbors. Turkey, despite its traditional orientation towards Germany, however, stood apart here due to the course taken by Ataturk to abandon imperial ambitions in favor of building a national state.
The Founding Father's comrade and second president of the country, İsmet İnönü, who headed the Republic after the death of Atatürk, could not help but take into account the obvious geopolitical alignments. Firstly, in August 1941, after the slightest threat of Iranian action on the side of the Axis, Soviet and British troops simultaneously entered the country from the north and south, taking control of the entire Iranian Plateau in three weeks. And although the Turkish army is incomparably stronger than the Persian one, there is no doubt that the anti-Hitler coalition, remembering the successful experience of the Russian-Ottoman wars, will not stop at a preemptive strike, and the Wehrmacht, 90% of which is already deployed on the Eastern Front, is unlikely to come to the rescue.
And secondly and most importantly, what is the point of fighting (see Ataturk’s quote) if you can make a lot of money by supplying scarce Erzurum chrome (without which tank armor cannot be made) to both warring parties?
In the end, when it became completely indecent to prevaricate, on February 23, 1945, under pressure from the allies, war on Germany was nevertheless declared, although without actual participation in hostilities. Over the previous 6 years, Turkey's population has increased from 17.5 to almost 19 million: along with neutral Spain, this is the best result among European countries.
"...In the very first days of the war, a German division was passed through the territory of Sweden for operations in Northern Finland. However, the Prime Minister of Sweden, Social Democrat P. A. Hansson, immediately promised the Swedish people that no more troops would be allowed through the territory of Sweden. one German division and that the country would in no way enter into a war against the USSR.
Sweden took upon itself the representation of the interests of the USSR in Germany, and yet the transit of German military materials to Finland began through Sweden; German transport ships transported troops there, taking refuge in Swedish territorial waters, and until the winter of 1942/43 they were accompanied by a convoy of Swedish naval forces. The Nazis achieved the supply of Swedish goods on credit and their transportation mainly on Swedish ships..."
"...It was Swedish iron ore that was the best raw material for Hitler. After all, this ore contained 60 percent pure iron, while the ore received by the German military machine from other places contained only 30 percent iron. It is clear that production military equipment made of metal smelted from Swedish ore, it cost the treasury of the Third Reich much less.
In 1939, the same year when Hitler's Germany unleashed the Second world war, it was supplied with 10.6 million tons of Swedish ore. Wow! After April 9, that is, when Germany had already conquered Denmark and Norway, ore supplies increased significantly. In 1941, 45 thousand tons of Swedish ore were supplied daily by sea for the needs of the German military industry. Little by little, Sweden's trade with Nazi Germany increased and eventually accounted for 90 percent of all Swedish foreign trade. From 1940 to 1944, the Swedes sold more than 45 million tons of iron ore to the Nazis.
The Swedish port of Luleå was specially converted to supply iron ore to Germany through the Baltic waters. (And only Soviet submarines after June 22, 1941, at times caused great inconvenience to the Swedes, torpedoing Swedish transports in whose holds this ore was transported). Supplies of ore to Germany continued almost until the moment when the Third Reich had already begun, figuratively speaking, to give up the ghost. Suffice it to say that back in 1944, when the outcome of the Second World War was no longer in doubt, the Germans received 7.5 million tons of iron ore from Sweden. Until August 1944, Sweden received Nazi gold through the banks of neutral Switzerland."
Sweden's economic miracle
In other words, wrote Norschensflamman, “Swedish iron ore ensured the Germans’ success in the war. And this was a bitter fact for all Swedish anti-fascists.” However, Swedish iron ore came to the Germans not only in the form of raw materials.
The world-famous SKF concern, which produced the best ball bearings on the planet, supplied these, not so, at first glance, tricky technical mechanisms to Germany. Fully ten percent of the ball bearings received by Germany came from Sweden, according to Norschensflamman. Anyone, even someone completely inexperienced in military affairs, understands what ball bearings mean for the production of military equipment. But without them, not a single tank will move, not a single submarine will go to sea! Note that Sweden, as Norschensflamman noted, produced bearings of “special quality and technical characteristics", which Germany could not obtain from anywhere else. Importing bearings from Sweden became especially important for Germany when the VKF bearing plant in Schweinfurt was destroyed in 1943. In 1945, economist and economic advisor Per Jakobsson provided information that helped disrupt the supply of Swedish bearings to Japan.
Let's think: how many lives were cut short because formally neutral Sweden provided Nazi Germany with strategic and military products, without which the flywheel of the Nazi military mechanism would, of course, continue to spin up, but certainly not at such a high speed as it was? The question of the “infringed” Swedish neutrality during the Second World War is not new; Russian Scandinavian historians and diplomats, who by their nature worked in the USSR Foreign Ministry in the Scandinavian direction, are well aware of this. But not even many of them are aware that in the autumn of 1941, that very cruel autumn, when the existence of the entire Soviet state was at stake (and therefore, as a consequence, the fate of the peoples inhabiting it), King Gustav V Adolf of Sweden sent Hitler a letter in which he wished “dear Reich Chancellor further success in the fight against Bolshevism”..."
1939-1940
8,260 Swedes took part in the Soviet-Finnish War.
1941-1944
900 Swedish Nazis participated in the occupation of the USSR as part of the Finnish army, in particular, the siege of Leningrad.
Wallenberg family
With great reluctance and awkwardness, the Wallenberg family remembers that during the war years the Wallenbergs took part in financing and supplying iron ore to Hitler's Germany from Sweden (from 1940 to 1944 the Nazis received more than 45 million tons of ore), steel, ball bearings, electrical equipment, tools, pulp and other goods that were used in war production. Many in Sweden still remember this and reproach the Wallenbergs for collaborating with the Nazis.
The Wallenberg family, through banking and industrial empires from major corporations and stakes in other large companies, controls a third of Sweden's GDP. The family controls more than 130 companies. The largest: ABB, Atlas Copco, AstraZeneca, Bergvik Skog, Electrolux, Ericsson, Husqvarna, Investor, Saab, SEB, SAS, SKF, Stora Enso. 36% of shares listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange belong to the Wallenbergs.
The Wallenberg-owned bank SEB received more than $4.5 million from the German Central Bank between May 1940 and June 1941 and acted as a purchasing agent (through intermediaries) for the German government in the purchase of bonds and securities in New York. York.
In April 1941, Finance Minister Ernst Wigforss and SEB Bank President Jacob Wallenberg agreed to issue a loan to Germany for the construction of ships in Swedish shipyards, the Nazis received a very significant amount for those times - 40 million crowns, which corresponds to today's 830 million crowns
Swedish historian and ambassador Christer Wahl Brooks, together with archivist Bo Hammarlund, proved the duality of the Swedish Ministry of Finance's policies during the Second World War. The head of this department, Ernst Wigforst, went down in history as an opponent of the passage of Nazi troops through Sweden during the attack on Norway. Val Brooks found out that Wigforst actively helped Nazi Germany with money, although he did it in Swedish interests.
As part of a routine check in the archives of the Ministry of Finance, Hammarlund found a document in the form of a letter dating from April 1941, reports the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. This letter was written by the director of the Swedish bank Skandinaviska Banken, Ernst Herslov, but was never officially registered.
The letter states summary conversation between the Minister of Finance and Herslov. Wigforst argued for the need to send Germany loans that would allow the Nazis to pay for the work of Swedish shipbuilders. “The minister made it clear that it would be desirable to make loans available,” Herslov wrote. In reality, the money was supposed to help Sweden increase exports to Nazi Germany. According to historians, the existence of such secret deals is a much more serious indication of assistance to the Nazis than the opening of borders for the free movement of Nazi troops.
The researcher was shocked that such important conversations from a state point of view were conducted one-on-one between the minister and the banker. By law, a decision to provide loans to a foreign country would have to be approved by the Swedish government. “One can understand why Wigforst avoided publicity in this matter,” writes Dagens Nyheter.
The text of the letter indicates that Wigforst managed to secure the allocation of loans.
Historians found confirmation of their hypothesis in the diaries of the chapter central bank Sweden Ivar Rooh. He mentioned that his company allocated significant sums to ensure that Germany supplied Sweden with fewer products in response to iron ore and other raw materials exported from Scandinavia for the war industry.
According to Val Brooks and Hammarlund, the amount of bribes reached 40 million crowns. The letter also indicates that in the spring of 1941 Germany continued to actively build ships in Sweden, although Stockholm officially declared its neutrality. A similar policy was pursued by Madrid, which helped with the basing of Nazi submarines and the placement of Berlin spies, but did not officially consider itself a belligerent.
Ingvar Feodor Kamprad (Swedish: Ingvar Feodor Kamprad) (born March 30, 1926) is an entrepreneur from Sweden. One of the richest people in the world, founder of IKEA, a chain of stores selling household goods.
In 1994, the personal letters of Swedish fascist activist Per Engdahl were published. From them it became known that Kamprad joined his pro-Nazi group in 1942. At least until September 1945, he was actively raising money for the group and attracting new members. The timing of Kamprad's departure from the group is unknown, but he and Per Endahl remained friends until the early 1950s. After these facts became known, Kamprad said that he bitterly regretted this part of his life and considered it one of his biggest mistakes. After this, he wrote a letter of apology to all Jewish IKEA employees.
The founder of the Swedish furniture concern IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, was much more closely associated with the Nazi movement than was previously known. Thus, Kamprad was not only a member of the fascist movement “New Swedish Movement” / Nysvenska rörelsen, but also in the Nazi Lindholm Association / Lindholmsrörelse. This became known from a book by an employee Swedish television SVT - Elisabeth Åsbrink.
This book also publishes for the first time data that a case was opened against the 17-year-old Kamprad, already in 1943, by the Swedish Security Police Säpo, where he was held under the heading “Nazi.”
After the war, in the 50s, Kamprad continued to be friends with one of the leaders of the Swedish fascists, Per Engdahl. And just a year ago, in a conversation with Elisabeth Osbrink, he called Engdahl a “great man.”
Ingvar Kamprad's involvement in the Nazi movement in Sweden was known earlier, but this information had not been published before. Ingvar Kamprad's spokesman, Per Heggenes, said that Kamprad had already repeatedly apologized and asked for forgiveness for his past Nazi views. He has repeatedly said that today he has no sympathy for the Nazis or Nazism.
“This whole story is 70 years old,” said Pär Heggenes, noting that Kamprad himself knew nothing about the fact that he was being monitored by the Security Police.
Historians question Sweden's neutrality during World War II
A number of studies commissioned by the Swedish government confirm assumptions that Sweden, which officially remained neutral during the Second World War, was ready to meet Nazi Germany halfway in many ways.
The revelation may add fuel to debate over the country's immigration policies and Sweden's decision not to join NATO.
Once powerful and warlike, Sweden last went to war 200 years ago. The Second World War was a serious test of Swedish neutrality. The prospect of an invasion by both fascist troops and allies seemed quite realistic at that time.
Until now, Sweden seemed to be quite pleased with itself. Yes, it supplied a significant amount of iron ore to Germany, allowed Nazi troops to pass unhindered through its territory and did not allow in Jews who had fled from the Germans.
However, at the same time, they allowed the Allies to develop an intelligence network on their territory, and at the end of the war they provided refuge to Jews from neighboring countries occupied by the Germans. They also developed an emergency plan to participate in the liberation of Denmark.
However, according to information released this week, starting in 1937, the Swedish government instructed the Swedish Lutheran Church to apply Nazi laws when it came to German citizens.
Thus, Swedes who married Germans had to provide evidence that their parents, as well as grandparents, did not have Jewish roots. Marriages between Germans and Swedish Jews were annulled.
By order of their German partners, German companies fired Jewish employees. Newspapers were ordered not to criticize Hitler and not to publish articles about the concentration camps or the occupation of Norway.
Cultural ties between Sweden and Nazi Germany remained very close.
Meanwhile, the Nazis' attitude towards the Swedes remains very vague. On the one hand, they were respected as "an exceptionally pure example of the Nordic race." On the other hand, the German leadership complained that modern Swedes had become too peace-loving and non-conflict, that is, they bore little resemblance to the ideal of the Aryan warrior.
Neighboring countries often accuse Sweden of taking an overly preachy tone when it comes to moral and ethical debates. Some attribute this to the country's Protestant heritage. Some see this as a throwback to Sweden's once "dominant" position. Still others believe that complacency is explained by the fact that Sweden has not been at war for a long time.
Whatever the real reason, it is likely that Swedes will now be more willing to moderate their tone and become more self-critical, and recognize that their past may not seem so blameless to other countries. An example of this is the recent controversy over Sweden's controversial human sterilization program.
According to the 1935 “racial hygiene” law, about 60 thousand Swedes were deprived of the opportunity to have children due to the fact that they did not have a sufficiently “Nordic” appearance, were born from parents of different races, or showed “signs of degeneration.”
In the 1920s, 30s and 40s. The idea of “racial hygiene” was extremely popular not only in Germany. Denmark, Norway, Canada, and 30 American states have implemented sterilization programs.
Marie Stopes, a pioneer of family planning in Britain, was a strong advocate of this idea: she argued that by encouraging working-class people to have fewer children and upper-class people to have more children, the gene pool of the Anglo-Saxon nation could be improved.
However, most European countries abandoned this idea after the war. The Swedish Institute of Racial Biology continued to operate until 1976.
It is also interesting that sterilization was advocated not only by far-right nationalists, but also by governments formed by Social Democrats.
Sweden received even more military orders after the outbreak of World War II. And mostly these were orders for Nazi Germany. Neutral Sweden became one of the main economic pillars of the national Reich. Suffice it to say that in 1943 alone, of the 10.8 million tons of iron ore mined, 10.3 million tons of iron ore were sent to Germany from Sweden. Until now, few people know that one of the main tasks of the ships of the Soviet Navy that fought in Baltic, there was not only a fight against fascist ships, but also the destruction of ships of neutral Sweden carrying cargo for the Nazis.
Well, how did the Nazis and the Swedes pay for the goods they received from them? Only by what they looted in the territories they occupied and most of all in the Soviet occupied territories. The Germans had almost no other resources for settlements with Sweden. So, when they once again tell you about “Swedish happiness,” remember who paid for it for the Swedes and at whose expense.