About Sally Williams

On Saturday afternoons when we arrived at my Grandmother’s house, we first went to the baking cabinet and got a piece or two of ‘sockerbit’ to use for dipping in our Mom’s coffee. Then to the glider on the porch where “Memo” (our version of Mormor) waited for us with her yarn and needles to teach us to make dolls and squares for the afghans we were making for the soldiers in World War II. My Uncle would often read us “The Wonderful Adventure of Nils” and "Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates“. The big, round kitchen table of our childhood was always occupied by our uncles and cousins, always engaged in heated arguments in Swedish (specifically Skane dialect) about the war. I always wondered what my family argued about, and now I know. 

 

Winston Churchill believed that Sweden “ignored the greater moral issues of the war and played both sides for profit”. Based on historical evidence, Churchill was correct. The Germans needed Swedish ore and ball bearing while the Swedes needed German coal. The U.S. used Swedish banks to trade with Germany and England used the Swedes to launder money. Swiss banks also had under the counter activities with Germany. The Enskilda Bank of Sweden was run by two of Raoul Wallenberg’s uncles. The Wallenbergs are a prominent Swedish family, known as Europe’s pre-eminent and most powerful business family. They are renowned as bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats, and diplomats. The elder uncle, Jacob Wallenberg, chaired both the Committee on German Encumberments (commitment of funds against resources) and the Bank of International Settlements, making it easy for Sweden to help the Germans deposit gold and jewels that were stolen from Jewish families into Swedish banks. In return, the Swedes asked the Germans to add a “J” to German passports so Jewish refugees could not enter Sweden. When the Swedes discovered that the gold bars contained gold fillings and wedding rings from Jewish families, they stopped accepting the gold bars. The U.S. considered the Wallenbergs as strongly pro-German and placed a blockade on the Enskilda bank that remained until 1947. 

 

When Raoul Wallenberg first arrived in Budapest as Sweden’s special envoy, he assisted in the transfer of gold from Germany to Sweden. At heart, he was Anti-Nazi, so when the Americans announced that they would finance the evacuation of Jews, he used his position as envoy to arrange safe passage for Jewish children to Sweden. Swedish law did not allow Raoul to arrange passage for the parents. He arranged for many to have jobs and live under Swedish protection. He was eventually arrested for espionage by the Russians after the Siege of Budapest and likely died in a Moscow prison. 

 

Sweden also built several top secret internment camps that held thousands of inmates from 1940-1948 who were suspected criminals, German refugees, left-wing activists and anti-Nazis. All were imprisoned without a trial and many were used for slave labor. Refugees were housed in the camps during and after the war. Some were liberated from Auschwitz and sent to Oreyd refugee camp in Smaland, Sweden where many died. 

 

It was reported that 800,000 Swedes joined the Finns in the German Army and fought in the attack on Russia. Later Finland changed sides and fought with the allies. I worked with Swedish students at the University of Illinois who often spoke about the exploits of Swedes in an active underground that smuggled equipment and food to Norway. Swedish intelligence worked with British intelligence on the movement of ships on the coast. Germany was allowed to send troops from its ally Finland to occupied Norway on a daily basis. Many articles on Sweden’s status during the War report that it was a neutral country. It was not. Sweden was a non-belligerent country, meaning it did not officially send Swedish troops to fight with the Germans, but did allow many German activities. In 1943 Sweden sided with the Allies.