World War: Sweden on the Spot

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Nine months ago Sweden felt she could look on the swelling pride of Germany and Russia with relative complacence. She was the geographical centre of a ring of seven well-disposed, small, but collectively considerable, Baltic and Scandinavian States: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Denmark, Norway. One or another of them might be threatened, but it was hardly plausible that a nation ringed around with seven such neighbors would have to face the worst.

Last week seven out of seven of Sweden’s neighbors had been raped, Poland, Finland, Denmark, Norway by arms, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia by threats. Sweden was the only untouched survivor of the group and the march of events pointed now straight at her.

The Nazi invasion fortnight ago of Denmark and Norway, if it had been successful, would have completely cut off Sweden from the rest of the world and have left her at the mercy of Germany. That danger was apparently averted for the time being by the landing of Allied expeditionary forces in northern Norway, but the failure of the German plan to achieve complete success put Sweden in an even more difficult spot.

If the Allies succeed in pushing back the German Army in Norway and disrupting its communications across the Skagerrak, Germany will have urgent military need to send supplies and support through Sweden. Conversely, the Allies, if they succeed in taking Narvik, might be tempted to seize the Swedish iron-ore mines at Kiruna and Gällivare. Sweden did not think this likely but fear of it might give Germany another motive for invasion.

Any of these things might force Sweden to fight at any time. But if none of them took place Sweden’s problems were not yet over. If Allied armies gain possession of her outlet to the Atlantic through Narvik and Trondheim, the Allies are virtually certain to put severe economic pressure on Sweden to induce her to cut ore exports to Germany. If Sweden had to yield to such Allied demands, Germany, again, might attack her.

Fear of Arms. At the same time that Sweden’s strategic problem thus grew acute, her military problems multiplied. Today Germans were in Copenhagen, a short ferry hop to the Swedish mainland.

East of Oslo the Germans were on the Swedish frontier, at points which flanked Sweden’s prepared defense zones (see map). Farther north a German force last week reached the Swedish frontier on the railroad line from Trondheim that crosses the narrow part of Norway, and cuts into middle Sweden, turning southward toward Stockholm. From Copenhagen the Germans could pour an endless column of men into Sweden’s flat and defenseless bottom. From new air bases in Denmark, Nazi bombers can more easily than ever lay eggs of death in Swedish cities.

This week all these threats were made more ominous by a new threat. Over the cities of southern and eastern Sweden and the districts behind the frontier of Norway dozens of snooping Nazi planes appeared. Anti-aircraft fire drove some of them off. Three or four were reported shot down and one fell in flames before a Swedish pursuit plane.

To conciliate the Nazis and remove the temptation of invasion, the Swedish Government, over Norwegian protests, allowed a trainload of German food and medical supplies—at least so it was described—to be shipped through Sweden to the beleaguered Germans in Narvik. Also for “humanitarian purposes” the Swedes allowed German merchant seamen marooned in Narvik to return home through Sweden. If any plausible excuse could be provided, Sweden was prepared to placate Germany to avoid war.

What for Defense? For security Sweden last week looked to her own arms. Her Army of 885,000 men is well trained and one of the best equipped in the world. From the famed Bofors munitions works come the world’s best anti-aircraft guns (to make up in part for Sweden’s slim, 500-plane Air Force), machine guns, anti-tank guns, rifles, armored cars, tin hats. The Swedish Navy has three 7,000-ton vestpocket battleships carrying 11-inch Bofors guns, one combined cruiser and aircraft carrier, seven smaller coast-defense vessels, 16 destroyers, 16 submarines. Based at the old Hanseatic port of Visby on Gotland Island (whence come some of the world’s finest roses), at Karlskrona across from Danzig and at Göteborg on the Kattegat, this Navy is now a close second to Germany’s in the Baltic. Swedish coastal defenses at Göteborg, Kristianstad, Hälsingborg, Karlskrona and Stockholm could do an invader much damage and hold up his attack. Eventually the Allies might be able to send aid through Narvik and Trondheim.

Sweden can probably thank her military strength for still being at peace last week. But for it, Hitler would probably have included Sweden in his Blitzkrieg on Denmark and Norway. Herr Hitler has a weakness for a pushover, and if he had found Norway just a little bit easier he would have had Sweden locked in her room. But another reason for her still unviolated borders may be Sweden’s weakness, and until last week this weakness was scarcely suspected outside of Sweden. Adolf Hitler may believe that he can get Sweden’s iron and her arsenal, immobilize her Army and her Navy, without firing a shot or crossing a frontier uninvited.

Fifth Column. Sweden is a democratic country with a democratic King, a Social-Democratic Government, and the reputation of being one of the most liberal and socially progressive nations of the world. Within all such tolerant nations are extremists of the Right or the Left, usually willing to take the law into their own hands should the occasion arise. Add to this: 1) long and strong cultural and commercial ties between Sweden and Germany; 2) Sweden’s traditional fear of Russia; 3) a Nazi network of friends and propaganda in Sweden. These things provide excellent makings of a Nazi fifth column in Sweden. This column penetrates almost every corner of Sweden, in a crisis might well out-quisle Quisling.

A Svenska National-Socialistika Parti (Nazi Party) existed in Sweden as far back as 1930, with a leader named Birger Furugärd and a slogan of “Sweden, Awake!” Later it merged with the larger National Socialist Workers Party founded in 1933 by Sven Olaf Lindholm, who likes to be called Sweden’s Hitler. In the 1936 elections the combined parties polled 1.6% of the vote for the Riksdag. They have never won a Riksdag seat.

But Sweden has to keep an eye on her Nazis. In 1933 political uniforms were banned, owners of firearms ordered to register. Swedes became sufficiently conscious of the Nazi penetration to organize a private boycott of German goods. In 1935 anti-German Foreign Minister Rickard Sandler got an act passed to end foreign control, through dummy corporations, of Swedish industries. It was aimed at Krupp’s one-third ownership of the Bofors works. (Just before the act went through, Krupp sold out to a Swedish group headed by Tycoon Axel Wenner-Gren.) Junkers had to give up a manufacturing affiliate in Sweden, but Germans remained on the directorates of other big Swedish firms, and the German investment in Sweden’s metal-working industry alone was estimated at $3,500,000.

In 1935 Rudolf Hess visited Stockholm, ostensibly to enroll support for Hitler’s war plans against Russia. For several years Hermann Göring was a regular guest at Castle Rockelstad for Nazi powwows with his first wife’s brother, Count Eric von Rosen. In 1936 Swedish police arrested eleven Nazi agitators, ousted three. In retaliation Germany kicked three Swedish businessmen out of Germany.

By 1937 Nazi penetration into Sweden was well advanced. In Boden one Friedrich Heinz was found giving “German lessons” to officers and soldiers of the garrison. A Swedish manufacturer exposed a German plan to get detailed drawings of Swedish factories by having manufacturers send them to a German air-raid expert for advice on how to build shelters. German “tourists” swarmed over Sweden, especially around the mining districts. Six “philosophy students” were arrested studying the terrain around the fortress at Boden, strongest in northern Europe. Two German agents were nabbed for espionage at Eskilstuna (“Sheffield of Sweden”), another at the gold-mining town of Boliden. A German journalist and photographer named Viese was found to have supplied a Berlin picture agency with 60 detailed photographs of Swedish mining centres and harbors. In 1938 police unmasked a huge Nazi spy network, but no details were published.

Since the war began spying has multiplied. Last month Stockholm police arrested four German-born Swedish citizens for forwarding information about Narvik iron shipments to Germany. Three of them were sentenced to hard labor.

At latest reports Sweden’s Hitler, Sven Lindholm, was going about his regular business as a sergeant in the Army. A sporty-looking character who somewhat resembles an intelligent football player, he makes no secret of the fact that he considers himself the personal representative of Göring in Sweden. More than once he has stood for an hour straight-arming before the Stockholm statue of the great Gustavus Adolf us (who overran Germany in 1630-32) while comrades paraded behind him. Once he was asked at a public meeting what he would do if Germany invaded. “I will not be provoked,” said Sergeant Lindholm.

By last week, too, Sweden realized into what other and higher places Naziism had penetrated. Items:

> Torsten Kreuger, brother of the late gross match king, owns two important Stockholm dailies, Aftonbladet and Tidningen. Torsten Kreuger hates all those who helped to strip him of Ivar’s properties, believes the House of Morgan is a hive of Jewry, means to get even.

> “Expert for the press” in the German Legation in Stockholm is a Dr. Grassmann, who is often seen going from newspaper to newspaper with material. If an article is refused, the newspaper can expect the immediate cancellation of advertisements by German-owned firms and their Swedish branches. Germany’s invasion of Norway failed to get the same vigorous condemnation in the Swedish press that Russia’s attack on Finland received.

> The Swedish-German National Association, supposedly a non-political society, lists among its members many Swedish leaders, including the brothers General Henri de Champs and Vice Admiral C. Léon de Champs (retired), Explorer Sven Hedin, wealthy merchants, publishers, officers. Dr. Hedin, though one-fourth Jewish, is a good friend of Adolf Hitler’s, says he likes the Nazis because his books sell better in Germany since 1933. At a dinner in Stockholm’s gaudy Grand Hotel in 1938, over which Explorer Hedin presided, Nazi Franz von Papen said in a speech: “When I come back to Sweden in ten years I hope to walk on German ground.” Nobody objected.

I. G. Farbenindustrie has a powerful hand in the Swedish chemical industry. One of its directors, Dr. Max Ilgner, has a Swedish wife, himself speaks fluent Swedish.

The physician-in-chief to the garrison at Gotland is a known pro-Nazi.

> At least one justice of Sweden’s Supreme Court is a Nazi.

> Last week crusading Editor Ture Nerman of the weekly Trots Allt (“In Spite of All”) printed a list of members of alleged Nazi cells at the Stockholm naval base, Skeppsholmen. They call themselves the Brown Navy, charged Editor Nerman, “are ready to turn our defenses over to foreign powers.” Editor Nerman claimed to have proof of similar cells at Karlskrona, Göteborg, Malmö, Gotland.

Furthermore, Editor Nerman took pains to point out, the wives of many naval officers are German, including the wife of Rear Admiral Claes Lindsström, commander of the Eastern District. Admiral Lindsström served in the German Navy from 1910 to 1912, was naval attaché at Berlin and Copenhagen, 1917 to 1919.

Said a Swedish official in rebuttal: “We know that some young members of the Navy have been Nazis, but they are being watched. . . . Admiral Lindsström is a Swede who will obey his King.” With Norway as an object lesson, Sweden has at least had an opportunity to prepare against a Nazi Fifth Column.

Dynasty. Sweden’s 81-year-old King Gustaf, whose tennis-playing year after year so amazed Europe, is no longer as hale as he once was. The problems of the Russo-Finnish war and the growing threat to his country’s independence have aged him. This year, for the first time in many a year, things looked so bad at home that he was unable to take his winter vacation on the Riviera. Last week he and the Crown Prince attended meetings of the Council of Ministers, which met nearly every day to discuss the growing threat to Sweden, but otherwise he was hardly seen in Stockholm. Once during the week his shiny old Cadillac rolled out from the palace overlooking the waterfront, and the King did some quiet shopping, stopped to see an old crony, then hastened to a Cabinet meeting.

The lifetime reputation of this great-grandson of Napoleon’s Marshal Jean Bernadotte puts him squarely on the side of democracy in Sweden’s undercover struggle. No less a democrat is his son, Gustafus Adolfus, who at 58 is still preparing to become King of Sweden. During the King’s vacations Gustafus Adolfus has taken over his duties and his Ministers have found little difference between father & son. Not quite so tall, not quite so spare as Gustaf, his son has all his political acumen, all his popularity. It used to be said in Sweden that if the country became a republic, Gustafus Adolfus would be elected President.

Gustafus Adolfus rose from the ranks to the position of general in the Army—by ability, it is said—leads his own troops in maneuvers, has the personal loyalty of most high Army officers. Ordinary Swedes like him because in his younger days he was an expert skier, golfer, swimmer, horseman, cross-country runner and marksman, as well as being a famed archeologist. Not to be lightly dismissed in any attempted Putsch is this able, strongwilled, elderly Crown Prince. His two wives were English: one, Princess Margaret, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria; the other, Lady Louise Mountbatten, a great-granddaughter.

But the Crown Prince’s son, Gustaf Adolf, second in line for the throne, married Sybille, Princess of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, whose father recently visited the U. S. as head of the Nazi Red Cross. When Sweden and Germany were expelling each other’s nationals in 1936, Gustaf Adolf Jr. trotted off to Berlin to smooth things over with the Nazis. Moreover, in 1937, the Crown Prince’s nephew, Prince Carl Jr., married Countess Elsa von Rosen, niece of Göring’s friend Eric. Prince Carl was referred to in the German press at that time as a pro-Nazi member of the Swedish Royal Family.

Sweden’s dynasty, like Sweden’s people, was last week in a grim predicament. King Christian of Denmark, the father-in-law of Gustaf’s granddaughter, is now a German puppet; and Christian’s brother, Haakon of Norway, was a target for German bombs and bullets. While Norwegians were fighting for their lives and freedom, Swedes, their closest national relatives, dared not go to their defense. But this week as Nazi warplanes swarmed over Sweden King Gustaf sent a stiff protest to Berlin.

With the determination of the Allies to purge Scandinavia of the German terror clearly demonstrated, Sweden was perhaps nearer war, but less in dread of it. By waiting she had probably served Norway as well as herself better than by going in too soon. And having seen what happened to the Norse and the Danes will make her a better fighter if war does come. For even to the war-shunning Swedes, death is better than vassalage.