Statistics for 1997 show an increase in antisemitic incidents over 1996. As in previous years, most manifestations of antisemitism emanate from Sweden's far right. The level of neo-Nazi propaganda relative to the Swedish population remains exceptionally high.
There is a growing awareness of the need to counter this threat. There have recently been stronger responses on the part of the judiciary and the police, and the government, together with anti-racist organizations, has introduced significant initiatives to combat racism and antisemitism, such as the innovative Living History Project (see Countering antisemitism).
Following comprehensive media reports on Sweden's relations with the Nazis during the Second World War, there is a new willingness on the part of the government and the general population to assess the nation's war-time role and confront difficult questions about its history.
Demographic data
Total population: 8.85 million
Jewish population: 16,000-20,000 (mainly in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö)
Other minorities: about 18 per cent of Sweden's population are immigrants or of immigrant extraction. The latest figures for immigrants by country of birth are: Finland 203,371; Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 69,903; Iran 49,203; Bosnia-Herzegovina 46,764; Norway 43,833; Denmark 39,792; Poland 39,522; Germany 35,936; Turkey 30,173; Iraq 28,978; Chile 26,808; Lebanon 21,620. At the end of 1996 there were about 526,600 foreign nationals living in Sweden, 50 per cent of whom were from other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway). The indigenous population are the Sami (Lapps), who have inhabited the north of Scandinavia, Sápmi (Lapland), since ancient times. Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden all claim territories in this region and today the area of Sami settlement extends over the entire Scandinavian Arctic region and stretches along the mountain districts on both sides of the Swedish-Norwegian border. There are about 17,000 Swedish Sami, a minority in their region of settlement.
Religion: about 87 per cent of the Swedish population belong to the Church of Sweden; other Christian denominations are: Roman Catholic (155,000 members), Orthodox and Eastern (97,000), Pentecostal (93,000), Mission Covenant (72,000), Jehovah's Witness (23,000), Baptist (20,000), Methodist (5,000). There are more than 200,000 Muslims, most of whom are immigrants from Turkey, the Middle East and former Yugoslavia, approximately 3,000 Buddhists and 3,000 Hindus.
Political data
Political system: constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy
Head of state: King Carl XIV Gustaf (since September 1973)
Government: Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetarepartiet (SAP, Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party), headed since March 1996 by Prime Minister Göran Persson. According to 1997 public opinion polls, support for the SAP has fallen to a record low.
Other political parties: the seven parties represented in parliament are the Moderata Samlingspartiet (MS, Moderate Party), Folkpartiet Liberalerna (FP, Liberal Party), Centerpartiet (CP, Centre Party), Kristdemokraterna (KD, Christian Democrats), Miljöpartiet de Gröna (MpG, Green Party), Socialdemokratiska Arbetarepartiet (SDA, Social Democratic Party) and Vänsterpartiet (VP, Left Party).
Next elections: 1998 (all levels)
Economic data
GDP 1997: US$260.3 billion
GDP per head 1997: US$29,209
Inflation 1997: 2.1 per cent
Unemployment 1997: 6.5 per cent
In 1782 legislation was adopted which allowed Jews to settle in Sweden without converting to Christianity. In 1870 Sweden's Jews were emancipated.
In the 1930s and up to the end of 1942, anti-Jewish attitudes influenced Sweden's policy towards the immigration of Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution. In 1938 fear of large-scale Jewish immigration, exemplified in student protests at Uppsala and Lund universities, led Sweden to virtually close its borders to Jewish refugees. Following Swedish and Swiss demands, the German authorities in 1938 began stamping a red-coloured 'J' in the passports of Jews. Also in 1938, following the Nazi example, a law was introduced prohibiting Jewish religious slaughter of animals. The law remains in effect to this day and attempts to change the situation have been unsuccessful. (Kosher meat is imported to Sweden.)
Sweden's war-time policies towards Jewish refugees changed when the country actively tried to rescue Jews. Notable examples are the escape of Danish Jews to Sweden in October 1943, Raoul Wallenberg's attempts to save Hungarian Jews and Count Folke Bernadotte's action as the war was ending to bring Jews and non-Jews out of the concentration camps.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, veteran antisemite Einar Åberg, a founder/leader of the war-time organization Sveriges Antijudiska Kampförbund (Swedish Anti-Jewish Action League), became a leading antisemitic propagandist throughout Europe. His activities led to the introduction of a Swedish law prohibiting 'incitement against an ethnic group', in accordance with which he was sentenced sixteen times.
In the late 1950s and 1960s Fria Ord (Free Words), a magazine mainly for middle- and upper-class fascists and Nazis of the older generation and their younger new recruits, regularly carried articles espousing Holocaust denial. Questions about the authenticity of The Diary of Anne Frank began with an article in Fria Ord in 1957.
In the late 1970s, with the emergence of Ditlieb Felderer, who was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment in 1983 for violating the law against incitement against an ethnic group, and his Bible Researcher publishing house, material denying the Holocaust again began to circulate, especially in schools and public libraries. During the 1982 Israeli military campaign in Lebanon, antisemitic expressions also surfaced in the mainstream Swedish press.
In March 1987 Radio Islam (RI), headed by the Swedish-Moroccan Ahmed Rami, began broadcasting antisemitic propaganda in the Stockholm area. Later broadcasts were halted whilst Rami served time in prison. Several well-known intellectuals and cultural figures defended Rami and RI for several years against accusations of antisemitism, asserting that his message was anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli. Radio Islam ceased broadcasting in October 1992, as a protest against 'Zionist persecution', but resumed its activities in late spring 1996, both on the air and on the Internet (see Publications and media).
A violent neo-Nazi skinhead culture emerged in the first half of the 1980s (see Parties, organizations, movements), although in recent years the number of skinheads has declined.
The extensive media coverage of information from newly accessed archives has produced a flurry of questions about Sweden's war-time history, and brought to the fore accusations against Sweden's war-time government as well as the Wallenberg family enterprise.
A report in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter in January 1997 suggested that the Swedish government instructed the country's central bank (Riksbanken) not to question the origin of gold emanating from Nazi Germany. The report, based on 1943 Riksbanken memoranda and written by journalist Goeran Elgemyr and ambassador Sven Fredrik Hedin, stated that Sweden received some 38 tons of gold from Nazi Germany (at today's prices worth US$430 million), far more than previously thought.
In February 1997 the government set up a commission to investigate whether gold stolen by the Nazis remains in Swedish bank reserves. The Wallenbergs announced that their records would be open to the commission. The commission is expected to release its findings in the spring of 1998.
A report in Dagens Nyheter in October 1997 revealed that Swedish companies such as Ericsson, AGA and Hasselblad Cameras, as well as most of the country's paper and wood industries, boosted their trade with Nazi Germany by instituting voluntary purges of Jewish staff and board members. The report listed the names of company directors who collaborated in the purges, which, according to the report, had government backing. The paper also said that Jacob Wallenberg, the diplomat whose role was to conduct trade negotiations with Germany, had full knowledge of Swedish companies' complicity in drawing up Warnungskarten (blacklists of non-Aryan or anti-German companies).
Also in October Dagens Nyheter reported that previously secret documents from the US Office of Special Services (the CIA's predecessor) revealed that Swedish jewellers bought diamonds that the Nazis had stolen and which were smuggled into Sweden by civil servants working at the German legation in Stockholm. The commission set up in February (see above) is also investigating these allegations.
In the report published in October 1997 by the World Jewish Congress on gold looted by Nazi Germany from 1939-45, it was estimated that about US$23 million worth of looted gold ended up in Sweden, and that about US$8 million was returned after the war (see Switzerland).
Since the Second World War Sweden has changed from a largely monolingual and relatively ethnically homogeneous society into a multilingual society with various ethnic minority communities (see General background).
The rights of the Sami to their indigenous culture and language did not receive widespread interest until the 1960s and 1970s when many immigrant groups in Sweden began calling for the government to help preserve their culture. Although the Sami population now enjoy some political autonomy, Sweden was the last of the Nordic countries to allow the formation, in 1994, of a Sametinget, a Sami parliament which represents Sami affairs to the government. Under the current government Sami issues fall under the jurisdiction of the ministry of agriculture.
The Sami themselves continue to struggle for recognition as an indigenous people. Sami organizations include Svenska Samernas Riksförbund (SSR, National Union of the Swedish Sami People), set up in 1950, and the Sámiráddi (Sami Council), set up in 1965 to foster co-operation among the Sami of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia (see Norway and Finland). Sami still face discrimination in housing and employment which the government is attempting to address.
Nearly 11 per cent of Sweden's population is foreign-born. The Swedish government co-operates with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees, and the government provides first asylum, that is the granting of temporary asylum for refugees hoping to relocate in a third country: in 1997 the quota allowed first asylum for 1,800 persons. Although Sweden has adopted an increasingly restrictive asylum policy, the number of refugees in 1997 increased by 65 per cent compared with 1996. A total of 9,520 asylum-seekers, approximately 3,000 of them Kurdish refugees from Iraq, arrived during 1997. In 1996 the number of applications for asylum or residence permits dropped to an eleven-year low of 5,753, down from 9,047 in 1995. Sweden approved 4,800 residence applications during 1996, of which 15 per cent were from refugees, and granted 2,550 individuals some form of protection.
Sweden has accepted over 100,000 refugees from former Yugoslavia and, in 1996, 55,391 refugees from Bosnia-Hercegovina were in Sweden. The government provides funds for Bosnians to travel to their homeland to determine whether they wish to be repatriated and offers financial incentives for their return.
The Swedish secret police (SÄPO) compile data on racist crimes and the Brottsforebyggande Radet (BRÅ, Council for Crime Prevention) publishes the number of incidents of incitement against an ethnic group and 'ethnic discrimination'. According to the BRÅ, the number of crimes committed in 1997 under the law on incitement against an ethnic group totalled 344, an increase of 23 per cent on 1996 (statistics for other types of crime show no such increase). The rise may be attributed to an increased tendency to report such crimes and/or to the more active role being taken by police, prosecutors and courts regarding crimes with racist motives.
There are a number of xenophobic, racist and neo-Nazi groups in Sweden. While some of these groups operate as political parties within the parliamentary system, others try to influence public opinion and mainstream parties more or less covertly or reject the political system outright. The groups frequently split, reform and change names, and boundaries between them are often blurred.
In recent years the far right in Sweden has established an underground subculture that has seen a remarkable growth in relation to the size of the population. Although Swedish society was initially slow to react to the developing far-right movement, over the past few years the judicial system has begun to take measures against it (see Legal matters).
The most significant purveyor of xenophobia among the Swedish parliamentary parties is Sverigedemokraterna (SD, Sweden Democrats), an ultra-nationalist party which mainly opposes non-European immigration into Sweden. Its leader, Mikael Jansson, is a former member of the mainstream CP. SD was formed in 1988 as a direct continuation of Bevara Sverige Svenskt (Keep Sweden Swedish) which was formed in 1979. Current SD membership is estimated at 500 (earlier counts estimated between 1,000 and 2,000 members) and includes Sverigedemokratisk Ungdom (SDU, Sweden Democratic Youth). Since 1995 SD has suffered from the defection of members to more radical groups such as the Nationalsocialistisk Front (National Socialist Front) and, particularly in 1997, the Konservativa Partiet (see below). The group continues to hold seats in the local councils of Dals-Ed (2) and Höör (2), as it has for several years. SD publishes the bi-monthly magazine SD-Kuriren (SD Courier), the occasional youth magazine Ung Front (Young Front) and the membership bulletin SD-Bulletinen (SD Bulletin). The party also operates a web-site.
In July 1997 SD activists travelled around Sweden on a 'summer tour'. Two meetings were held to commemorate King Karl's day on 30 November (the anniversary of King Karolus XII's death in battle in 1718 commemorated by far-right groups since the 1930s). The first, a torch-lit gathering of forty SD members outside the Knight's Church in Stockholm, welcomed a representative from the Finnish neo-fascist Lappo movement IKL (Patriotic National Union) movement (see Finland) as guest of honour. The second was a 'service' inside the church hosted by the Narva Association, an offspring of the Swedish National League (SNF), led by retired schoolteacher Werner Öhrn. The service attracted about 100 spectators. The turnout at both meetings was much lower than in previous years.
The SD is the prime mover behind the establishment of Nord-Nat, an umbrella organization of Nordic parties, including: SD in Sweden, the IKL in Finland (see Finland), Fedrelandspartiet (Fatherland Party, see Norway) in Norway and Nationalpartiet (National Party, see Denmark) in Denmark. The SD has also cemented ties with the French Front national (FN, National Front) and has been anticipating joining Le Pen's Euronat group (see France).
The Konservativa Partiet (KP, Conservative Party) is the new name for the Hembygdspartiet (HP, Heimat Party), founded in 1995 as a splinter group of the more extreme 'old guard' of the SD. The party changed its name and leadership in April 1997 in order to reflect its nationalist conservative leanings inspired by Swedish far-rightists of the 1910s Rudolf Kjellén and Adrian Molin. KP's ideology is also reminiscent of 1920s völkisch radical conservative thinking. The new leader, Leif Larsson, former leader of the far-right Föreningen Sveriges Framtid, replaced 'reverend' Tommy Rydén (see below). KP's current agenda is influenced by the party's leading ideologue, Leif Ericsson (Zeilon), a veteran neo-Nazi active since the 1970s and leader of Nationella Gruppen (NG, Nationalist Group) (see below). KP publishes the occasional magazine Grindvakten (The Gatekeeper) and maintains a web-site. It is planning to take part in the 1998 Swedish local elections. In national politics the party supports Ny Demokrati and Skånes Väl (SV, Scania's Welfare) (see below). KP membership is estimated at 300.
The once successful Ny Demokrati (NyD, New Democracy), Sweden's main right-wing populist party, lost its parliamentary representation in the 1994 elections. It has now developed into a far-right party with an openly xenophobic programme. In 1997 John Bouvin was elected leader. He is renowned for racist comments made during his time as an NyD representative in the Riksdag (parliament), between 1991-4, and for his support of US extremist Lyndon LaRouche (see USA). NyD maintains close contacts with xenophobic and populist parties which make up the coalition party Skånes Väl (see below) and plans to take part in the 1998 elections. Party membership is estimated at 700. NyD publishes the occasional magazine NyDemokraten (The New Democrat) and the monthly bulletin NyDt i politiken (NyD News in Politics).
In April 1997 the coalition party Skånes Väl (SV, Scania's Welfare) was formed by the merging of five right-wing populist parties in the southern region of Scania: Centrumdemokraterna (CD, Centre Democrats); Framstegspartiet (FSP, Progressive Party); Skånepartiet (SKÅP, Scania Party); Kommunens Väl (KV, Municipality's Welfare); and Sjöbopartiet (Sjöbo Party). Sjöbopartiet controls the municipality of Sjöbo and its leader, Per-Ingvar Magnusson, also heads the SV. Most of these groups were formed as local parties in the 1970s and developed xenophobic programmes during the 1980s.
SV is planning to take part in the 1998 regional election in Scania where the five parties have strong local support. SV is supported by many other extreme groups and there are plans to establish a similar far-right coalition party on a national level. Total SV membership is estimated at 800 and, although it has not yet published a party organ, the coalition maintains a web-site.
Although the various anti-immigration lobbying groups continue to consolidate their activities and act in concert, they have a much lower profile than they did in 1996. Folkviljan & Massinvandringen (F&M, Will of the People and Mass Immigration) was officially formed in April 1997 although its raison d'être dates back to 1992 when the anti-immigration magazine Fri Information (see below) was launched. The foundation of F&M was laid in 1996 when the lobbying group Samfundet för nationell och internationell utveckling (League for National and International Development) - formed in 1994 as the main Swedish anti-immigration think-tank, and consisting of academics and members of mainstream parties critical of Sweden's immigration and refugee policies - was dismantled in response to an exposé published in the anti-fascist magazine Expo, and re-organized as four separate district organizations. In its last newsletter, the leaders stated that the network was so vast that no central organization was needed.
Some of F&M's members and supporters have been recruited from established parties, such as Riksdag member Sten Andersson (MS). F&M leader Kenneth Sandberg is a former member of the Left Party (VP), a current member of SV and the leader of KV, the local populist party in Kävlinge, and one of SV's member organizations. F&M publishes a membership newsletter and maintains a web-site. Since it was founded it has organized meetings and lectures, and recruited members through advertisements in the mainstream media and leaflets. Its current membership is estimated at 800.
Fri Information (Free Information, see above) continues to be published bi-monthly under the editorship of physician Eva Bergqvist. Bergqvist gained notoriety in 1990 when she actively opposed the establishment of a refugee hostel in her home town of Kimstra. The journal has over the years published articles openly admiring of the French Front national as well as others with antisemitic overtones. Fri Information maintains an impressive web-site and is extremely influential in anti-immigration circles.
Föreningen Blå-gula Frågor (BgF, Association of Blue and Yellow Questions, a reference to the colours of the Swedish flag) has been active since 1994 as an anti-immigration movement. It is led by Jan Milld, a member of the mainstream Social Democratic Party (SDA), and some of its leading members are former leftists. BgF's chairman, Anders Sundholm, was a long-time activist of the Green Party (MpG), but was expelled in 1996 due to his anti-immigration position. BgF's main activity is the publication of the bi-monthly magazine Blå-gula Frågor (Blue and Yellow Questions) under Milld's editorship. Membership is estimated at 100 and BgF has a close relationship with F&M. Blå-gula Frågor, as well as other material published by Milld, concentrates on the economic costs of Sweden's immigration policy and on the difficulties of integration and the impossibility of a multicultural society.
Swedish neo-Nazi groups comprise an extra-parliamentary network of militant activists called NS-rörelsen (N[ational] S[ocialist] Movement). Its number of hard-core activists is estimated at 100, with perhaps an additional 1,000-2,000 active supporters nationwide. The number of passive sympathizers and consumers of the network's propaganda is certainly much greater. Many activists in the NS Movement belong to more than one group within the network and some members maintain regular contact with like-minded persons and groups in other countries.
An internal conflict between the 'militants' and the 'commercialists' in the NS Movement has recently became public. 'Militants' accuse 'commercialists' of being more interested in making money from the profitable White Power music industry than in Nazi ideology. For this reason the number of activists is thought to have decreased recently, although the level of neo-Nazi violence in 1997 has been slightly higher than in 1996.
Among the groups that comprise the NS Movement, the Nationalsocialistisk Front (NSF, National Socialist Front, see also below), which has been expanding since 1996, is at present the only growing nationwide neo-Nazi organization. It was formed in 1994 in Karlskrona in the south of Sweden and has been led since the beginning by Anders Högström. It has an estimated membership of 400 and publishes the magazine Den Sanne Nationalsocialisten (The True National Socialist). Some NSF leaders have recently been sentenced to prison (see Legal matters).
In November 1997 NSF organized a demonstration in Stockholm against 'Jewish power', an event which attracted some 120 participants. Although the demonstration was held without a permit, and some demonstrators shouted anti-Jewish remarks, the police did not intervene. Their inaction provoked strong criticism from several politicians, the media and anti-racist organizations. An investigation into the conduct of the police has been initiated.
An independent NSF group is the militant NS Stockholm, led by Robert Westerlund. It is one of the consortium of groups that publishes the magazine Info-14 which Westerlund edits (see below and Publications and media).
In May 1997 Folksocialistisk Samling (FS, People's Socialist Group), Sweden's longest running neo-Nazi group of the 1990s, disbanded after having undergone several name and publication changes. It was founded in 1989 as Föreningen Sveriges Framtid (FSF, Future of Sweden Association) by Leif Larsson (see above), with a publication entitled Sveriges Framtid (Future of Sweden). In 1992 FSF became Riksfronten (RF, Reich Front) led by Torulf Magnusson and with a publication entitled Rikslarm (Reich Alarm). In 1996, under Per Öberg, it changed its name once again to Folksocialisterna (People's Socialists), and published a paper called Den Svenske Folksocialisten (The Swedish People's Socialist). When the organization dissolved it had an estimated membership of 200. Its principal activists joined the NSF.
Nordiska Rikspartiet (NRP, Nordic Reich Party), an old-style national-socialist party, was established in 1956, and since then has been led by Göran and Vera Oredsson. The party has an estimated membership of 200. In the 1980s NRP's militant arm, Riksaktionsgrupp (RAG, Reich Action Group), was involved in violence against Jews, homosexuals, communists and anti-racists. Today the party's main activity is the publication of the quarterlies Nordisk Kamp (Nordic Struggle) and NRP Bulletin.
Anti-AFA, named after the main militant left-wing opposition to neo-Nazism in Sweden, Antifascistisk Aktion (AFA, Anti-Fascist Action), was set up in 1995 as a neo-Nazi 'intelligence' organization. It formerly published Werwolf, a 'death list' of some 350 Swedish anti-racists, and in June 1997 moved its headquarters from Säffle to Ale in the west of Sweden.
Ariska Brödraskapet (AB, Aryan Brotherhood) was formed in 1996 by militant neo-Nazis and is part of the British group Combat 18's international network (see United Kingdom). It publishes the occasional magazine Berserker and an internal bulletin. AB has recently been accused of being behind several illegal acts including the sending of letter bombs (one to Swedish Minister of Justice Laila Freivalds and another to a leading Nordland activist, see below), arson attacks, robbery and murder. In August 1997 AB leader Niklas Löfdahl was charged with preparing to commit murder and making illegal threats; he is awaiting prosecution.
In May 1997 the De Vries-Institutet (De Vries Institute) - the successor to Kreativistens Kyrka (KK, Church of the Creator), formerly the Swedish branch of the Church of the Creator - changed its name to Cosmotistkyrkan (Cosmotheist Church). The new name is taken from the Cosmotheist Community Church in West Virginia, USA, an experimental neo-Nazi commune set up in 1978 by National Alliance leader William Pierce (see USA). Since its foundation in Sweden in 1988 (as KK), the 'church' has been led by Tommy Rydén in Mullsjö as the 'religious' faction of the Swedish NS Movement. In 1995 Rydén - still one of the most important ideologues of Swedish neo-Nazism - was also the leader of HP (see above), and he is the prime mover behind the 'new age' Nazi project, Arya Kriya.
A new Swedish branch of the Church of the Creator (see also Australia, Canada, South Africa) was also launched in 1997 with a web-site and a magazine entitled Kreativisten (The Creativist).
Gula Korset (GK, Yellow Cross) was formed in 1996 in Gothenburg as a so-called 'Aryan war prisoners' solidarity fund', a subsidiary of Nationella Alliansen (NA, National Alliance). It survived the mother organization's demise in the same year in the aftermath of a raid on their headquarters by Stockholm police. Today GK is based in Ale, and it is one of a consortium of groups publishing the magazine Info-14 (see above and Publications and media).
Nationell Ungdom (NU, National Youth) was formed in 1995 in Stockholm. Headed by Martin Linde, its estimated membership is 100. NU organizes 'survival camps' and operates its own web-site. In December 1997 NU became the youth wing of a new organization, Svenska Motståndsrörelsen (SM, Swedish Resistance Movement). At that time the Stockholm-based quarterly tabloid Folktribunen (People's Tribune), first published by NU in May 1997 under the editorship of Klas Lund, became the voice of SM/NU. NU also co-publishes Framtid (Future), a Gothenburg-based quarterly which first appeared in 1997 as a successor to the neo-Nazi magazine Valhall.
In recent years Sweden has emerged as the European leader in neo-Nazi or White Power music, and Nordland is the leading producer and distributor in Sweden. It runs the record company 88 Musik and produces the glossy neo-Nazi music magazine Nordland (see below and Publications and media). The movement's headquarters are in Linköping. It is 'officially' fronted by Torulf Magnusson, although Mattias Sundquist is legally responsible for the magazine and the production/distribution of its recordings. Sundquist was charged, along with four co-defendants (including Erik Blücher, see below), with producing racist music in November 1996; the proceedings, which began in the spring of 1997, are ongoing (see Legal matters). Nordland has a web-site and publishes the monthly electronic bulletin Frihetsbrevet (Freedom Letter). The movement also promotes the local neo-Nazi organization Östgöta NS and has taken responsibility for Östgöta NS's magazine Gripen (Griffin).
Nordland's rival Ragnarock Records, a White Power music record company in Helsingborg, was founded in 1993. Its former director was the veteran national socialist, Lars Magnus Westrup, who died in 1995. The present director is Erik Nilsen (also known as Blücher), former leader of the now-disbanded Norwegian neo-Nazi group Norsk Front (Norwegian Front, see Norway). Blücher and a group of like-minded Scandinavians - including the Dane, Marcel Schilf (see United Kingdom) - manage other small companies which distribute neo-Nazi videotapes, books, t-shirts and magazines, and are thought to be the main exporters of such material to Germany. An ally of the British Combat 18, Ragnarock Records has produced some thirty CDs and publishes the bulletin Segerrunan (Siegrune). The legal case against Erik Blücher, who was arrested with Sundquist, is ongoing (see above and Legal matters).
Blod & Ära (B&Ä, Blood and Honour) is the name used by two rival organizations, both formed in 1996, one by Nordland, the other by Ragnarock Records. Nordland's B&Ä has recently started to publish the magazine Blod & Ära from Södertälje (near Stockholm) and operates a web-site. Ragnarock Record's B&Ä (called Blood & Honour Scandinavia) is part of the British group Combat 18's Blood & Honour music network (see United Kingdom). It has also recently begun publishing a magazine, B&H/ Scandinavia, from Helsingborg in southern Sweden, and is one of the consortium of groups publishing Info-14 (see Publications and media).
While the white Power music industry continues to produce and distribute CDs and music magazines, there were apparently only four White Power music concerts in 1997, fewer than in 1996. Concerts organized by Nordland took place in February outside Linköping (see Legal matters) and in November in Stockholm. Another by NSF was held in Trelleborg in June. B&Ä (Nordland) organized one near Uppsala in September.
Although official statistics for antisemitic incidents in 1997 are not yet available, Jewish communal reports point to a small increase compared to 1996. Members of the Stockholm Jewish community received more threats by letter and telephone in 1997 than in 1996. There have also been reports of non-Jews active in anti-racist or Israeli organizations receiving antisemitic messages. There were no reports of desecrations of Jewish cemeteries.
Although religious antisemitism is not a widespread phenomenon in Sweden, antisemitism from Christian sources occasionally surfaces.
The controversy surrounding Jan Bergman, a professor of the history of religions at Uppsala University, has recently flared up again. Bergman was a defence witness in the first trial of Radio Islam's Ahmed Rami (see Antisemitic legacy) in 1989. During the trial Bergman, among other things, supported Radio Islam's claim that it was a divinely ordained commandment (mitzvah) for a Jew to kill a non-Jew - an allegation that provoked widespread criticism. After calls for him to be relieved of his duties with regard to the teaching of Judaism, a series of enquiries into the affair exonerated Bergman until an independent investigator's 1994 report made severe criticisms of his theses and the handling of the whole episode. In 1995 Bergman was relieved of his responsibility for the teaching of Judaism. In March 1997, in a lecture hosted by the Christian organization of Saint Lukas in Karlskrona (southern Sweden), Bergman repeated his earlier assertion and added: 'It is not necessarily true that six million Jews were killed [during the Holocaust].' His lecture was extensively reported in the media and provoked strong public condemnation in Karlskrona..
The Catholic circular Adoremus in Aeternum continues to appear approximately once a month. It originates from the west coast of Sweden and is edited by Mikael Rosén, a former member of the neo-Nazi NRP (see Parties, organizations, movements). Its contents make use of antisemitic stereotypes with a focus on Jewish religion, describing the Talmud, for instance, as 'satanic writing'.
See also Opinion polls.
Holocaust denial in Sweden is promoted mainly by groups and individuals belonging to the far right and the White Power music scene. The neo-Nazi rock group Storm, for example, begin their song 'In the Claws of Zionism' (1995) with the words: 'The so-called Holocaust, for how long will we have to suffer for it? A heap of lies that is kept alive about six million innocent lives.'
Ahmed Rami of Radio Islam is an important link between neo-Nazi and Holocaust-denying groups. In his radio broadcasts, aired until November 1997 (see Publications and media), Rami frequently interviewed Holocaust-deniers such as Jürgen Graf and Germar Rudolf. Rami's web-site has recently featured, among other things, interviews with Robert Faurisson (see France), works by David Irving (see United Kingdom), the Leuchter Report, as well as Rami's interview with Nordland in 1996 in which he stated that 'Hitler is the only European leader who has really understood what it is about. Hitler also tried a radical solution - to liberate Europe.' A Holocaust-denying leaflet produced in 1993 by Radio Islam is still being distributed by various organizations.
David Irving's biography of Joseph Goebbels was published in Sweden in 1997 by the small publishing house Valkyria. The book was rapidly withdrawn from mainstream bookshops when the nature of its contents was discovered.
For the publications of far-right organizations, and the anti-immigration publications Fri information and Blå-gula frågor, see Parties, organizations, movements; see also Religious antisemitism.
Expressions of antisemitism in the mainstream media are relatively rare. When they do occur, it is mostly in letters to local newspapers or on radio phone-in programmes.
Expressions of antisemitism are a standard feature of neo-Nazi publications such as Nordland, Info-14, Den Sanne Nationalsocialisten, Mimer and Folktribunen (see Parties, organizations, movements), as well as Swedish neo-Nazi and racist Internet web-sites, the recent growth of which has been considerable. In 1997 approximately forty Swedish racist web-sites were in operation, most of them on American servers.
The magazine Nordland - produced by Nordland (see Parties organizations, movements) - first appeared in early 1995, a descendant of magazines of the 1980s, such as Streetfight and Vit Rebell (White Rebel), of Storm, the voice of Vitt Ariskt Motstånd (VAM, White Aryan Resistance) during the early 1990s, and of Blod & Ära (Blood & Honour), the first White Power music magazine in Sweden, published in 1993. It has a professional appearance and is printed in colour. Today Nordland consists of advertisements, political and ideological articles and interviews with White Power bands. Its circulation is estimated at 5,000-10,000, making it one of the most popular youth music magazines in Sweden.
Alternativ Media is a web-site which hosts far-right publications such as Folktribunen and Framtid (see Parties, organizations, movements). Since November 1997 it has also published the weekly electronic bulletin Pilgrimsfalken (The Peregrine Falcon).
Info-14, a bi-monthly bulletin which began publication in 1994, became the voice of the shortlived NA in 1995-6 (see Parties, organizations, movements). Since then it has functioned as an umbrella publication for organizations such as GK, Blood & Honour Scandinavia, NS Stockholm and NSF (see Parties, organizations, movements). It is based in Stockholm and edited by the leader of NS Stockholm, Robert Westerlund.
Mimer is an ideological and historical quarterly edited by Christian Josefsson, a former member of the old Swedish fascist party Sveriges Nationella Förbund (SNF, Sweden's National League), which first appeared in Malmö in 1989. It maintains a web-site and runs the most extensive mail-order catalogue of neo-Nazi, Holocaust-denial and antisemitic material in Sweden.
The fortnightly Wärendsbladet (Wärend Magazine) began publication in 1961 and has been edited since then by Nils Erik Rydström. Based in Moheda, it is the most frequently produced Swedish neo-Nazi magazine.
Radio Islam, a community radio station in Stockholm found guilty on four occasions of incitement against an ethnic group (see Antisemitic legacy), resumed operations in April 1996 for the first time since 1993. The broadcasts ceased again in November 1997, most likely due to the threat of legal action (see Legal matters). During its last broadcasting period, it was on air thirty-five hours per week. Radio Islam and its association Svensk-islamiska föreningen (SVIF, Swedish-Islamic Association) has, from its conception, been led by the Swedish-Moroccan Ahmed Rami. Rami has developed a network of the most active antisemites, and neo-Nazis in Sweden. Since 1996 the Radio Islam web-site has been a forum for Holocaust denial and Swedish translations of antisemitic works such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (see Holocaust denial).
Lars Adelskogh and his Institute for Hylozoic Studies continue to publish antisemitic material through his publishing house Foinix. During 1997 Adelskogh gave occasional lectures in which he claimed a 'global conspiracy' ruled the world. He also figured on a web-site, where, among other things, he referred to the European Union as a 'Jew thing'. In April 1997 Adelskogh's antisemitic activities were revealed in a local radio broadcast on Radio Skaraborg. Several newspapers in the south-west, such as Göteborgs-Posten and the Skaraborgs läns tidning, printed articles describing his activities. Adelskogh was forced to leave the college where he was teaching once his views were made public.
During the year an organization with close connections with Adelskogh, PMP Media, was granted US$125,500 by the city of Gothenburg to fund youth activities. Once Adelskogh's political views were made public, the city withdrew the grant.
According to a survey conducted in 1995 and published in May 1997 by the Stockholm University-based Centrum for invandringsforskning (CEIFO, Centre for Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations), approximately 10 per cent of the Swedish population between the ages of sixteen and seventy-six harbour very racist ideas and attitudes.
In June 1997 the findings of a study published by the BRÅ in association with CEIFO were given extensive media coverage. Out of a sample of approximately 8,000 young people, aged 11-19, only 66 per cent were 'completely certain that the Holocaust had happened' and 12 per cent agreed, completely or in part, that 'the Jews have too much influence in the world today'. Furthermore the study revealed that neo-Nazi propaganda was distributed more widely among Swedish youth than previously estimated. These findings prompted Prime Minister Göran Persson to launch a special educational programme (see Countering antisemitism).
Somewhat different results came from a European Union survey carried out in the spring of 1997 (Eurobarometer no 47.1) which showed Sweden, together with Luxembourg, as having the lowest percentage of people describing themselves as 'very racist' (2 per cent). The survey also found that 56 per cent of Swedes considered themselves 'quite racist' or 'a little racist' - a relatively low percentage compared to other EU member states.
The 1994 amendment to the criminal code, making racist motives for a crime an aggravating circumstance, has not yet been used with any frequency by prosecutors and courts. However, in the autumn of 1997, the chief public prosecutor emphasized the importance of employing the amendment.
According to a 1996 supreme court ruling, a person wearing Nazi symbols can be charged with incitement against an ethnic group. The police are making greater efforts to arrest people wearing Nazi symbols and making Hitler salutes.
Although there have been no recent major court cases involving racism and antisemitism, the attorney general investigated several complaints, especially against Radio Islam (see Publications and media).
In June 1997 the Svenska Kommittén mot Antisemitism (SCAA, Swedish Committee against Antisemitism) lodged a complaint with the attorney general against Ahmed Rami's web-site, the first time a complaint has been lodged against an Internet site in Sweden. A police investigation failed to prove who was legally responsible for the site and the attorney general decided not to prosecute. The case is currently with the district attorney's office pending further investigation.
In October 1997 a complaint against Radio Islam was filed by the Foreningen Forintelsens Overlevande (Association of Holocaust Survivors) following frequent attacks by Rami on the 'Jewish takeover' of Swedish media, politics and cultural life. Radio Islam's radio broadcasts ceased in November 1997 when the Swedish-Islamic Association, which sponsors the broadcasts, terminated its programming, probably because of the risk of facing legal action.
A third complaint against Radio Islam, lodged in November 1997 by the SCAA, specified a particular part of the web-site entitled the 'Jewish Encyclopaedia'. The 'Encyclopaedia', which listed hundreds of people from Swedish public life on the basis of their 'Jewishness', was removed from the web-site that same month. The police are still investigating the complaint.
Eleven neo-Nazis were arrested in February 1997 at a White Power concert in Linköping organized by Nordland. They were charged with inciting racial hatred, making Nazi salutes and drunkenness.
In December 1996 one of the major producers of neo-Nazi music, Tomas Lindkvist, was sentenced to one month in prison for incitement against an ethnic group. This was the first case in Sweden involving the White Power music scene. Lindkvist appealed, but the Göta appeal court upheld the sentence in June 1997.
In November 1997 leading members of NSF (see Parties, organizations, movements) were sentenced to one-month prison sentences for their involvement in a demonstration in Trollhättan in 1996 marking the anniversary of Rudolf Hess's death. They had been arrested for wearing Nazi symbols and charged with incitement against an ethnic group. The appeal court confirmed the sentences.
The ongoing trial against Blücher, the director of Ragnarock Records (see Parties, organizations, movements), Mattias Sundquist of Nordland (see Parties, organizations, movements) and three others involved in the racist music industry has had a dampening effect on the production of White Power music. The five were indicted, in November 1996, on charges of incitement against an ethnic group for producing and/or distributing seven racist CDs (with a total of thirty-five songs) and a videotape.
Following the publication in June 1997 of the results of a study by the BRÅ in association with CEIFO (see Opinion polls), awareness of the importance of Holocaust education grew considerably. In November 1997 the government launched a large-scale educational campaign, Projektet Levande Historia (Living History Project), which involved, among other things, the publishing of a free book on the Holocaust, a catalogue containing suggested teaching materials and reading for schools, a web-site devoted to the Holocaust and the establishment of an institute at Uppsala University dedicated to the study of the Holocaust and other genocides. Uppsala University is also hosting an international conference on Holocaust education in the spring of 1998.
The first official measure of the government's educational campaign was a SCAA-organized visit to Auschwitz by government and other officials including the archbishop, the attorney general, the university chancellor (responsible for all higher education) and a cabinet minister. Another trip, with representatives from the various political parties, is planned for the spring of 1998.
In 1997, for the third consecutive year, some twenty pupils from Stockholm's high schools were sent by Stockholm's Jewish community and the city's director of education to visit Auschwitz, Majdanek and Warsaw. These study trips are increasingly seen as having a major role in the fight against racism and antisemitism.
The SCAA, together with the Centrum for multietnisk forskning (Centre for Multi-Ethnic Research) at Uppsala University and the Stockholm school authorities, has arranged a university in-service training course for high-school history teachers in Stockholm. The course includes an eight-day study trip to Poland. An increased number of courses on the Holocaust are also available at Swedish universities.
In June 1997 the SCAA arranged a twelve-day visit for Swedish teachers to Yad Vashem and Lohamei Hagetaot in Israel. The teachers studied the Holocaust and antisemitism, and how to use the information in schools. The SCAA hopes to organize such visits regularly and have planned another study tour for June 1998.
The SCAA, together with the anti-racist magazine Expo, has produced a book on National Socialist symbols to help teachers and law enforcement agencies identify Nazi symbols worn by pupils, demonstrators and the like at neo-Nazi events and concerts. The SCAA also continues to distribute its 1995 booklet, The Denial of the Holocaust, by Stéphane Bruchfeld, 13,000 copies of which have already been disseminated.
The Samordningskommittén for Europaåret mot rasism i Sverige (Swedish Commission against Racism and Xenophobia), established in 1996 by Mona Sahlin, former vice-premier of Sweden, continues to organize seminars and support anti-racist projects. In December 1997 it hosted an international conference on 'Racism, ideology and political organization' in Stockholm.
Institute for Jewish Policy Research and American Jewish Committee
© JPR 1999
