What Did Sweden Do in World War 2? | Scandinavia's Neutral Power 1939-1945

[@historywithhilbert]

Holiday Season Deal! Go to nordvpn.com/hilbert to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount!

[@thenorwegianviking5721]

Sweden wasn't actually Neutral, tjey had a refugee army made up by Danes and Norwegians which broke against Sweden's neutrality and if we gonna be honest Sweden did support the Axis way more than the allies and helped with the German Invasion of my country Norway, so saying Sweden was Neutral is so wrong, it's an uncommon fact about the army but search up "Norska Polistrupperna" or "Norwegian Police troops" More information The Norwegian police troops in Sweden during World War II consisted of around 15,000 men, recruited from Norwegian refugees and trained at a number of secret camps in Sweden.

[@Meton12765]

Yeah, main reason they haven't had a war since 1809 is most of the actually competent military came from Finland or as German mercenary troops. And, they didn't fight in the 1809 Finnish War (as it is known in Finland). At all. They betrayed us and didn't send additional troops, ammo or food as they were supposed to after the Finnish (Then a regency of the Swedish crown) defences were exhausted and overwhelmed. So, the _Swedish_ don't really know War. Never have.

[@forrestgumpfan321]

Will you be doing Norway, as well?

[@Meton12765]

@@thenorwegianviking5721 True. Swedish neutrality is a complete myth.

[@Meton12765]

I suppose self-reflective long answers pertaining to more detailed review of events on the sometimes rapidly shifting eastern borders of Sweden not directly pertaining to the video are too much for the filter algo. Or channel proprietor. Which ever, feels a bit alienating when its not even vulgar or even questioning anyone whos been alive for over 200 years. YT sucks.

[@adrianaslund8605]

You know that meme with the old man with the uncomfortable smile? That was basically sweden's relationship to germany at this time.

[@QQ-nd1gn]

Hide The Pain Harold

[@dave8323]

Looking at memes is such a pathetic pastime. I hope you manage to mature out of it and get a more useful or fulfilling hobby

[@heh9392]

My grandma was a Finnish refugee for 3 years in Sweden, during the Finnish continuation war, as she was too young to stay in dangerous Finland with the rest of her family, cause Soviets could bomb cities at any time. Anyway tack sverige that you kept her safe and I exist :)

[@grandadmiralthrawn3164]

Its the least we could do after occupying you for hundreds of years

[@nathanaelsallhageriksson1719]

My grandma too, but she stayed in sweden. So, yeah. WW2 might've been destructive and all that, but at least I was born. Net possitive :-)

[@skitidetdu6672]

@@grandadmiralthrawn3164 det behövs ett land om man ska ockupera 😭

[@karllandegren9727]

@@grandadmiralthrawn3164 I don't think occupation means what you think it means...

[@kingmarre9130]

I know a finnish refugee to. Her father was killed in action in the winter war

[@Silk_WD]

6:13 - Ericsson is still one of the largest companies in Sweden. Sony Ericsson was only a merger of the mobile phone parts of each company. The big part of their business is telecommunications equipment.

[@froJoss]

And not only big in Sweden - it's one of the largest telecoms infrastructure companies in that industry across the globe even.

[@kallecan]

My grandmothers brother, Einar, is one of the few who fled to Sweden with a pal of his in 1941. This was no easy task and it was close to end in disaster when they asked a farmer if they could stay the night at their place before crossing the border into Sweden. The farmer politely said yes and showed them their guest room on the second floor. After some time they noticed that the door was locked and they understood they were being betrayed. Einar and his friend broke the window, jumped out and ran for it into the dense forest, hearing the german trucks closing in in the distance. Unfortunately Einar never really explained how they crossed the border. Shame, cause that must have been a terrifying and interesting story in itself. Anyhow once in Sweden, he started working as a car mechanic. The shop owner who hired him felt sorry for him, being by himself during the evenings invited him after some time had passed into his house to eat dinner with his family. The shop owner also had a sister who often attended the dinners and after a while Einar and the shop owners sister, Karin, got engaged. Life went on and my grandmother did not know if Einar was dead or alive, understanding he had tried to flee into Sweden. But after the war in 1945 Einar came back to Norway with a swedish wife and their first child. Back in Norway he helped the police finding norwegians who had helped the nazis in killing and torturing other norwegians. My grandmother married a Swedish man and both she and Einar with his family ended up settling down in Sweden. Einar and Karin lived a long and peaceful life together raising four children, he died back in 2015 and Karin just passed away this autumn, 99 years old. My grandmother is still alive and tells all kinds of stories about when the Germans came. With them living close to the port in Trondheim and my great grandparents owning a bakery, being tormented by the nazis was a daily occurrence. They even threw bread to russian POWs building a new railroad track when the Germans weren't looking. I can't imagine what they went through during their early stages of life.

[@vincep8874]

man, thats a deep story. So sad yet intresting

[@Ntwister]

fascinating story. sadly my grandparents from my mothers side (the only grandparents of mine that was alive in my life) died before my interest in history awoken (i hated it in school bc it was mainly just dates focused) and neither talked much to my mom about their times during the war. what i do know is that my grandma lived through the danish occupation and moved to sweden after she met my grandfather (who was deployed by the swe-fin border) after the war. ive gotten a few stories from my mother that grandma told her but she was no history buff and they didnt have all that good of a relationship. so sad that most of my grandmas experiences and untold stories died with her :/

[@leoshest9651]

Hur orkar man läsa den där skiten? Vem fan bryr sig? Hur orkar du skriva? Varför? Det är glömt om 2 videos. Förstår inte folk.

[@DocApoc]

@@leoshest9651 vad som är destu konstigare är hur du väljer att kommentera detta. Är du alltid så här antagonistisk? Så irriterande cynisk? Det var en intressant historia, tyckte jag, och säkert många andra. Tyckte nån att din kommentar var intressant?

[@alexanderlarsson2607]

@@leoshest9651 HAHAHHHA du slösar sjölv din tid det var riktigt intressant att läsa, om du inte gillar det gå vidare.

[@HistoryUniversity]

Honestly history can be cooler than Game of Thrones, it's just about how the educator presents it!

[@Mortenhendriksen]

The scary thing is plot twists happens more often in history than in most stories. Take italy during ww2 changing sides for example

[@someorclad9738]

Nah. For me personally, while history is completely fascinating and utterly interesting, fantasy or sci fi plot lines are still way, way better. Reality is often dull, occasionally punctuated by ridiculously brief moments of awesomeness. For fantasy or sci fi, its the reverse. That doesn't mean presentation is meaningless. If the educator is stellar at what he does, even the boring history of Malaysia for example, can become a god tier story.

[@louisecorchevolle9241]

it is not honest because it white wash Swedens attitude until end of 1941

[@bnb6868]

Game of thrones is just European and British history repacked with a dash of fantasy

[@rulta]

I just hope it has got a better ending

[@Lassemalten]

Should have started with 1937 how Sweden tried to get the coalition of neutral nations to increase military spending. Sweden 7 folded it's military budget.

[@QuickZ_]

a Swedish military budget that was giving basic rifles to farmers lol.

[@Lassemalten]

@@QuickZ_ They did have Strv L-60, a tank that was used from 1935 all to 2002. Some upgrades along the way of course. Regarding you "farmer" comment. Reminds me of what the Habsburg empire called the swedish soldiers before the Battle of Breitenfeldt. 24k "peasants" vs 35k real soldiers. The "peasants" lost 5k, the Soldiers lost 27k Anyway Sweden had twice the army as Finland and Finland did well in WW2. Sweden gav away about 1/3 of it's equipment to Finland

[@matso3856]

@@Lassemalten I can recomend this one to you , the patron had similar view as Landbergaren kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWqXYp1nZ72Id9U slightly more info.

[@Lassemalten]

@@matso3856 Probebly some dude comparing Sweden to German or France. Compare them to Finland, Norway or Denmark and you see a huge diffrence. Sweden was still a quite poor country. And yes they had lots of soldiers compare to anyone else some not even armed with a gun just for show to Germany. I'm fully aware of that, but they still had plenty more fighters, tanks, artillert, Anti tank guns then other neutrals of similiare economy. And they did as I wrote heavly increase defence budget and wanted others such as Norway to do the same that totally denied the request.

[@cynicalcenobia]

In my view, Sweden's greatest contribution to the 'humanitarian attempts' made during WWII was Raoul Wallenberg; Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian jews - memorial plaques and statues of him are still scattered around Budapest and with good reason. The greatest heroes in history did not necessarily have the loudest voices.

[@louisecorchevolle9241]

one of the only one and also the consul of Sweden in Paris

[@tomeng9520]

No forgot to mention that Finland received a lot of ammunition and munitions from Sweden for free. And large billions of low-interest loans from Sweden. God jul, Skål Tom.

[@cynicalcenobia]

@@tomeng9520 Interesting, I did not know that; though, Finland often gets omitted of any mention when it comes to European history, unfortunately; thanks for highlighting this & same to you!

[@semiperfekt]

Yes, but a lot more lives would be saved if Sweden sabotaged its own iron ore deliveries to the Nazis. Wallenberg is great, but compared to the harms Sweden caused it's still just a nice thing we say to try to defend ourselfs when people says we helped the nazis. And it's not fair to agree with them and we don't have to say "but there was this nice guy" because we still need to accept the fact that the iron ore was helping the nazis a lot more than Wallenberg could help a few thousands.

[@antonkarlsson9487]

@@semiperfekt who would you choose to kill, some random people in a far away place or yourself and your family, while helping some random people instead of all?

[@SicariiD]

Close to where i live in Skåne, there used to be a secret military base during WW2, It was called Krigsflygplats nr 2. A Me 410 was shot down there in 1944 after trying to strafe the AA battery that had fired warning shots at it. The plane chrashed on a road that led out of a nearby village, when the site was inspected they found some unexpected items in the wreckage. They found a swedish military canteen (snuskburk) and a Swedish army bicycle. It turns out that a poor conscript soldier got straight crushed by that plane while hurrying back to base after the sirens went off. He got bullseyed hard enough that no remains were found.

[@classic287]

Sicariid, Oh ja? Where in Skåne? I lived in Sibbhult in the 50s …

[@SicariiD]

This place is in sövde outside sjöbo

[@GarryWan666]

we learned this in school from a retired Swedish veteran: Germany had the intention of invading Sweden later on despite the “cooperation”. The German warships were approaching Gotland in Östersjön. We had many canons at the coast of Gotland but only 1/3 were real. The general ordered them to fire a shot at a German warship(but a few degrees to the side just to warn them). It landed where they wanted, and the German fleet decided to retreat. That fake canon trick was sneaky and impressive! xD

[@semiperfekt]

Where can i get more info on this?

[@Zanderuu]

@@semiperfekt I live in Blekinge and there's an old story I've heard about how german ships were close to our coastline without us knowing because there was fog. And we just happened to be firing off some practice shots with some cannons and nearly hit one of their ships scaring them off. Now I don't know if this is true or not, it does kind of sound like it was made up to scare people. But I'm pretty sure they came close to us many times. And I've also heard of the fake cannons before, brilliant intimidation tactics.

[@jojjo113]

I visited that spot last summer was quite cool. It is one of the narrowest passages into swedish arcipelaggio

[@TheJonasbz]

The Germans where not impressed by the swedish military if we shall be nice here...

[@Zanderuu]

I asked my grandma about what I wrote in the first comment and I was wrong. That story was not about the germans in ww2. It was brittish ships that sent out a small sloop in the fog to see if they could sneak in and the swedes decided to test if the gunpowder was dry and shot off a cannon almost hitting the brittish sloop. Making the brittish think we could se them. Probably a couple hundred years ago

[@bigjo66]

Finland didn't get independence from Sweden though, it was part of the Russian Empire. Norway was in a PU with Sweden until 1905 - did you confuse the two countries?

[@Oliver-vj3oi]

Well it was semi independent in russia as a arch duchy if im not wrong

[@bigjo66]

@@Oliver-vj3oi I'd probably call it 'local autonomy' rather than independence but yeah.

[@awkwardguy8238]

Yeah it did, Finland was a part of Sweden till 1809

[@thetoyyya6890]

@@awkwardguy8238 Finland was conquered by the Russians at that time, and they remained a part of the Russian empire (with semi autonomy) until the Russian revolution when they broke free

[@awkwardguy8238]

@@thetoyyya6890 Exactly

[@marcushertz4434]

As one swedish historian once put it: In WW2 Sweden was neutral... on the winning side.

[@Primal-Weed]

Very cowardly to remain neutral during a World War. Especially when your fellow Scandinavian nations are being invaded.

[@Jokkkkke]

@@Primal-Weed was it cowardly in WWI though? I mean what side was really the “right” side then because we have to remember that the Germans weren’t led by Nazis back then, but imperialist, and the Entente was also imperialist

[@hvald8581]

@@Primal-Weed So exactly who did declare war on the axis powers? That would have been the British empire and its commonwealth and France. The rest of the world were then, as you put it, cowards.

[@VGurrasKpist]

Every government's job is to help it's nation and keep the population safe in what way would invading Germany do that? Also what could Sweden do against Germany? All that would do is kill and hurt more ppl and give Germany access to more iron

[@coyote4237]

@@Primal-Weed The U.S. remained neutral - until they were attacked.

[@pandaman2966]

When the winter war broke out, 2 months after the start of ww2, Sweden was in a tight spot. The overwhelming majority of swedes (like 95%) wanted to go to war aginst the Ussr to help Finland. So the swedish goverment fell into a sort of crisis and from that crisis a "samlings regering" emerged. This new goverment hade one job and that was to keep Sweden out of the war no matter what. Sweden and its politcians did not like to bow down towards hitler but they hade no choice.

[@johnr797]

Isn't it the job of the government to carry out the will of the nation, not to go against the will of 95% of the nation?

[@pandaman2966]

@@johnr797 yes it should be like that but the swedish goverment did not see a good ending for sweden, if we joined Finland right in the middle of a world war they would have opend Pandoras box. Instead Sweden gave or sold Finnland close to half of the armys rifles, machine guns anti aircraft guns, anti tank guns and they helped to arm finnish fighter aircrafts. Plus as the video states, Sweden sent a volenteer force of 8000 men to fight in the winter war. It's hard to understand the finnish and swedish dynamic at the time because just 130 years before Sweden and Finland was the same nation. To answer your question the politcian did and did not do what the people wanted.

[@johnr797]

@@pandaman2966 fair enough, still interesting to think what may have changed had Sweden entered the war against the USSR. I personally believe they could have remained on good terms with the rest of the Allies if they limited themselves to that theatre.

[@pandaman2966]

@@johnr797 It would be an intresting senario but we will never know. The Finns would still lose but it would look a lot better in history if sweden fought with its "brother people" as swedes said during the war.

[@johnr797]

@@yt45204 I have no idea, but they weren't allies in the war at that point so not sure why my comment would prompt you to ask that

[@MickRives1966]

You have a problem with your information about why Sweden let through German troops. The Swedish government knew through the interception that you mentioned what would happen if they stopped the sale of iron ore and steel to Germany. After Arne Beurling had cracked the German code, the Swedish intelligence service continued to listen and through it the Swedes had heard that there were plans to take Sweden if they were not allowed to buy ore and steel and to get permission to send troops through the country.

[@benghazi4216]

And we had 35k troops at the time. When we had 250k we started saying no.

[@AsuriTV]

I have spoken with train conductors from my hometown of Boden, the man drove iron from Kiruna and further north to supply german forces, the iron supplies were sabotaged (not always, but a lot of the times) unofficially by Swedish people & few soldiers. Few people know of this, I am very haply to have taken information from the older people, and their stories needs to live on, the unknown truth of what Sweden did is known mostly by the elders who were partaking in the ops, not by the history books sadly

[@AsuriTV]

Amazing video nevertheless, literally my favorite KZbin video of 2021

[@MicKarl88]

That is a lie. Du ljuger. Stop talk rubbish. Sluta snacka skit.

[@AsuriTV]

@@MicKarl88 "I did not know of this information, therefore this person is lying" Great logic.

[@LILLJE]

@@RusticTrophies Of course, yes, what a great person that makes him, my god.

[@BambuFlarn]

The iron supply from Sweden was one of the most stable supplies of Iron that German had..

[@peternf975]

My great great grandfather (my mothers mothers dad) was a part of the norwegian military policeforce in Sweden. He also sacreficed his home, to let the ressistance live there. I great to hear that others hav heard about them. The are often forgotten.

[@MartinAhlman]

Never forgotten!

[@jossv746]

I feel like you missed out on Raoul Wallenberg and Folke Bernadotte. Part of the swedish secret police (C-byrån) were also directly involved in helping the norweigian armed resistance. On the other hand we also ran internment camps where we inprisoned comunists for fear of them commiting terror attacks. Otherwise a pretty balanced take 👍🏻

[@sundhaug92]

You also let the Germans use your railroads to attack Norway, so "thanks" for that...

[@jossv746]

@@sundhaug92 Yes we did. But I was talking about things NOT mentioned in the video.

[@bigtim3060]

@@sundhaug92 so what would you have prefered... Helping Finland and thus joining the axis, or helping norway in which the most likely outcome would have been a complete ocupation by the Germans, which in turn would entail that Sweden would be in no position to help norway at all? There would also quite likely have been a swedish Quisling...

[@louisecorchevolle9241]

this is better than your pro nazis social democrats Folke Bernadotte a real hero I t was no oly communists who were internet but also anti germans; at the head of concentration kamps Tage Erlander

[@tomeng9520]

@@sundhaug92 Not forgot to mention that Finland received a lot of ammunition and munitions from Sweden for free. And large billions of low-interest loans from Sweden. God jul, Skål Tom.

[@bububaba8815]

my grandfather, flee Norway to go and live in Sweden. Him and his three buddies, were part of the resistence, when their bunker was discovered and assulted by the nazis, him and two of his three buddies were able to run for the hills, getting away from the german soldiers. They had no weapons or equipement, took a week long journey towards Sweden with nothing more than a compass. Long story short, after encounters with wild animals, and all sorts of people good and bad, they finally made it to Sweden, where they all stayed until 1945. Once the war was over, they went back, only to find out that their friend was captured and brutally tortured by the nazis, in order to get info about them - but he didn't betrayed his friends... It's a bit of a sad end, but the positive is that they continued to live long and prosperous lives, even though they were seconds from death.

[@randomcommenter4719]

I live in the town where we recieved the majority of the danish jews. We got a stone tablet from the danes as thanks for helping them. My town was prepared with underground bunkers, had massive artillery aimed at german radio stations, spied on german ships, made tank traps and bunkers along important choke points. To avoid having the Germans attack the town they had massive military parades on the main streets of the town where the Germans could see them from Denmark. This stayed a tradition for many years.

[@salsa333xd]

Which town is that?

[@JohnOlimb]

@@salsa333xd I would suppose he is talking about Helsingborg, where the strait is very narrow. There have been documentaries about the hidden bunkers in the city kernel, and there is a museum still in use there.

[@salsa333xd]

@@JohnOlimb thanks for answering. That's what I suspected. Happens to be the city I'm from and currently live in. My great grandpa was one of the ones that smuggled jews to safety across Öresund, from Denmark (Helsingør) to Sweden (Helsingborg).

[@eca3101]

Love this series! Can you do an episode on Egypt's involvement in WW2? It's often overlooked but super interesting

[@aaronmarks9366]

Awesome, I second this.

[@Zea352]

Cool idea! More African/middle east episodes would be sweat(maybe south Africa, Iraq or Zambia)

[@cookiecola5852]

Or underLOOKED😮

[@paldennorbu8]

Egypt was under the british

[@eca3101]

@@paldennorbu8 Egypt was independent in 1922

[@timun4493]

sony-ericsson may actually be more well known than ericsson by itself but i am still somewhat unhappy with that statement as the sony-ericsson mobile phone joint venture was dissolved in 2012 while ericsson is alive and well being one of the last remaining mayor telecoms equipment manufacturers alongside nokia, huawei and zte

[@thetoyyya6890]

Yea nowadays they just work on more "behind the scenes" tech instead of consumer tech, they are still among the largest and most important in their field, it's just not a field most people outside of tech and telecom industries know much about.

[@fraktaalimuoto]

Good point! As with my country's Nokia, the telecom expertise never really disappeared. It is much more stable business to provide infrastructure than act on volatile consumer market.

[@RaspberryWhy]

thank God Europe has at least one reliable telecoms company so we aren't forced to rely on dangerous Chinese equipment. Viva Ericsson

[@thetoyyya6890]

@@RaspberryWhy We have Nokia from the eastern half of Sweden as well :>

[@SMGJohn]

@@RaspberryWhy Because america and their NSA filth with plenty of loop holes built into their devices, is so much safer

[@Viktor16161616]

I feel like one thing you overlooked to mention was that Sweden had great need for German coal and food stuffs. Being surrounded by Nazi occupied, or anti Soviet nations, Sweden did not have many options to turn to for things they needed.

[@MrMelon92]

Both my grandparents from my mom's side of the family was alive during WW2. My grandpa was 15 and my grandma was 10 when WW2 broke out. They have told me stories about how it was during WW2 and they both lived very close to Denmark (20 min boat ride across the water). They told me that they could see from the harbor of their city when Germany bombed Denmark. It was very horrible for them to witness that. My grandpa was drafted after a few years and was joined into the tank battalion and was very lucky that he didn't had to join the war. My grandma had a friend whom fled from Denmark either before or during Germany attacked Denmark which I really don't remember. She told me that have to cover their windows at night so they don't get bombed and they have to use coupons to buy food which they have saved to this day. My grandpa passed away in 2014 at the age of 90. My grandma is still alive at the age of 92.

[@oscarernstell6214]

Good stuff but quite generic. In addition, Sweden fought its own naval war with Russia in 1943 as the soviets got tired of German smuggling. During the cause of the war, the very much armed neutrality of Swedish defense forces killed more than 3000 German uniformed personnel, mostly due to sea mines. There was also an infamous Civil War battle like series of maneuvers as the Swedish navy tried its best to protect allied shipping in Swedish waters while the nazi infiltrated customsservice/coast guard tried to assist the Germans in tracking and stopping them. Also worth noting is that Sweden was the only Scandinavian country to go through with a full mobilization in the face of the growing danger from Germany, disregarding fears of antagonizing or provoking the belligerent parties, contrary to the actions of its neighbors whos politicians doomed them respectively through inaction.

[@ulmo5536]

My norweigan great-grandmother fled to Sweden during the German occupation and her future husband, my great-grandfather was stationed at the norweigan border, often having eyes on the germans also guarding the border on the other side.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

You might have missed Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg. He is one of and the diplomat that negotiated and organised the “White Buses”, a rescue of inmates from German concentration camps to Sweden, mainly Norwegian and Danish, but includes many others. He later became a member in 5e UN but was killed in Israel in an assassination plot by Zionists. One of the members was a future PM.

[@matthewsteele99]

Killed by a fascist terrorist organization* Because of him being a British stooge, which the group saw as a big threat Don't try to make this about all Zionists, revisionist

[@johnr797]

@@matthewsteele99 so you're saying Lehi weren't Zionists? You wouldn't happen to be jewish, would you?

[@matthewsteele99]

@@johnr797 i am saying that there's a difference between saying "X was killed by Zionists" and "X was killed by a terrorist group that was also Zionist" it doesn't take a genius to realize that And yes I am, what about it?

[@johnr797]

@@matthewsteele99 Yeah, one is more specific, though both are accurate. Your comment tried to separate Lehi and Zionists into two distinct groups, seemingly to avoid criticism of Zionism, which is horrible in all its forms anyways. The reason I asked was I find it strange that you would defend Zionists who claim the land of Israel when your God himself said jews were supposed to be exiled from the holy land until the messiah returned. Why are you defending people who are defying your God?

[@johnr797]

@N Fels No one claimed anything like what you're suggesting they did, but the comment and the replies in this thread show that clearly anyways. Your overreaction and jumping to calling people anti-semitic just highlights that. "The youtube commenter cries out in pain as he replies to you."

[@shootiNg_MoroN]

Your pronunciation of småland and södermanland was basically exactly how you say it. The video was also great

[@joilisch]

That made me think they might be Swedish hahah

[@shootiNg_MoroN]

@@joilisch I don’t think so because he pronounced some other stuff with another accent

[@ola-erik.e8277]

My great grandparents where 2 of ~60k that fled from Norway into Sweden. They used to tell stories of the nazi invation and how they fled over the border with help from swedes. With my grandfather as a newborn in one arm and a suitcase of clothes in the other, they managed to get over into värmland. My big brother wrote an essay of this "adventure" in school and it always brings me to tears thinking about it.

[@Peldms63]

As a Swede, let me thank you for making this video. I stand by Swedish Neutrality during the war and providing a safe haven for people fleeing the war, as if not than I would not be here. My Grandfather was a finnish child sent over to avoid the war who sadly passed away last year.

[@fregtz735]

Fun fact we swedes acctally produced stuka dive bombers for germany. Also we made armour for tanks and sold it to the germans, i wouldnt call that neutral.

[@DantesGrill]

@@fregtz735 It is neutral. Instead of joining a side they aided both, fueling the fire from both sides.

[@fregtz735]

@@DantesGrill well yes but also war exploiters, thats what we swedes are

[@fregtz735]

We still are war exploiters

[@DantesGrill]

@@fregtz735 Definitely. I hate how people try to brush off all the bad stuff Sweden did during the war with "but they also did this good thing" like everything is forgotten and forgiven. Erasing history is never a good thing. This is not aimed in any way at Peldms by the way.

[@johnzackarias11]

To those who criticize Sweden's approach to the war (which, of course, they have every right to, and I get it), I would like to ask this: what was the alternative? Putting up a complete resistance against Germany would have amounted to Sweden being completely taken over, to the death of potentially thousands of Swedes. Perhaps the most important point is this: Sweden's neutrality allowed for greater diplomatic strength. It was able to negotiate with the Germans on behalf of people who would have otherwise been killed in or outside of concentration camps, jews and non-jews alike.

[@eugenia83c]

they could have get together with their neighbors and resist instead of trading with nazi

[@nope4416]

@@eugenia83c well it was a little bit too late

[@Martinsleep]

@@eugenia83c we did help out neighbors with spying and keeping refugees, also a lot of men went to finland to fight.

[@thegram9207]

It’s called pride and moral . Selling steel to the wehrmacht is not . Allowing German troops to go via Sweden to smash Norway is not. Refusing the Norwegian king asylum in Sweden is not . Grow a pair !

[@nope4416]

@@thegram9207 well sweden pretty much knew if they did not what the germans wanted they would get crushed.I Everything for neutrality i guess if tho counts as neutrality

[@Smirnaffskiy]

Ah, if only germans had NordVPN, things could've been going differently...

[@maximilianolimamoreira5002]

if they had NordVpn, the enigma code would not even be deciphered.

[@GARYBLONDER]

Very interesting. I think that to preserve their country the Swedes had no choice but to pursue the policies they did, giving just enough to the Nazis to keep them happy whilst helping the allies wherever they could, and increasingly so from 1943. I would have done the same.

[@TheJonasbz]

"@Gary you are so right about that and that was no big deal untill facebook came around. Now suddenly the nationalists/right extremist accuse the goverment at that time to be nazis, with is of couse insane, just idiotic propaganda, but without any knolige of history they actually beleve it

[@N0031inq]

WW2 Sweden history is nothing by a blemish and shameful. One thing is to remain neutral but when your closet allies and friends get invaded then just sticking your head in the sand is simply pure cowardly and disgusting. Not only that but transporting and shipping enemy forces to help occupy and invade Norway their old neighbor is downright disgusting.

[@N0031inq]

@@TheJonasbz calling Swedes nazis doing WW2 is ofc ridicules and completely out of line.

[@TheJonasbz]

@@N0031inq Well you should read what the st*pid, uneducated swedish nationalsts, not part officials but voters are whriting on facebook, and they beleve it, its insane

[@GARYBLONDER]

@@N0031inq If Sweden had not given the Nazis this concession, they would have invaded, subjecting the Swedish people to brutal Nazi occupation and depriving refugees of a crucial haven. The honourable thing is not always the best choice. Less harm was done by being pragmatic rather than taking a stand that would not have helped anyone.

[@woodstocknun]

good video.. sometimes countries like switzerland and sweden get ridiculed for being "neutral", when in fact, most countries were neutral during WW2 -- "until they were not", for whatever reason. something you didnt touch on, I think, was the geographical reasons, such a vast country, surrounded by waterunless you enter it from the frozen north, there was never a clear strategical benefit with how the war played out.

[@m-h1217]

True, like 80% of participating countries wouldn't have participated if they had a choice.

[@loke6664]

Well, there would have been some advantages to occupy Sweden. Sweden do have a lot of natural resources including large iron and copper mines as well as timber. Sweden sold metal to both sides which made neither side thinking it was worth the bother and earned Sweden a pretty penny at the same time. It was pretty close that Sweden would have joined Finland though. Sweden and Finland certainly have some issues from the past but they are still kinda like brothers. Brothers that doesn't always get along for sure but having the Soviets beating on Finland did upset a lot of Swedes and we do have a history with Russia, not a good history at all. The chances that Sweden would have joined the allies with the Soviets is zero. The occupation of Denmark and Norway was not popular but it was the Soviet attack on Finland that really grinded the Swedes gears. If the Soviets had stayed out of the war things might have turned out differently but Sweden have had a beef with the Russians since the 1600s and I don't see an alliance there the next 100 years either.

[@VidFreak2006]

Cool story, Brahs

[@shar3066]

@@loke6664 Outsiders who ask why we didnt do this and that, during ww2 have to remember our strong absolute disgust and none relationship with USSR. Even if satan himself showed up, that country in the east was always gonna be the worse of the two at the end of the day.

[@loke6664]

@@shar3066 I would say our disgust is more with Russia then USSR, we haven't exactly had great relations with them ever since Peter the Great and the great Nordic war. And I am no outsider. But yeah, it was a bit complicated. That Nazi Germany occupied Norway was not very popular with the Swedes but neither was the Soviet unions attack on Finland. Selling steel to everyone and raising Sweden's GDP to go from a farmer economy in 1939 to a rich industrial nation with the worlds 4th largest air force in the early 50s might not have been the most morally upstanding solution but it sure worked.

[@EmelieWaldken]

As an adopted Swede, I really appreciated being able to learn about the country in this video. Thank you

[@Kathkere]

You seem an expert on another area of swedish history, though! I really like your videos on traditional swedish folk music ^^

[@EmelieWaldken]

@@Kathkere Aww thank you =) I wouldn't call myself an expert but I am indeed passionate about Swedish folk music and dig for info about all its unknown goodness bits ^^

[@Lunkwow]

The British had before the war an agreement with Sweden that the trade of iron ore should not exceed 10.000 tons a year and Sweden had kept that agreement but it was the US when the entered the war that wanted Sweden to cut down the trade of iron ore severely, but Sweden was still need ore coal and coke from Germany to heat houses and feed the industries for war production.

[@JohnOlimb]

10 million tons a year. Actually, it was 8, since 2 million tons came from German owned mines in Sweden, so it was not included in the control.

[@gengarzilla1685]

Ah yes, gotta love Winston Churchill conveniently "forgetting" about all the intelligence and details on Nazi movements sent our way by the Swedes. We only ever knew about Operation Barbarossa beforehand because Sweden discovered this and informed the Allies. He may have been the man we needed for a war like this, but he was also a stubborn and bullheaded fool.

[@saint4life09]

He was right though. The Swedish played both sides. They leant towards the allies, but still, a lot of their decisions directly or indirectly caused the deaths of allied soldiers, sailors and airmen.

[@MaFo82]

Churchills view on Sweden was not as negative as is presented in this video, in fact he expressed sympathy for the fact that Swedens geopolitical situation meant it had to trade with the Germans for vital goods such as coke and food. He most likely also appreciated the fact that Sweden provided Britain with about half it's total imports of ball-bearings during the war, something that was vital for Britains war industry.

[@saint4life09]

@Depresso Caspico Revamped Except that isn't true lmao

[@overdose8329]

@@saint4life09 he hunted Africans for sport as stated in his memoirs though

[@Tatwinus]

@@saint4life09 the same swede who made the norwegian police corps also approached Churchill with a request for commandos so he could capture Hitler and Churchill denied. The worst part is that it probably would have succeeded since Harry Söderman had intimate knowledge of the german police and connections.

[@carls8286]

Thanks! Very interesting. The home guard still remains very active to this day, fulfilling both military defence duties as well as functioning as support for the civilian community when needed, such as in search and rescue, forest fires etc. One of our mottos can be translated to "Everywhere. Always". The other neighbouring countries also have their home guards as well.

[@KaptenN]

Hemvärnet - Nationella Skyddsstyrkorna! Weekend warriors, let's go!

[@matso3856]

@@KaptenN Last time I checked we do weekly training , so much for weekend

[@KaptenN]

@@matso3856 I don't know what unit you're in, but depending on the type it is we have one or two mandatory 4-day exercises each year (always over a weekend). The units are free to arrange smaller one or two day weekend exercises on their own throughout the year, but in my unit those are hardly weekly.

[@matso3856]

@@KaptenN I guess it also depends on what you are , we have 2 7-day mandatory but as you said on our own mostly friday-sunday and courses are 1 or 2 days over weekends , with a few exceptions. Such as military drivers license.

[@KaptenN]

@@matso3856 The higher your responsibility, the longer the mandatory exercises are due to preparations that has to be done beforehand and perhaps some leadership training. But for the lowest grunts it's four days, Thursday-Sunday.

[@MrOddball63]

There were those who were very dissatisfied with the Swedish governments trade with Germany. I grew up in the 70's in a small village about 40 km west of Stockholm. For some reason I started talking to an old man who had lived there his whole life and he told me of the shipments that went on rail through the outskirt of the village (I'm guessing mostly iron ore). But there was one shipment that never reached the port. One train set was loaded with Graphite (?) and some group blew that in the air... They found other routes for the rest of their shipments after that...

[@Jinkuzu]

Sweden also helped the British with inteligence of where Tirpitz was located aswell as allowing the RAF too fly in over Sweden as they approached her morage on several occations. Sweden was playing both sides to remain neutral, cus while we had some numbers and equipment. The equipment was mostly dated weaponry, what Germany paid Sweden for the Iron ore was in Nazi gold, weapons and military equipment in turn for the more stable supply of Iron ore. So in the years where Sweden did bow to Germany it was mostly due to ous not being able to sustain or win a war with Germany especially when Sweden has some PTSD about Russia.

[@KaptenN]

What Germany traded for the iron ore was mainly coal, which Sweden was in desperate need of since it's such a cold country. Also, Sweden did fire upon allied bombers flying over Sweden, but knowing that they carried bombs and not wanting planes full of bombs to crash into cities they intentionally set the fuses to explode too low.

[@Danne89]

My grandmother was one of the children evacuated by train from Finland to Sweden.

[@tomeng9520]

Hi History With Hilbert! You forgot to mention that Finland received a lot of ammunition and munitions from Sweden for free. And large billions of low-interest loans from Sweden. God jul, Skål Tom.

[@Swedishmafia101MemeCorporation]

Germany was too afraid to attack Sweden because they had *defensive furniture* from IKEA 😳

[@burebor9940]

Hahahah 😂

[@Primal-Weed]

IKEA furniture is absolute garbage.

[@antonryelund723]

@@Primal-Weedsmh

[@seagull476]

​@@Primal-Weedshut up you just have to build it right

[@hannayoung9657]

I have family members who still have locked files on what they did during the war.... Odd thing is we dont know what they did, one was railway worker and the other was a papermill worker and we have few more. The railway worker would always chuckle and say, amazing how often we had to repair the track or the German train, nothing held during the war.

[@karloskarlinderstrom6943]

that was actually a great pronunciation of Småland and Södermanland! Great video btw

[@diestormlie]

From this, it seems to me that Sweden kept as far away from Nazi Germany as it dared... Which was sadly, still far too close for comfort. Acts like sheltering Norwegian and Danish Jews, tapping the phone lines the Nazis insisted upon, and raising the 'Totally not a Norwegian Army, we promise' all indicate that Sweden wanted no truck with Nazi Germany whatsoever. They just didn't have much of a choice. To indulge in Counterfactuals, it's a shame the Battle of Norway didn't leave the Allies able to hold Narvik and Northern Norway. There was a Railway line from Sweden to Narvik, and keeping it in Non-Axis hands could have given Sweden a vital lifeline to the outside world. As it was, with Norway, Finland and access out of the Baltic all under Axis control or Axis aligned, Sweden was utterly locked in.

[@KaptenN]

I wish Operation Rädda Danmark had happened. Perhaps we'd get fewer accusations of cowardice or supporting Germany.

[@HansenSWE]

@@KaptenN Perhaps you should remind yourself from time to time that the scorn of the undereducated is to the learned what a fly is to a windshield, my dear brother. Don't let the comments of children or ignoramuses upset you.

[@HansenSWE]

Well put, Jon Clivaz.

[@mahman1565]

i'm suprised how well you pronounced småland and södermanland

[@callebona3640]

i know i also thought so

[@tetutti]

I find it interesting how we nords have waged war upon ourself for millenia but still we see each other as brothers. We would do nothing but help each other in crisis, there's no real hate between us. Which is kinda rare with neighboring nations

[@N0031inq]

"We would do nothing but help each other in crisis" WW2 proved otherwise. I will count on the Norwegians but that is about it. Love Sweden and Swedes but I would not expect them to have my back in a crisis.

[@AnotherDuck]

@@N0031inq In WW2 the Norwegians and Danes barely had their own backs. The Finns did, and got a lot of help from Swedes (and to a lesser extent Norwegians). There are haters in all countries (and with modern media they tend to be the loud ones), but on the whole I think the Nordic countries do want to support each other.

[@FemaleSniper86]

Maybe more countries should learn from us... Imagine that, huh.

[@unclear6055]

The way I see it Sweden could have helped defend the other nordic countries, but would then be occupied by germany which they wanted to avoid for obvious reasons. Sweden was basically stuck between leaving it's neighbours behind or being occupied by Germany and from that perspective I can understand why they tried to stay neutral, even if it meant leaving Norway and Denmark behind.

[@matso3856]

@@unclear6055 Not really , swedish army was on the border to Finland as a precaution due to the failed soviet invasion , but it was not mechanised or modern. German troops would have reached Stockholm before they could , even if they had started in Oslo.

[@tombergendahl7652]

Regarding primarily Estonia (likely the samt with other occupied countries by USSR) it's not completely true that the USSR demanded former SS troops be handed back: they demanded ALL people from Estonia back, claiming they were Soviet subjects (maybe even citizens), to which the Swedish government complied to, forcing some Estonians back into Soviet ships in Stockholm harbor. My own grandfather, who fled the war from Estonia, feared this and fled to Canada, causing a national crisis that led to it's more modern immigrant law systems. Source: Lynda Mannik, voyage of the SS walnut, 1948.

[@jonassoderberg7394]

The picture shown between 0:50 and 01:15 is important for another reason. That socialist demonstration that is shown there ended up in the military opening fire, killing 4 demonstrants and 1 bystander, shortly after the picture is taken. This event is known as "skotten i ådalen" or "the shootings in the ådal" which is the place it took place. As a swede watching i had to point that out!

[@louisecorchevolle9241]

France in name of its President ask excuses for the role of french Marcshal Petains state in the second war were are the excuses oSweden for its role pro nazi until Stalingrad

[@ThomasTegelmark]

Minns Ådalen, Wikman

[@hinken3716]

@@louisecorchevolle9241 what?

[@MrOddball63]

Jag brukar använda den händelsen för att belysa att militären behövde mer skjutträning...

[@Bloink]

@@louisecorchevolle9241 Your comment makes negative sense. You've created anti-matter

[@andreaslarsson9808]

Thank you for shining lighjt on our stance in the WWII. IT's important that this is explained since it doesn't get explained in regular history books or anything like that. I am officially subscribed to your channel. This was really interesting to watch. Thank you!

[@dirgniflesuoh7950]

Operation Sepalu? Sefalu? And the involvement of Sapmi people in the resistance, they had special rules for crossing the Norwegian-Swedish border.

[@14Trenlover]

Apart from the volunteers, Sweden also helped a lot financially etc. Approximately 2,000,000,000 SEK (US$ ~312,658,890) of financial aid - twice the size of the Finnish defense budget at the time 50,013,300 rounds of small arms ammunition 135,402 rifles 450 light machine guns 347 machine guns 301,846 artillery shells 144 field guns 92 anti-armor guns 100 anti-aircraft guns 300 sea mines 500 depth charges 83 motorcycles 83 cars 350 trucks 13 tractors 17 fighter aircraft 5 light bombers 1 transport aircraft 3 reconnaissance aircraft Also lots of clothes and other material sent to Finland, collected by regular people all across Sweden.

[@14Trenlover]

@@simulation4392 Soon it's your turn to accept Swedish refugees, as Sweden is becoming a war zone due to all the migration...

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

@@14Trenlover ah yes, the swedish war zone, an entire country with a smaller number of homicides than the state of Arizona alone.

[@m00nif]

@@nz2191 wasn't that the continuation war?

[@m00nif]

@@nz2191 Make sense that Finland didn't want to give aid to soviet in the war since they just some years before took their independence from them and the history with the Finnish civil war where russians supported the losing side.

[@m00nif]

@@nz2191 Soviet would never agree on such terms themselves, easy to say they should just agree. Finland did the right thing to take distance from Soviet or they would end up like the baltics.

[@KaptenN]

You missed a very important thing! Sweden, being such a cold country and needing to fuel industries and trains, were in great need of German coal. Trading iron ore to Germany was only in part because of German pressure. We could not do without their coal and so we _had_ to trade our iron for it.

[@N0031inq]

no you didnt "have" to do it. You chose to do it. Same as you chose to allowed 100,000 railroad cards with 1,004,158 military personnel on leave to Germany and 1,037,158 to Norway through Sweden. Besides Norway there is nothing remotely good or anything to be proud of in the north doing WW2 (when it comes to official government decisions of Sweden / Denmark). Its a dark chapter and it should not be glorified here later with excuses.

[@KaptenN]

@@N0031inq Are you kidding me? Do you expect Sweden to make a decision that would have its population freeze to death in the winter? Have its population starve to death because there are no jobs because it can't power its industries? Sweden was absolutely dependant on German coal to survive! Don't come here moralizing about the steel trade when you have absolutely no idea about the position that Sweden was in!

[@N0031inq]

@@KaptenN oh I know 100% what situation Sweden was in and it was no where near as dire as you describe it. Sweden wanted to have the cake and eat it too. Also Sweden didnt want to sacrifice anything real and just wanted to ride out the storm (which is fair enough but not exactly something to be proud of). Swedens neutrality was broken the moment they allowed over a million German soldiers to pass through Sweden to help occupy and suppress Norway. And allow thousand upon thousand of political prisoners and jews to be transported through Sweden to Germany for the concentration camps. Modern Swedes and Sweden have nothing to do with this grey time but I do not like it when people make excuses for morally bankrupt past governments.

[@chinchilla415]

@@KaptenN Obviously, Sweden should become bankrupt and have its economy in shambles in order to be honorable. It's clearly for the best to surely cast your people (and any refugees/training & equipping soldiers/intelligence to the Allies) to the grave than to be pragmatic and play the long game.

[@bjornh4664]

@@N0031inq What kind of bullshit are you spouting? "Swedens neutrality was broken the moment they allowed over a million German soldiers to pass through Sweden to help occupy and suppress Norway." Please crack open a history book! The German attack on Norway wasn't aided by Sweden. The "million soldiers" were going to and from Norway on leave; the country was already occupied. Not allowing them to pass wouldn't have changed the situation for the Norwegians. It would only have meant that the soldiers either had stayed put in Norway, or gone to and from Germany by boat. As for "allow thousand upon thousand of political prisoners and jews to be transported through Sweden to Germany for the concentration camps", it another of your exaggerations (or lies). Please show me your sources. The best I have found on the subject mention that just a couple hundred were snuck past without the knowledge of Swedish authorities knowing anything about it.

[@BeNiceToEachOtherplease]

I'm smiling. you did a really good and accurate video with good pronunciation of Småland :) bra jobbat

[@Artur_M.]

A very good video! One thing I think could be added is the story of a Swedish diplomat in Hungary, Raoul Wallenberg.

[@Oliver-vj3oi]

And folke bernadotte with the red cross busses

[@GefreitervonAdler]

There are some errors here. The Germans did not have troops in northern Finland in May 1940 - while Finland allowed transit of German troops in September 1940, the first permanently stationed German troops arrived in March 1941. The troops Germany wanted to transfer to Narvik would come from Germany, taking the ferry from Sassnitz to Trelleborg and then the railroad from there to Narvik. 292 medical staff was let through, and 191 of them proved to be combat troops (but they were inspected and no weapons or uniforms for them were let through). 41 of those 191 arrived AFTER the Allies had evacuated Norway and Narvik had surrendered. The combat troops were thus about twice as many (191 vs 101) as the medics, not ten times as many. No heavy equipment was let through during the fighting - food (enough for 4 000 men for three months), tobacco, medical supplies, rucksacks and clothes were let through, partially because the Germans threatened to seize the food supplies of the Norwegian civilians if Sweden did not allow food through. There's no conclusive evidence that Sweden was aware that 2/3 of the medical staff were soldiers. Grafström, who was an ardent anti-nazi and headed the inspections and others described the medics as having military discipline and being hale and hearty, but military medical staff could very well have military discipline without being combat soldiers, so it is not conclusive evidence the Swedish government knew and looked the other way. Grafström was appointed to head the inspections both because of his dedication to duty, but also because his political inclinations were known and he was expeted to ensure that the inspections were very thorough and no contraband according to the Hague treaty was let through.

[@midsue]

Thanks Hilbert for talking about what Sweden did during WW2. Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪

[@KimKhan]

Happy to see a very fair and informative video on this topic, and I very much appreciate you described Finland as "Axis-aligned" instead of a member of the Axis, as much debate is surrounding Finland's position in the war - and you also mentioned the very rarely talked about mountaineer training of Norwegians that would cross the border when the time was right. Also, mentioning 1:00 I have family that was shot in the Ådalen Shooting of 1931, and both grandfathers were conscripted. Glad to see the political division in Sweden also mentioned.

[@stephenbinion6348]

You are literally surrounded by an aggressive neighbor that you despise. You do the best you can as the Swedes did to protect the nation and your people. As to trade, the routes to trade were blocked by the Germans as well. You have to feed the refugees you took in, the best way to do this was to use the money from the country they fled.

[@foo219]

There's a good saying here. Anyone can die for their country, it's easy. The difficult thing is to live for your country, even during the darkest times. That's what they did back then. They lived for their country, even though it meant doing a lot of things they would rather not have done.

[@sevedbaathus]

Apart from the 8 000+ Swedish volunteer soldiers, you should have mentioned the enormous amount of armaments Sweden gave to Finland during the Winter War. Finns often have the misconception that Sweden did nothing to help them. Edit: "The Swedish government and public also sent food, clothing, medicine, weapons and ammunition to aid the Finns during this conflict. The military aid included: - 135,402 rifles, 347 machine guns, 450 light machine guns with 50,013,300 rounds of small arms ammunition; - 144 field guns, 100 anti-aircraft guns and 92 anti-armour guns with 301,846 shells; - 300 sea mines and 500 depth charges; - 17 fighter aircraft, 5 light bombers, 1 DC-2 transport aircraft turned into bomber, and 3 reconnaissance aircraft, totally comprising 1/3 of the Swedish air force at the time." Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_and_the_Winter_War#Swedish_military's_position

[@jonel5001]

Those men came when war was few days of over. Biggest help was to take Finnish kids.

[@sevedbaathus]

@@jonel5001 Did you read the last part?

[@harryvirtanen5537]

LOL!!!!! u should learn the real history

[@Averagehazmat]

They didnt people gave stuff such as clothing and food. The goverment was never involved.

[@regsegrregerge5485]

The government wasn't involved? You mean that the people gave and had access to what would today be several billion dollars worth of military equipment..come on man, use your head a bit.

[@Ragnemalm]

Much is correct as far as I know, but I found one error: Ericsson has NOT merged with Sony. Only the mobile units. Ericsson is still an independent company. There are many misunderstandings when a company splits to two parts, most notably the automobile divisions of Volvo and SAAB (the latter which was an important part of Sweden's preparations for war by building military aircrafts, which has always been the main part of the company - Swedish Aeroplanes AB - and they built hundreds of SAAB 17 planes during the war). I must give you a big plus for an almost correct pronounciation of the word "Rädda". :) And the part about the training of norwegian soldiers in Sweden, as well as welcoming norwegian refugees, is definitely valid. I have actually visited one of the routes refugees took, including finding remains of the swedish border station where they were welcomed by swedish troops.

[@dirgniflesuoh7950]

How dependent was Sweden of German deliveries of coke for keeping the country running? I recall that German deliveries of coke and foodstuffs were important in the Finnish-German negotiations.

[@MrBigCookieCrumble]

In early 1937 Sweden was more of a Pepsi country, but due to the allied blockade had to switch to alternative sources, including.. wait what was the question?

[@dirgniflesuoh7950]

@@MrBigCookieCrumble Sorry to say, in 1937 pepsi was almost unheard of, coca cola had made rare appearances, but my mother tells me about how after the war coca cola and Glenn Miller music came with the peace. Coca cola had a factory in Germany, when they ran out of stock to make coca cola, they invented fanta, as in Fantastisch! Made of synthetic tastes and whatever ... But coke/coal for warming up houses and making iron, running factories, is oth a pretty serious matter, the war winters were cold, people drove lorrys to supply Finland over the ice between Umeå and Oulu (Uleåborg).

[@kirgan1000]

Sweden was dependent on German Coal, Sweden could make their own Coke if it was nesesery. Are we speaking Coke as Coal product or a Coke as in the soft drinks?

[@dirgniflesuoh7950]

@@kirgan1000 Coke as the coal product, useful for warming houses, and coal as well, for driving trains and ships, and running factories especially in that iron production. Oil and gas for cars, and aircraft was an even more difficult problem, a problem for Germany as well. (People had funny things attached to their cars for running cars "on wood", wood gas generators, there was no lack of wood anyway.)

[@gyderian9435]

At first I thought you meant cocaine 😂

[@zackueoo]

I think you should have mentiond the White Buses.

[@aaronmarks9366]

A friend of my family is a Danish Jew who was in Theresienstadt as a toddler - he and his brother were picked up by the white buses. They're one of only a few hundred children who survived Theresienstadt.

[@LatvietisVidejais99]

Thanks for including the fate of germany's baltic conscripts, even if it was a short segment :)

[@h0ckeyd]

That has to be one of the best leading lines into a sponsor I've seen on here! :D "If you're looking to invade Norway"...Genius.

[@puppetguy8726]

3:45 Many thousand more volunteered, those 8000 are just the ones who actually made it to Finland before the war ended.

[@tonysameh]

Ericsson is not known for its merge with Sony. This merge ended more than 10 years ago. Ericsson is known for building mobile networks. It’s the world leading mobile network vendor.

[@bagarn1990]

Really good video! But so many forget to mention. Sweden had two choices, help Germany which we have always had good contact since the 16th century. Or help Russia, which has always been our greatest enemy for about 400 years. So it was a very difficult game that Sweden stood for. They did not like Hitler's ideas, but if we do not help Germany, the Russians are waiting to besiege Sweden. Very difficult decisions.

[@astonmikedelgado]

Hahaha or just not help them warehouse minroties and slaughter them would habe been the third choice 🤣😂🤣 So many Swedes tell themselves this lie, no one has a choice when war comes your door 🚪. Sweden 🇸🇪 helped Germany 🇩🇪 and actually provably allowed for countless deaths alongside having camps inside its borders and profiting through the process. There was the choice the rest of Europe took which was to fight.

[@psyops2938]

I can tell you took inspiration from "Europa the last battle" documentary. With the music🎶 3:00

[@davidsradioroom9678]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[@aleksandarmarkovic1013]

Man that NordVPN transition was brilliant. Great video dude!!

[@zebraz3839]

Sweden wasn’t attacked in both world wars bc it surrounded itself with bedrock blocks

[@w0t3rdog]

We are gonna build a wall, and the mods will pay for it!

[@patriklundberg9527]

Thats not true we were in survival, not creative!

[@w0t3rdog]

@@patriklundberg9527 more like adventure mode, but the mods were with us. All hail the almighty mods!

[@unknownentity8256]

That bedrock being the crazy Finns next to the USSR

[@astonmikedelgado]

No you helped Nazis 🤣😂🤣

[@InspectHistory]

Hi Hilbert! Another impressive video from you! btw, do you have any plan to make history content about "Dutch Golden Ages? or something related about it" We're planning to make that content, and willing to know is there any sources (in English), you can recommend for us?

[@Xavier_Renegade_Angel]

last war in 1814

[@_OZZIE_RASCAL]

With Hilberts Doco's it goes to show there is never a true Nuetrality. Eventually you will have to choose a side to protect your own backside

[@RaXXha]

Sony actually just bought the commercial cellphone division of Ericsson back in the 2000s, the rest of Ericsson is still a big player in telecommunications equipment and related services. They just don't make conusmer products anymore, but instead are more focused on the network side of things. They have been a major player in the swedish defense industry through the years, making radars for fighter aircraft etc. That part of the company was later sold to SAAB.

[@ropersf]

My mother mother emigrated to the United States in the early 50's. She had three older brothers who served in the Swedish army during WWII. The oldest Nils-Eric wanted to volunteer to fight in Finland but my grandmother forbid it. She remembers her father had to give up either tobacco or coffee during the war and he chose to keep coffee. Her family was from Dalsland near the Norwegian border where they had a farm but they also had a business in Goteborg. While at the farm she says she saw Norwegians coming and going across the border.

[@semiperfekt]

Dalsland. Not far away from me. :)

[@aaronmarks9366]

Hilbert, can you do a video on the Central American and Caribbean countries during the Second World War? For example, independent countries like Guatemala, Panama, or the Dominican Republic, as well as colonial territories at the time like Jamaica, Puerto Rico, or the Dutch West Indies

[@natea6812]

A video on the Vatican’s role in WW2 would be fascinating

[@howardbealethemadprophetof3361]

And one of the Mythbusters trying to prove that dr. Fred Leuchter's claimings are false. What could possibly go wrong?

[@harveyhawkins6505]

DW have released a documentary on this already that’s very good and up to date, no point in another video on it.

[@hwadinskij7495]

The last ferry from Helsingör to Sweden during the war was filled to the brim with Danish soldiers refusing to surrender to the Germans

[@Benderswe1]

my grand dad was in the swedish army up in torneå, he saw what the germans did to the villages across the border once the finns broke with the germans, he always hated them for that

[@christopherellis2663]

I once met a Dane whose brother had been killed in the Nazi invasion. Grief is undying. There are tank traps in a park in Stochkolm.

[@davutsauze8319]

What about Switzerland?

[@pandypaduan6135]

One thing i love with the winter war was that the swedish military donate a swedish uniform (three crowns) that hadnt been used to the voulontairs but we sewed on the finnish lion Buttons because we weren't allowed to use our ones. I love that we helped Finland a little bit, but i am ashamed because we let Norway and Denmark down.

[@EdMcF1]

Swedish red cross boats fed the Channel Islands later on in the war. The cafe at the Jersey war museum is named after one of those boa

[@BloodyGamerMan]

I recommend a book called “This is the Swedish tiger”, written by Aron Flam. A large chapter in the book covers Sweden’s “neutrality” in WWII

[@astonmikedelgado]

Reci mu brate, a gledaj kako svi svedani zahvaljivaju ga sto ne zna upaliti google. Agreed, great book. I also recommend “the new authoritarians”

[@ronmaximilian6953]

You neglected to mention Raoul We Wallenberg and Paul Anger giving over 9,000 Swedish passports to Hungarian Jews as part of the War Are Refugee Board. The war refugee board would then house 10,000 Hungarian Jews in what were nominally Swedish facilities and Hungary. The first person nominated to run the war refugee board was Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg and nephew of the Swedish king. Count Bernadotte would lead an effort to release 21, 000 POWs from Germany during the war.

[@Tintinmannen]

It is forgotten that when German transports are mentioned through Sweden, it was done under threat and with a desire to stand on the same side as Finland. Sweden and Finland was one country for 700 years and the Russians have been our enemy for 300 of those years. The Germans have been our friends for 200 years until Hitler appeared eight years earlier. Why should we side with our enemy Russia in the war against our brothers in Finland? That would be completely crazy, because that is what would have happened if we denied Germany transit. Russia had already invaded Finland a little over a year earlier and Stalin was as greedy as Hitler. We wanted to help Denmark and Norway but not at the expense of ourselves and Finland by helping our enemy. Denmark and Norway have never had Russia as an enemy like Sweden and Finland have. We have been their buffer against Russia's desire for expansion. Then we also saved 200,000 refugees who would have been dead if we had also been occupied because there would have been nowhere for them to flee.

[@ostkaka8397]

an interesting fact I read on a memorial in Höganäs Sweden: the german commander of denmark had given the harbour master in sweden a heads up that they where given the order to round up the danish jews. kind of hinting at what was coming and spreading the word. thus aiding in the evacuation effort.

[@tomashjalmarson8177]

From what I understand he also told leading Danish jews that they should immediately get to Sweden and that they should spread the word. He also ordered all German patrol boats in Öresund to have their hulls repainted. With no patrol boats in the water, crossings could be made safely. A very well deserved memorial indeed!

[@Mobosh]

The "volunteers" that were sent to Finland was in fact to a large extent elite units of the Swedish military called "Jägarförband". Comparable to navy seals. They were masked as volunteers to avoid the Germans ire. As for the trade of iron ore, it was largely understood that the only reason the nazis did not invade Sweden was because of the iron. Sweden had communicated to the Germans that the mines would be razed in case of an invasion. If Sweden had stopped trading its iron, the Germans would have simply invaded and the fight would have been over just about as quickly as with Norway. It was much more useful to stay as a safe haven for refugees and aid their neighbors as much as possible.

[@07HAGE]

Really interesting that you don't mention the Allies own plan to invade Svandinavia already april 5th. Four destroyers taken by the RN in June 1940 is also left out. It's not easy beeing a small county when the big boys fight. Just saying...

[@samuelfriden]

My great-grandmother had finnish refugees (kids) in her home during the winterwar in sweden (i’m swedish) which i am really proud of, since sweden were overall cowards during WW2. We did save some jews but that’s about it many swedes looked up to nazis as a higher social class of people. We didn’t even help our closest brother (Norway) in this devastating time in history.

[@stuartholladay1875]

Sweden's departure from neutrality to non-belligerence can be likened to the neutrality of the United States before it joined the Allies against the Axis. Businessmen wanted to trade with both sides if they could, but the U.S. had greater affinity with Britain. The Japanese (Axis) attack on a U.S. base ended U.S. neutrality irrevocably.

[@kristianfagerstrom7011]

USA didn't "join the allies" it was attacked by Japan and declared war upon by Germany.

[@oliversherman2414]

As a half Swede (other half being British), I enjoyed this video. Great work 👍🏻🇸🇪🇬🇧

[@TheJonasbz]

Sweden had no choise, sweden needed food and coal to heat the houses, it was collaborate as less as possible with the germas and get the supplies or freese ans starve and possible also get invaded. As i see it, it was exelent executed.

[@patwhw]

My grandmas sister was adopted from Finland during the winter war. One of the sweetest and most kind women I have ever known.

[@GoatlikePersonality]

This was very good. I am swedish and I would have described the events similarly. Sweden was more focused at the threat from the sovjetisk in the beginning. And Hitler had the upperhand in the beginning. It was a series of pragmatic decisions theat keept ut out of the war.It was not perfect in any way, and we still feel ashamed of the german troups going thru sweden, and the extradition of the balts. Thanx for your video. BTW: there is no treacherous terrain between sweden and norway. Its a gentle stroll. Other then that obvious misstake, great video

[@dirgniflesuoh7950]

Ehm, I am not sure the army commanded by Gustav Mauritz Armfeldt would agree with you. Some parts are more easily strolled, but then you also have to bring a lot of supplies with you ...

[@GoatlikePersonality]

@@dirgniflesuoh7950 Gustav Mauritz Armfelt did not march in treacherous terrein. He marchedduring a several day snow storm and did not tell the troups to dig down.

[@dirgniflesuoh7950]

@@GoatlikePersonality Snow storms are pretty treacherous, and very bad to march in. Marching through mountain passes and heavily forrested areas is pretty weather dependent, and the border is long. Oth it was not easy to control, and the Sapmi had special rules of passage.

[@GoatlikePersonality]

@@dirgniflesuoh7950 Yes, no, no, no no and no. I live here and I am an farmer so you dont have to teach me about my own back yard. The sami did not have and army and thay would just stay away from any swedish or danish army marching by.

[@dirgniflesuoh7950]

@@GoatlikePersonality You live "here"? Är detta "här" i Jämtland, där Armfeldts återtåg ägde rum? För gränsen är som sagt lång och även om den är lätt att passera just där skulle jag inte kalla hela för en "lätt sluttning". Sedan är det en fråga om hur den vägen dit ser ut, och vart den lätta sluttningen leder, hur lätt är det att komma vidare till strategiska delar för att ta kontroll över Sverige? Samerna och deras renar lätt sig inte alls kontrolleras och fick behålla sin hävdvunna rätt att röra sig över gränsen och de utnyttjade den till att hjälpa motståndsrörelsen även om de inte hade någon arme. Många av dem var skickliga skyttar, men framför allt hjälpte de motståndsrörelsen att korsa gränsen, som iaf inte var lättpatrullerad.

[@sathanas3524]

one of my old teachers' grandfather was in the second labor war he fought for finland and he survived

[@lachbullen8014]

Do you really reckon that the Swedish government back then during World War 2 had any choice to comply with those German demands if they had refused they would have been invaded and I have no doubt that the Swedish army could hold its own against the German army back then and I did have some pretty good tanks unfortunately I cannot say the same for the Swedish Air Force and the Swedish Navy was not the largest in the world in 1943 and the German Navy was probably still formidable....

[@Oliver-vj3oi]

The swedish army back then was illprepeard so it would not had a chance,but the plan to defend against germans was just to blow up the iron mines in kiruna so it would just be too much work for the germans to rebuild (it was easier to just trade for the germans)

[@Tatwinus]

The swedish army was about as good as horseshit back then. No anti armor, the aa guns were ww1 watercooled machine guns and most of the equipment wouldnt be good even during ww1.

[@grandadmiralthrawn3164]

It wasnt untill the post-war economic boom of the Erlander era that we got a shitload of tank and planes

[@kittehgo]

The germans had extensive plans to invade sweden from norway and I think the estimated time was a couple of weeks to cut sweden in half and move on from there..

[@informitas0117]

Given the resources Sweden had it did pretty good maneuvering the war all things considered. Not perfect of course, personally I would have wanted more support to Finland.

[@leeionicatlas6461]

Love this little series, maybe take a look at Siam next!

[@puppetguy8726]

Good accurate video on Sweden during ww2 👍