Schweden, Deutschland und der Holocaust

Abstract

The historiography on Sweden’s foreign policy during the Second World War can be characterized as being split between two paradigms of interpretation: One of them rooted in political realism, dominating for a long time and stressing the fact that the government had been able to keep the country out of the war and to avoid its occupation; the other one emphasizing moral values and growing in relevance, claiming that the country had not lived up to the obligation to line up against national socialism. This article reviews the most central existing literature seeking to relate it to this dichotomy. Finally some questions are posed that should be included in the future research agenda.