Year: 2016 (1998, 2004, 2015)
Publisher: Ordfront förlag
Language: Swedish
I have
always found it mildly amusing that the word “Nazi” and “Neanderthal” stand
right next to each other in the Swedish Academy’s dictionary of the Swedish
language (Svenska Akademiens Ordbok). In my opinion, few if any ideologies in
the history of mankind, have been as catastrophic as Nazism. While many
ideologies, religions, philosophies, cosmologies, and political and economic
systems and beliefs have repeatedly been abused to do evil they were typically not
fundamentally intended for, Nazism stands out as being inherently wicked. Being
the naïve and philanthropic person that I am, I have long chosen to view the rank
and file Nazi sympathisers as intellectually challenged individuals who have
been duped by a small group of vile haters, rather than believing that our
species could broadly harbour such heinousness and depravation that the core
ideology of Nazism would require. They were to me, in the colloquial use of the
word, Neanderthals.
Little did
I know, that I had but a vague idea of the taxonomy of racism, anti-Semitism,
Fascism, Nazism, and other related movements and confusions. This is where
Heléne Lööw’s exposé “Nazism in Sweden” across three tomes (“Nazismen i Sverige
1924-1979”, “Nazismen i Sverige 1980-1999”, and “Nazismen i Sverige 2000-2014”)
turned out to prove invaluable.
Heléne Lööw
is an Associate Professor / Reader of History at Uppsala University in Sweden
and has dedicated her academic life to the study of extreme right-wing
organisations. Her contributions to the field span over more than three decades
and she has published extensively on the issue. The present trilogy was never
supposed to be one. Lööw writes in the preface that she intended “Nazism in
Sweden” to be a conclusion or a summary. Only later did she realise that what
she had been studying was not the decline of a movement. It was the beginning
of one.
The first
volume introduces the history of Nazism in Sweden dating back to the Interwar
period where the ideas of National Socialism were first introduced in Sweden.
Nationalism, Socialism, anti-Semitism, racism, and anti-democratism were
already ubiquitous in Swedish society making the building blocks readily
available. Even so, Lööw paints a picture of a highly fragmented Nazi movement
with disparaging strategies and problematic relationships with other Nazi
organisations in Sweden and Europe, particularly the NSDAP after the German invasion
of Denmark and Norway.
The second
volume is based on Lööw’s extensive research and personal network in the
Swedish extreme right community. Lööw guides us through the gradual
transformation from nationalism to white supremacy. Whereas Nazism is naturally
isolationistic in its focus on the nation-state, white supremacy is by
definition international. The period 1980 – 1999 was also the age in which the old-school
Nazis from the 30s and 40s handed the reins over to the next generation. The
arrival of the music genre White Noise receives particular attention from Lööw
as it became a powerful tool for nationalists to recruit young and influential minds.
The third (and
final?) volume accounts for the most recent radicalisation. While racist,
anti-semitic and anti-democratic opinions were shameful and covert in the past,
the 2000s have seen a broad and public radicalisation of opinions across all of
Europe, including Sweden. Far-right political parties entered parliaments left,
right, and centre. In Sweden, they call themselves Sweden Democrats and make no
secret of their racist agenda. Fascism and racism have gained social
acceptance. The arrival of social media gave conspiracy theorists and tinfoil
hats a completely new platform to proliferate the myth that there are forbidden
truths “they don’t want us to speak about”. This idea entered mainstream
politics and triggered a widespread rejection of science, facts, and confidence
of authority.
Lööw’s work
is interesting in many ways. It helped me open my eyes and understand parts of
this world that I hitherto had not considered. Or looked away from. Here are
some, but far from all, take-aways.
- Not all racists are Nazis. National Socialism is a well-defined and strictly observed socialist ideology. Nazis have tried to organise labour unions and guilds, they have proposed enhanced public safety nets and social security, advocated the abolition of private ownership, and in many other ways acted like other socialists with one key difference: nationalism. Whereas classical socialism takes aim at social class and the means of production, Nazism focuses on nationality and ethnicity. By its very nature, it is against globalisation, it equals race with privilege, and is collectivistic as opposite to individualistic. In a Swedish Nazi utopia, Swedes (by any given definition) are collectively the lords within the territory of Sweden. It is a socialist society where no Swede stands above any other and all Swedes stand above all others. The Nazi political struggle is not between class and class, but between nationality and nationality.
- The Nazi movement has many similarities with religion. They have rites and revival meetings, they observe special holidays and traditions, they adore deities and saints. Heléne Lööw affords considerable space, particularly in the second and third volumes, to the quasi-religious martyrs, myths, rites, art, and symbols that are part of the Nazi movement in Sweden. I was surprised by the sheer volume and complexity of the Nazi pantheon and the detailed knowledge and education in the field that the dedicated Nazi sympathisers acquire. “Nazism in Sweden” offers a detailed report of the different martyrs and demigods that Swedish Nazis worship, as well as the fervour with which they do it.
- A third observation, which is of particular interest to me, is the history of other political movements which share the white supremacist ideology with the Nazis but are different in other ways. There are the globalists who want to unite all white supremacy movements, regardless of nationality. There are the Christian white nationalists, mostly in the USA. There are the anti-Semites who root for the Muslims. There are the Islamophobes who root for the Jews. It seems to me that with so many minorities to hate, it is difficult to fit all of that hatred into one organisation or political movement. Consequently, many Nazis frequently jump between parties and action groups so that they can always savour the hatred flavour of the day.
- Throughout history, there have only been two political forces in Sweden which have consistently and methodically opposed Nazism under any guise. These are the Liberals and the Social Democrats. No matter what modern racists would like to have us believe, Hjalmar Branting, Per Albin Hansson, and Tage Erlander were all staunchly anti-Nazi and pro-democracy. Communists may rightfully claim to have consistently opposed Nazism, too, but they did not defend democracy, which is why I disqualify them on this point.
“Nazism in
Sweden” is written in a remarkably dispassionate tone, to the point of almost sounding bland. In the preface, the author discloses some hints to her antipathy
to all things associated with the Nazi movement in Sweden
and elsewhere, but the tone in the book is balanced, objective, and unbiased.
At times, I even had to remind myself that the people quoted as expressing one
or another opinion were in fact Nazis who actively sought to bring about the demise of this country and the freedom of its people. Lööw grants them the
right to sound human, far removed from the demonic depictions of Nazi leaders
that we are used to.
This brings
me to a point where I realise, after having read all three books and a total of
more than 1,300 pages, that there are similarities between Nazis and
Neanderthals after all: both are routinely underestimated by the general
public.
