Abstract

In this paper, the author presents an exploratory survey of German-speaking Jewish emigration to Sweden after the 1993 Nazi take-over. A short review of Nazi racial policies and of the mass flight from the Third Reich is followed by a more detailed analysis of the size and social composition of the refugee population. Of the total 5 000 to 5 500 emigrants in Sweden, about 70 % were “non-Aryan”, but even among the 30 % who were political refugees, many were Jews. In sections on “Swedish Refugee Policy” and “Swedish Public Opinion and the Refugees”, government policy is discussed in relation to the official attitude toward the victims of Nazism. It is clearly shown that Jewish refugees were discriminated against by the Swedish authorities, and that Swedish refugee policy to a great extent was determined by egoism and fear.