The Stones Cry Out
“The Stones Cry Out”
Sweden’s response to the persecution of the Jews 1933-1945.
Steven Koblik
Between 1939 and 1945 over six million Jews died as a result of the policies of Nazi Germany and its allies. What began as a desire to rid Germany of its Jews by forced emigration led to a systematic, industrialized campaign to exterminate Europe’s Jews. Of all the developments related to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the subsequent coming of the Second World War, no other episode has concerned scholars and the general public as much as the Final Solution. Winston Churchill was not alone in thinking that German policy toward the Jews constituted the greatest crime in the history of mankind.
This book is part of that historical effort to understand how the Final Solution occurred. It examines the country of Sweden and its response to German persecution of the Jews. Sweden was an important country in the context of the Final Solution. As a neutral during the war, it could receive Jewish immigrant and try to offer its diplomatic protection to them in other countries. Denmark’s Jews found a safe haven in Sweden. Swedish protective passes and the work of men such as Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest saved tens of thousands of lives.
To understand the Swedish response to the persecution of the Jews, it is not sufficient to study government policy. Swedish businessmen journalists, church officials and simply private individuals came into contact with developments transpiring on the continent. How they responded affected directly the way in which the government behaved. The church is used as an example of an institutional response partially because church officials had such close ties with fellow Lutherans as in Germany and therefore knew of the Final Solution earlier than most other people. There was also the moral issue which German persecution posed for Christians. The dilemmas which faced the Swedish church had a character familiar to all Christian groups: the Swedish response was not different form a number of prominent church institutions on the continent.
Sweden partook in 4 major successful rescue efforts. The Red Cross mission had been selected here as the largest rescue effort of the war within Germany proper. Over 20,000 people were taken from concentration camps and brought to Sweden in March April 1945.
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RSVP NOW! TTS Dinner Benefit on Feb 28
Thanks To Scandinavia is very excited to announce that on Tuesday, February 28th we will be hosting our very first dinner benefit at Swedish star chef Marcus Samuelsson’s hot new restaurant, Red Rooster. Rather than waiting for months to get a seat at this sold out restaurant, why not join us for an evening of [...]
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