Cerca
Percorso: USC Shoah Foundation Institute Thesaurus
Descrittore
Termine preferito
(PIQ) Svezia CercaDefinizione
Location: Northern Europe, bordered in 1939 by Finland and Norway. Capital city: Stockholm.
History:
Sweden has been an independent kingdom since 1523 when it separated from Denmark. The Thirty Years War established Sweden as the major Protestant power in Europe. From 1815 to 1904, Sweden and Norway were united. Sweden remained neutral in WWI. In the 1930s Swedish authorities did not openly allow refugees to enter the country despite the efforts of the Jewish community in Stockholm. During WWII, Sweden remained neutral but traded with Germany. Jews who fled to Sweden without a visa were often turned away although some 500 German Jewish children were taken in. Jews fleeing the German occupation of Norway and Denmark were given shelter. Sweden took an active role in helping the Jews of Hungary by sending Raoul Wallenberg to Budapest in 1944. Count Folke Bernadotte of the Swedish Red Cross made an arrangement to transfer female prisoners from Ravensbrück to Sweden via Denmark in April 1945. Immediately after the war several refugee centers were established for camp survivors. (en-US)
Fonte
Edited by Leon E. Seltzer with the Geographical Research Staff of Columbia University Press and with the Cooperation of the American Geographical Society. With 1961 Supplement. New York: Columbia University Press, 1962. p. 1853-1854