The Swedish issue, and the perception of Sweden in Israel

[faito anto]

Hi Peter, I thought people might appreciate the irony.

By EFRAIM ZUROFF

On the surface, the notion of a European Union member-state condoning the staging of an artistic display glorifying a Palestinian suicide bomber as an event held in conjunction with a conference on preventing genocide seems absurd.

In Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, or the Palestinian Authority such a juxtaposition would hardly raise an eyebrow, but how could such a thing take place in Sweden, a country ostensibly committed to human rights and freedoms?

As it turns out in Sweden's case, however, reputations are one thing, reality quite another, a lesson I learned over almost two decades in my dealings with the Swedish government on several issues relating to the Holocaust.

About 17 years ago the Wiesenthal Center discovered that at least 21 suspected Baltic Nazi war criminals had been admitted to Sweden toward the end of World War II and had been living there ever since. Among them were several persons who had played a very prominent role in the mass murder of Jews, people such as Oskar Angelus, who established the Estonian Political Police and served as minister of internal affairs in the collaborationist Estonian administration, and Karlis Lobe, who founded the Latvian Security Police battalions and headed the Latvian police in Ventspils.

It was already clear then that the names known to us were only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Thus in November 1986, the center appealed to Swedish prime minister Ingvar Carlsson to launch a full-scale investigation – not only of these cases, but also to determine whether any additional Nazi war criminals were living in the country.

Given Sweden's reputation on human rights issues we assumed that the government would understand the severity of the problem and not shirk its responsibility to take action.

The Swedish government had no such intention, however. It responded about four months later that although several of the suspects were indeed living in Sweden (the others had already died there), they would not investigate, let alone prosecute, their cases due to a statute of limitations of 25 years on murder.

Although the prosecution of genocide and/or crimes against humanity should take precedence over local legal obstacles, it was clear that the Swedes preferred to hide behind such arguments in order to evade their responsibility to pursue these cases. In fact, a careful reading of the Swedish response reveals the extent of Swedish duplicity.

Thus in total contradiction to extensive documentation, scholarship and witness testimony, the Swedes claimed it was impossible to judge from the sources available "how far native collaborators participated in the Germans' genocidal actions."

And contrary to the position adopted at the very same time by the US, Britain, Canada, and Australia – all of whom faced the same problem and had launched full-scale investigations to determine its scope – the Swedes claimed that any attempt to study the entry to Sweden of Nazi war criminals would be "hardly meaningful."

GIVEN SWEDEN'S refusal to deal honestly with the issue, it was naturally surprising to learn of their 1998 initiative to promote Holocaust education all over the world. Yet in this respect as well an examination of the material being used showed quite clearly that although the Swedes had no trouble dealing with Nazi crimes, they had no intention of confronting their own complicity in assisting Nazi Germany during World War II, or their failure to deal with the Holocaust perpetrators living in Sweden after the war.

Contrary to all educational logic and methodology the text prepared by the Swedes almost completely ignored Sweden's role during and after World War II, thereby sparing their schoolchildren any meaningful debate or discussion of such important topics as Sweden's refusal to admit Jewish refugees during the 1930s, Sweden's granting permission to Nazi troops to pass through Sweden on their way to occupy Norway, or the fact that Sweden continued to the very end of World War II to supply Germany with the nickel, chrome, and iron necessary to keep the Nazis' war machine functioning.

Under these circumstances, and given Sweden's decades-long political and material support for the Palestinians – often at Israel's expense – it is perhaps not so surprising that an exhibit lauding a Palestinian suicide bomber would be included as an official event in the framework of a conference on genocide, a direct outgrowth of the original Swedish initiative on Holocaust education.

In this age of the new anti-Semitism, those who belittled the fate of Jewish victims of the Holocaust by purposely ignoring the presence of those who killed them in their land, today choose to be utterly oblivious to the Jewish victims of Palestinian suicide bombers by presenting their murderer as a heroine. They do this in the context of efforts to prevent genocide, using the Israeli origin of the artist as incontrovertible proof of their objectivity.

The writer is director of the Israel Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. His study of Swedish policy on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Jewish Political Studies Review.

[Inquartata]

A statute of limitation---on murder?!?

If true---wow....

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally posted by Inquartata
A statute of limitation---on murder?!?

If true---wow....

Yes, true. That 25-limit has been there for a long time, and no politician has ever (TTBOMK) talked about changing it. Nor is there any popular demand for such a change. (We have shorter punishments and statutes than USA in general, and much lower crime rate. Mull over it.)

FA - that is cheating!

I wrote my long article all by myself, don´t go copying!

The starting post demands a bunch of answers, but I have to go to the hospital and get my strep (???) throat fixed now.

[Tireur]

Mull over it.)

I think it's a bit of a stretch to say less punishment=less crime...

What are shorter statutes? Do you mean statues?

[Soldier]

Cheating? Bull. If somebody else brings up a great point and says it well, why not simply quote them saying it?

[canthidefromme]

Not that I read the whole thing, I only skimmed, but when was the last time somebody talked about the Chinese genocide committed by Japan in ww2?

[Soldier]

A very valid question. One more area that I unfortunately know nothing about.

[FlamingDeth]

On that particular issue I would reccomend The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang. It makes for a fairly interesting, if slightly morbid, read.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally posted by Tireur
I think it's a bit of a stretch to say less punishment=less crime...

What are shorter statutes? Do you mean statues?

Well, what I implied was that more punishment does not always mean less crime. Yes, it was a dumb spelling mistake.

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Tireur]

Well, what I implied was that more punishment does not always mean less crime

Sorry, when you said "Mull over it", I assumed you were implying correlation.

[The0ne]

The article is a little propogandist sounding, I doubt Sweden is really that bad of a country, but it does raise many interesting points.

[Masterurethane]

Sweden totally rocks.

If you need an example of how to run a country, there it is.

Really, I have never been anywhere like it.

[jeff]

Well, it's just moved further down the list of "places I plan to visit soon"...

[The0ne]

Well it seems like a good place to go if you commit a couple of murders. . .

[Soldier]

Originally posted by FlamingDeth
On that particular issue I would reccomend The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang. It makes for a fairly interesting, if slightly morbid, read.

Thanks, but this is one of those issues where I'll say I've learned enough from history just in knowing that it happened, without needing all the detail.

[faito anto]

Peter,

The point I was trying to make here by giving this thread the title I did (and posting an article about Sweden that I found in an Israeli english language newspaper) may have been missed.

In general, the rest of the world isn't out trying to condemn Sweden (or Norway, or Austria, or Russia, or China, or Pakistan). However, it seems that Israel (and perhaps lately the USA) is scrutinised for everything.

Peter, you told us that don't follow the situation in Kashmir or Tibet etc. You attributed this to lack of "ink" (media coverage) of these issues.

From Israel, we find it odd that Europe singles out Israel for IMMENSE scrutiny.

[Inquartata]

Originally posted by The0ne
Well it seems like a good place to go if you commit a couple of murders. . .

I think you'd have to do your killing there; I take it that Sweden still honors extradition requests from countries withOUT statutes of limitation on murder.

But if you can elude the police for 25 years it DOES seem like the place to kill someone...

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally posted by Inquartata
I think you'd have to do your killing there; I take it that Sweden still honors extradition requests from countries withOUT statutes of limitation on murder.

But if you can elude the police for 25 years it DOES seem like the place to kill someone...

Sweden extradites non-Swedes, except those facing capital punishment. In Sweden - as in most of Europe - CP is considered an abomination of nature, and those in favor of it are considered sickos. Last year, a county politician suggested thinking over CP for multiple murders. He was not allowed to leave the party, the party threw him out in an especially humilitating way. He left the posts that he was elected to, and no one came forward in his defence. We have extradited to places with CP, however, in cases where the DA has signed a promise not to ask for CP.

Most murders in Sweden are solved long before the 25-year limit. Almost always there is some kind of connection between murderer and victim, helping the police. The bulk of cases come in two types:
1: A bunch of drunks sit together and drink, someone says something, and there is a stabbing. Police find victim and murderer beside each other, and solve case immediately.
2: Ex-husband (or ex-boyfriend) kills ex-wife after after repeated non-lethal violent crime. Police immediately know the likely identity of murderer.
During the 20th century we only had two serial killers, both are in the slammer now.

With so few relatives of murder victims around, there is no political pressure for taking away the statue of limitation, or increasing the punishment time.

Peter Gustafsson

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally posted by faito anto
Peter,

The point I was trying to make here by giving this thread the title I did (and posting an article about Sweden that I found in an Israeli english language newspaper) may have been missed.

In general, the rest of the world isn't out trying to condemn Sweden (or Norway, or Austria, or Russia, or China, or Pakistan). However, it seems that Israel (and perhaps lately the USA) is scrutinised for everything.

Peter, you told us that don't follow the situation in Kashmir or Tibet etc. You attributed this to lack of "ink" (media coverage) of these issues.

From Israel, we find it odd that Europe singles out Israel for IMMENSE scrutiny.

Austria - got told off when they elected Bruno Waldheim and Jörg Haider. Even got a formal boycott from the EU in the latter case.
Russia - was given all sorts of nasty names earlier, now gets told off (a little) for the Chechen issue.
China - repeatedly scolded for human-rights abuses.

Not that I disagree with these scoldings, just wanted to point out their existence.

I read about Kashmir and Tibet (they are also showed on TV news from time to time) but Israel gets much more ink and airtime in Swedish, and I think European, media.

On the singling out: Earlier, media devoted a large part of their foreign news coverage to South Africa and Israel jointly. Both were described as countries with a strange combination of governments put in place by voting, and legally mandated differences between ethnic groups. The same activists protested against both. Now, South Africa has changed, and those activists/journalists concentrate on Israel.

It also does not help the Israeli cause that those in Sweden who are pro-Israeli are so in such a way so that they put people off, and that there are quite a few jews criticizing the current Israeli policies. The most pro-Israeli writer in Swedish media, Per Ahlmark, always does an ad hominiem when someone disagrees with him, no matter how little. It is also a full-throttle AH every time. Furthermore, he has repeatedly said "whenever I set foot in Arlanda (Stockholm airport) again after have being abroad, my heart sinks when I come to this bad country." Think about it - do you really think that such a statement helps whatever cause he is furthering?

Meanwhile, the largest daily has no less than two jewesses - one of which is a Christian priest - who do the criticize Sharon/be balanced/support other jews sthik quite often, and they write well. They are not shrill, a mortal sin in Sweden. Once people of jewish origin go against Sharon, it takes on another weight in the eyes of those not directly affected. There is a jewish family (Bonnier) which owns #2,3 and many of the minor news dailies, several book printing companies, various weeklies, etc in Sweden. But, not even on their editorials, a pro-Israeli agenda is put forth. Israel is actually relatively often chastized there, at least in the editorials of #2.

The copied article took up the recent art spat in passing, but deleted important parts of the story. Anyway, when I googled the story (for one of these posts) one of the top links was to a "Swedish jews against Sharon" webpage, with a lot of known names signing it.

A lot to think about.

Peter Gustafsson

[Tireur]

With so few relatives of murder victims around, there is no political pressure for taking away the statue of limitation, or increasing the punishment time.

So......if the victims had larger families, you might institute the death penalty?

Interesting that some counties will harbor murderers if the murderer's life is in danger. Sounds like a place that would harbor terrorists.