on the nazi riots i Uppsala, Sweden 1943. In 1943 the Swedish government secretly decided to take more responsibility for the liberation of Norway and Denmark, to end the persecution of the Jews and began to cooperate with the Allies. In March 1943, the Swedish intelligence revealed that the Germans planned to attack Sweden during the summer. Troops stood ready, deep in Norway and Finland.
In preparation for the occupation, the Germans needed domestic unrest and confrontations. But there was a problem – unlike most other countries in Europe, there were not many Nazis in Sweden, less than 0.2% of the voters, but the Nazis who now went to Uppsala – a Nazi-free university town 35 minutes north of Stockholm – were war veterans in the SS or Finland. They were met by thousands of residents who enthusiastically tried to throw them out from the city. They did this successfully, despite the fact that the national police force attacked them – and even some local anti-Nazi police officers – with indiscriminate violence. Hundreds of people were injured, the elderly were trampled down, pregnant women were cut and children were beaten. The Swedish security police – explicitly anti-Nazi – revealed a conspiration. The Nazis and the national police force had planned the riot together, but the government put the lid on the case and asked the press not to rock the boat. Today we can reveal what happened during that Easter weekend. It’s a dark and gloomy story, but also a hopeful one about how a whole city took to the streets to defend democracy.
