RG 84: Sweden
State Department and Foreign Affairs Records
Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State (RG 84)
Sweden
Sweden declared its neutrality in September 1939. However, after the German occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Sweden was less well placed to resist German pressure to relax its neutral stance. In June 1940 Sweden signed a transit agreement with Germany allowing goods and troops to transit Sweden on their way from Norway to Finland. German soldiers on rotation to and from the war front made about 250,000 trips across Swedish territory, as late as August 1943. Moreover, the Swedish Navy escorted German convoys in the Baltic.
The Germans also increased their economic and financial ties to Sweden. When the war begun Germans had over 130 corporations, or groups of corporations in Sweden that were outright branches and subsidiaries of German firms. There were also firms that were believed to be financed by German corporations of German nationals. These included AEG, Krupp, the Siemens Group, I.G. Farben, and Telefunken Gesellschaft. In addition, there were over 170 Swedish corporations, or group of corporations, to varying degrees had an identity of interest with German corporations, such as patent and trademark agreements, "dummy" and "cloaking" activities, cartel agreements, contractual relationships, and direct representation of German firms, e.g., through Swedish sales agencies.
German influence was significant in Swedish industry, such as iron-ore and mining, coal import and distribution, machine and machine tool manufacture, forestry, chemical raw materials manufacture, shipping and shipbuilding, and steel. The Germans also had real estate investments in Sweden.
Germany's war effort depended significantly upon its imports of raw materials and goods from the neutral nations. Sweden's exports of ball-bearings to Germany were vitally important, but were even overshadowed during the early years of the war when Sweden supplied Germany with 40 percent of its iron-ore before imports of iron ore from other European countries reduced this dependency.
Despite the close economic ties to Germany and the transit agreement with Germany, Sweden provided a refugee for those escaping Germany, as well as Soviet, oppression. Most of the Jews from Denmark were smuggled across the Sound into Sweden.
Once the tide of battle changed, Sweden was relatively more responsive to Allied pressure to curtail its trade with the Germans. An Allied-Sweden agreement of September 1943 eventually brought about a progressive, substantial curtailment of Swedish commerce with Germany. Under the agreement, the United States and Great Britain agreed to allow an increase in exports to Sweden, including oil and rubber, in exchange for which Sweden agreed to cancel the transit of German military material and troops across Sweden, further reduce iron ore exports, end Swedish naval escorting of German ships in the Baltic, and reduce ball-bearing exports.
During the last half of 1943 and the early months of 1944, the United States sought to cripple Germany's ability to continue the war by carrying out a concentrated and costly bombing campaign against ball-bearing production in Germany combined with trade negotiations, including preclusive purchasing arrangements, intended to cut off Swedish ball-bearings to Germany. The United States bombing campaign reduced German ball-bearing production, but German industrial countermeasures and improvisations warded off any serious consequences. Moreover, the September 1943 agreement, while reducing exports of ball-bearings, neglected to impose restrictions on exports of high-quality steel used to manufacture ball-bearings. Thus, by allowing Sweden to provide Germany with ball-bearing steel, it offset the drop in the Swedish export of finished ball-bearings.
During the remainder of the war Sweden continued to pursue a policy which was generally accommodating to the Allies and unhelpful towards Germany. And the unremitting Allied diplomatic pressure and the crumbling of the Nazi war effort moved Sweden gradually to reduce and ultimately to end its trade with Germany. All Swedish trade with Germany halted completely in November 1944.
The American Government in late 1944 and early 1945, as part of the Safehaven Program, attempted to have Swedes adhere to the Bretton Woods Resolution VI and to refrain from dealings with Germany. In November 1944, Sweden adopted new exchange regulations which had the effect of blocking capital transfers. The Swedish Government's Foreign Capital Control Office, which had adopted tightened exchange control regulations in November 1944, made great progress in identifying German properties and eliminating German influences from Sweden's economy. But Sweden offered no guarantee that the findings of its census of German external assets would be made available to the Allies. And the Swedish Government did not agree to accept Bretton Woods Resolution VI, and rejected all but two of the specific Safehaven requests made by the Allies.
By April 1945, Swedish officials had assured British and American diplomats that in response to Allied wartime statements on gold and assets, Sweden would freeze German assets and restore looted property. At that time the Allied estimates of German external assets amounted to roughly $90 million and looted gold sold to Sweden by Germany ranged between $18.5 million and $22.7 million.
By early 1946 the Swedish Parliament had adopted legislation necessary to control German property in Sweden and was working cooperatively with Allied representatives to quantify German assets and wartime gold shipments. The Swedish government consistently rejected, however, the Allied assertion of Allied Control Council Law No. 5, vesting control in the Council over German external assets.
The difference on the application of international law prolonged negotiations between Allied and Swedish representatives, that began in Washington D.C. in late March 1946. But in early July 1946, they concluded an agreement that immediately provided $12.5 million in liquidated German assets to the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees to rehabilitate and resettle the non- repatriable victims of Nazism, agreed to provide $18 million as reparations to the IARA, and assigned the remaining $36 million in liquidated German assets for the assistance of the British and United States occupation forces in Germany to forestall disease and unrest, and to finance purchases essential for the German economy. Agreement was also reached on the restitution by Sweden of $8 in gold tentatively identified as having been looted by Germany from the Belgium. (Note 91)
Implementation of the July 1946 Accord stretched over the next eight years. Although the Swedes were prompt in providing more than $12 million to the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees for the succor of the non-repatriable victims of Nazi persecution and $36 million was used in Sweden and elsewhere for essential commodities for occupied Germany, Swedish negotiators haggled with the Allies and the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency until 1955 over how to distribute the remaining $18 million for reparation. The promised payment of $8 million in Belgian gold to the Tripartite Gold Commission was delayed by Sweden until December 1949.
Allied-Swedish negotiations regarding $9.7 million in Dutch gold, which began after the July 1946 Accord, dragged on until 1955, with the Swedish negotiators arguing that the gold had been acquired before the January 1943 London Declaration on looted gold. In April 1955, after Swedish and Dutch officials met in Washington, D.C. and the Dutch claim was proved conclusive, Sweden transferred about $6.8 million in gold to the Tripartite Gold Commission. (Note 92)
Records of the U.S. Embassy, Stockholm Sweden
General Records 1936-1952 (Entry 3195)
Boxes 1-138
1940
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
41 711.1
Neutrality
711.2 Neutral Commerce
800 Political Reports
43 848 Relief, Refugees
850 Commercial Activities location:
350/68/9/07
44 851 Financial Conditions,
Blocked Assets, etc.
851.51 Exchange
851.6 Banks, Banking
858.8 Blocked Funds
854 Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights
1941
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
51 600 Trade Statistics
631 Trade Relations-Sweden-Denmark
631 Trade Relations-Sweden-Finland
631 Trade Relations-Sweden-Germany
631 Trade Relations-Sweden-Great Britain
631 Trade Relations-Netherlands, Belgium
631 Trade Relations-United States location:
350/68/10/01
53 710 Political Relations-American-Finnish
Relations
710 Political Relations-American-Danish
Relations
710 Political Relations-British-Finnish
Relations
710 Political Relations-Finnish-German
Relations
710 Political Relations-German-Portuguese
Relations
710 Political Relations-Swedish-British
Relations
710 Political Relations-Swedish-Finnish
Relations
710 Political Relations-Swedish-German
Relations
711 European War
711 Swedish Economic Life-Memo of Conversation
among
Adolf A. Bearle, Jr., and W. Bostrom, Swedish
Minister and Marcus Wallenberg, Jr., Vice President
of the Stockholm Enskilda Bank, Dec. 12, 1940
711 Interview of Marcus Wallenberg,
Jr., in Swedish press, on
Feb. 6, 1941; reported Feb. 14, 1941
54 711.1
Neutrality, Neutrals
711.2 Neutral Commerce
711.2 Axis Ships,
Seizure of, By the United States
711.2 Swedish-British
Trade
711.2 Swedish-Finnish
Trade
711.2 Swedish-German
Trade
711.2 Swedish-Norwegian
Trade
711.2 Swedish-Soviet
Trade
800 Political Reports
56 848 Relief, Refugees
850 Economic Matters
57 850.6
Insurance
851 Financial Conditions location:
350/68/10/02
58 851.6
Banks, Banking
858.8 Blocked Assets
1942
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
69 350 Property Rights
600 Trade Statistics
70 631 Trade Agreements-Bohemia-Moravia
631 Trade Agreements-Brazil
631 Trade Agreements-Danish
631 Trade Agreements-Finnish
631 Trade Agreements-Free World Trade
631 Trade Agreements-German
631 Trade Agreements-Hungarian
631 Trade Agreements-Italian
631 Trade Agreements-Norway
631 Trade Agreements-Slovakian
631 Trade Agreements-Turkey location:
350/68/10/04
71 710 Political Relations
71-76 711 European
War
77 711.1
Neutrality, Neutrals
711.2 Neutral Commerce
711.3 Trading With
Enemy
800 Political Reports-General
800 Political Reports-Baltic States
800 Political Reports-Croatia
800 Political Reports-Denmark location:
350/68/10/05
78 800 Political Reports-Norway
79 800 Political Reports-Sweden
800 Political Reports-Yugoslavia location:
350/68/10/05
81 820 Military Affairs
820.02 Axis Activities
82 848 Relief, Refugees
83 850 Economic Matters
84 851 Financial Conditions
851.5 Gold Shipments
851.6 Banks, Banking
851.7 Exchanges location:
350/68/10/06
85 851.8
Blocked Funds
854 Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights
1943
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
96 631 Trade Relations-Belgian
631 Trade Relations-Danish
631 Trade Relations-Finnish
631 Trade Relations-French
631 Trade Relations-German
631 Trade Relations-Holland
631 Trade Relations-Hungarian
631 Trade Relations-Italian
631 Trade Relations-Norwegian
631 Trade Relations-Portuguese
631 Trade Relations-Rumanian
631 Trade Relations-Slovakian
631 Trade Relations-Soviet
631 Trade Relations-Spanish
631 Trade Relations-Swiss
631 Trade Relations-Turkish
631 Trade Relations-United States
710 Political Relations-Denmark
710 Political Relations-Finland location:
350/68/10/07
97-101 711 European
War
102 711.1 Neutrality,
Neutrals
711.2 Neutral Commerce
711.3 Trading With
Enemy
711.6 War Crimes
103-106 800 Political Reports-General
800 Political Reports-Austria
800 Political Reports-Baltic States
800 Political Reports-Denmark
800 Political Reports-Estonia
800 Political Reports-Finland
800 Political Reports-Germany
800 Political Reports-Holland
800 Political Reports-Hungary
800 Political Reports-Iceland
800 Political Reports-Latvia
800 Political Reports-Lithuania
800 Political Reports-Norway
800 Political Reports-Poland
800 Political Reports-Rumania
800 Political Reports-Sweden location:
350/68/11/01
108 820.02 Axis Activities
110 848 Relief, Refugees
850 Economic Matters-Austria
850 Economic Matters-Baltic States
850 Economic Matters-Denmark
850 Economic Matters-Estonia
850 Economic Matters-Germany
850 Economic Matters-Lithuania
850 Economic Matters-Norway location:
350/68/11/02
111 850 Economic Matters-Norway
850 Economic Matters-Sweden
850 Economic Matters-Ukraine
850.31 Census of American-Owned Property loc: 350/68/11/02
112 850.6 Insurance
851 Financial Conditions
851.5 Exchange
851.6 Banks, Banking
851.8 Blocked Funds
113 863.4 Gold
Production of Sweden
863.5 Base Metals
117 871 Censorship location:
350/68/11/03
1944
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
119 711.1 Neutrals
800 Political Reports
1945
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
120 711 Germany
800 Political Reports
1946
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
122 711.3 Proclaimed
List
800 Political Reports
123 848 Relief
851 Washington Accord Implementation
1947
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
125 800 Political Reports location:
350/68/11/04
127 711 War Damage Compensation
1948
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
128 800 Political Reports location:
350/68/11/05
1949
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
131 321.3 Safehaven
321.3 Economic Warfare,
Trading With Enemy, Blacklist, Foreign
Funds, Frozen Credits
1950-1952
Box# File # File Title
or Subject
133 321.1 Neutrality
134 321.3 Economic
Warfare
Classified General File (Confidential
File) 1944-1952 (Entry 3197)
Boxes 1-13
1944
Box# File # File Title or Subject
1 711.1 Swedish Neutrality
800 Political Reports
851 Financial Conditions
863.5 Base Metals
866.12 SKF
866.12 Ball Bearings
1945
Box# File # File Title or Subject
2 711.3 Safehaven
711 Swedish Desire to Investigate Documents Concerning Sweden in
Germany
711 List of Swedish Nationals Decorated by the German Government
800 Contains information on Sweden's Wartime Policies
824.2 The Business Connections of Aktiebolaget
Borfus with Argentina
851 Safehaven-German Property
851 Control of Italian Foreign Exchange Assets in Neutral Countries
1945-1946
Box# File # File Title or Subject
3 711.3 Proclaimed List
800 Political Reports
1946-1947
Box# File # File Title or Subject
4 851 Safehaven (2 folders)
851 Safehaven-Looted Gold
851 Safehaven-Bosch, et al
851 Safehaven-German Assets
1947
Box# File # File Title or Subject
5 800 Political Reports
851 German Inter Allied Committee (1947-1948)
851 Miscellaneous, including frozen assets and aide to the Nazis
851 Safehaven
851 Safehaven-Looted Gold
851 Safehaven-German Assets
1948
Box# File # File Title or Subject
6 800 Political Reports
7 851 I.G. Farben
851 Gold
851 German State Property
851 Safehaven-Patents and Trademarks
851 Miscellaneous
851 Safehaven
851 Safehaven-German Assets
851 Bosch
1949
Box# File # File Title or Subject
8 321.3 Safehaven
321.3 Looted Gold
350 Refugees
1950-1952
Box# File # File Title or Subject
9 321.3 Proclaimed Lists
321.3 German Assets
Top Secret General Records 1943-1952 (Entry 3198)
Boxes 1-4
Box# Subject Matter
1 Telegrams Sent and Received Relating to Finland, 1943-1945
2-4 Pertain primarily to Atomic Energy Matters and NATO
Classified General Records 1953-1963
(Entry 3201A)
Box# File # File Title
1 321.3 German Assets 1955
2 321.3 German Assets 1954
321.3 German Assets 1953
321.3 Japanese Assets location:
350/68/12/05
6 321.3 German Assets 1956-1958