Governmental anti-Semitism in Sweden 1921–1945. Continuity or Discontinuity?
Is it self-evident that the rise of the Nazism led to the strength of anti-Semitism in Sweden in the 1930s and 1940s? Or was there a long continuous domestic historical “tradition” with a higher explanation value? Or wasn’t even the anti-Semitism stronger in the 1930s than before?
The project investigates if anti-Semitic (or other) prejudices led to concrete discrimination of those Jews (or other categories) who applied for Swedish citizenship 1921-1945 or not. If so, was there continuity or discontinuity?
Discrimination anti-Semitism will be “measured” over time by both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The method has been used in a previous study regarding 1860-1920, which will make it possible to make comparisons over a very long time period.
The large empirical material will make it possible to answer a lot of questions, for instance: what role did the Jewish community of Stockholm and other consultative bodies play? What was the importance of individual civil servants and politicians? The study will also give an important contribution to the question of the main reasons for the restrictive immigration policy: anti-Semitism or labor market considerations? A perspective from below will also be set up: how was the application pressure affected by the increasing persecution of the Jews in Germany and other factors?
Final report
PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
The overall aim of this project was to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze potential governmental discrimination in connection to applications for naturalization (Swedish citizenship) from 1921 to 1945. More than 16 000 applications were submitted, approximately 10 % from applicants categorized as belonging to the Mosaic creed and another one percent comprised individuals of other faiths which were ethnically considered "Jews". This project is designed to link the results to my earlier survey from the period of 1860 to 1920. This extended time span can be regarded as an answer to criticism that research on anti-Semitism has been static and not examined changes over time.
I argue for the importance of dividing the sometimes analytically problematic concept of anti-Semitism into seven levels. Most studies concern the first level (discourse), while I mainly examine whether this anti-Semitic discourse led to actual discrimination (level two). Studying applications for naturalization has many advantages not only for operationalization, but also because citizenship was of great importance to these individuals, for primarily security reasons, but also for material, political, social and psychological reasons.
THE PROJECT'S THREE MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS
The most important result is that discrimination in connection to naturalization applications more or less ceased in the early 1920s. This contrasts significantly to the period of 1860-1920 when one category of Jews, so called Ostjuden (Jews from Eastern Europe), were heavily discriminated; often applications were rejected despite nothing negative being presented against the individual applicant.
The years around 1922-1923 constitute a watershed. Thereafter, it was rare that any applicant who met the minimum formal requirements as defined by law and/or practice was denied citizenship. Thus the anti-Semitic discourse, which existed during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, did not result in discrimination in naturalization applications.
However, it is important to note that free immigration ended in 1917 and that people thereafter could be denied permission to enter Sweden. Thus, the citizenship process no longer became the first "sorting option" for the authorities. Previous research has also demonstrated discrimination in applications for visas and residence permits from 1938 to 1944.
The project's findings support the thesis that Swedish anti-Semitism during the Hitler era was to a lesser extent an imported "evil parentheses" but was more derived domestically and backward in time. The results also provide empirical support for a hypothesis that a polarization of attitudes towards not only Jews but also towards anti-Semitism existed. From 1933 and onwards a more vocal and more threatening anti-Semitism emerged, but also a more open rejection of discrimination and violence, even from people who previously had expressed anti-Semitic views. This is also supported by the fact that directly expressed anti-Semitic notes in the source material become rarer in the 1920s, even if officials carefully ethnically categorized those non-Mosaic believers whom they suspected to be "of Jewish origin", "half-Jew "etc.
Besides the fact that citizenship issues were no longer the first "sorting option," and that the attitudes towards anti-Semitism were polarized, the reduced discrimination can also be explained by a greater ambition to implement a transparent and legally secure procedure for naturalization applications. This reduced arbitrariness favored a stigmatized category like Jews. Another explanation is that the previous connection between Eastern Jews and peddling disappeared since this stigmatized profession more or less ceased.
Another important result is that from the early 1920s - although the direct discrimination against Eastern Jews ended - it generally became more difficult to become naturalized. The formal requirements became stricter in the law of 1924, particularly in pronounced practices. Thus, the requirement of five years residence in the country, stated in the 1924 law, was declared to be a minimum period concerning only "ethnic Swedes", or applicants from other Nordic countries, while others might have to wait in six or seven, or from 1939 even up to ten years. In 1938, it was even proposed that some foreign nationals from distant countries should not be allowed to become Swedish citizens at all, but this was never implemented.
Simultaneously, the possibility of obtaining an exemption from the five year requirement increased. Thus, the differentiation of various kinds of "strangers" increased based on how closely related to "Sweden" and how "Swedish" an applicant were considered. However, there is no evidence suggesting that for example a German Jew would have greater difficulties becoming a Swedish citizen than a German non-Jew.
In some cases, however, a kind of indifference to Jewish vulnerability can be observed. Decisions were often solely based on Swedish national interests. Only at the end of World War II was there a shift and the authorities could, for humanitarian reasons and in order to save lives, grant citizenship to Jews even if they were not residents in Sweden. The analysis of these so called emergency applications will be presented in a separate monograph (see below).
A third important result concerns the role of the elders in the Jewish community of Stockholm who served as the "local referee" for applications from Jewish residents in Stockholm. It can even be stated that, in practice, the community had a veto. Despite the elders' negative views of Eastern Jews before 1921, they relatively frequently supported their applications for naturalization. This support increases during the period studied, and a negative judgment was very rare. Whether one considers the elders' actions against Jewish refugees wanting to come to Sweden as supportive, obstructive or ambivalent, it is clear that they supported naturalization for those who already resided in Sweden. This discrepancy between discourse, rhetoric and practice can be explained by the concept of "bureaucratic distance".
NEW RESEARCH ISSUES GENERATED BY THE PROJECT
Several new questions have been generated during the research process, not least concerning the Jews of Sweden as active agents, and not only simple as objects to the actions of others. This includes issues of immigration, integration, community organization, identity, and more. I have also been able to raise many of these issues in the university course on Swedish-Jewish history which I have initiated and continue to lead.
The extensive and rich source material utilized in this project could also be the potential foundation for more refined and longitudinal discourse analysis about Jews and other ethnic categories, especially studies concerning discussions on "Swedish culture", "the Swedish tribe" and similar subjects.
The gender dimension of citizenship can also be emphasized, not least in the changing perception of the family as a legal entity. Other interesting questions that can be operationalized using the empirical data from the source material are, for example, the perception of poverty, old age, supply obligations, crime, good character and political activities of Swedish residents.
The research process has also raised questions about the history of concepts and of historiographical nature. How should one conduct scholarly research in areas with strong preconceptions as well as charged and contested concepts?
THE PROJECT'S INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION
This project has strong connections to the extensive international research on anti-Semitism, to which the special conditions prevailing in Sweden can contribute new insights. During the project years, I have made several international contacts, not only as coordinator of the research network "The Jews in Sweden - the history of a minority" including being chief organizer of three major conferences in Uppsala with international participation. I have presented papers related to this project at two of these conferences and on a related topic in one of them. This project was also presented at a research seminar at the National Archives in Stockholm, at a Nordic conference on the Holocaust in Oslo, and was recently reported in August 2013 at a session on anti-Semitism at The 16th World Congress of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Additionally, project-related research has been presented at international conferences in Hamburg, Vienna and Leiden, and has been published in Swedish as well as international anthologies and journals.
THE PROJECT'S TWO MAJOR PUBLICATIONS AND PUBLICATION STRATEGIES
The major monograph of this project will be titled "Governmental anti-Semitism in Sweden, 1860-1945. Continuity or Discontinuity?" As long diachronic comparisons are important, the long time period will be highlighted in the title, even though empirical data almost exclusively deals with the period after 1920. The main results are reported above.
A slightly shorter monograph, "A Matter of Life and Death - Jews Abroad Applying for Swedish Citizenship 1942-1945", presents a study of how government agencies initiated and considered applications from non-Swedish citizens living abroad in Nazi controlled countries. By granting citizenship, the aim was to obtain exit permits and thus prevent deportation and possible death. The procedure was much more cumbersome than the process of obtaining quasi-legal documents such as Swedish protective and temporary passports, but a granted citizenship had much greater legal weight. It was however necessary to use this tool carefully as there was a risk it could be counterproductive. There are several reasons to publish this study separately, not least that the analysis answers different questions than the main study, but also that the survey can be placed in a different research context.
The overall aim of this project was to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze potential governmental discrimination in connection to applications for naturalization (Swedish citizenship) from 1921 to 1945. More than 16 000 applications were submitted, approximately 10 % from applicants categorized as belonging to the Mosaic creed and another one percent comprised individuals of other faiths which were ethnically considered "Jews". This project is designed to link the results to my earlier survey from the period of 1860 to 1920. This extended time span can be regarded as an answer to criticism that research on anti-Semitism has been static and not examined changes over time.
I argue for the importance of dividing the sometimes analytically problematic concept of anti-Semitism into seven levels. Most studies concern the first level (discourse), while I mainly examine whether this anti-Semitic discourse led to actual discrimination (level two). Studying applications for naturalization has many advantages not only for operationalization, but also because citizenship was of great importance to these individuals, for primarily security reasons, but also for material, political, social and psychological reasons.
THE PROJECT'S THREE MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS
The most important result is that discrimination in connection to naturalization applications more or less ceased in the early 1920s. This contrasts significantly to the period of 1860-1920 when one category of Jews, so called Ostjuden (Jews from Eastern Europe), were heavily discriminated; often applications were rejected despite nothing negative being presented against the individual applicant.
The years around 1922-1923 constitute a watershed. Thereafter, it was rare that any applicant who met the minimum formal requirements as defined by law and/or practice was denied citizenship. Thus the anti-Semitic discourse, which existed during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, did not result in discrimination in naturalization applications.
However, it is important to note that free immigration ended in 1917 and that people thereafter could be denied permission to enter Sweden. Thus, the citizenship process no longer became the first "sorting option" for the authorities. Previous research has also demonstrated discrimination in applications for visas and residence permits from 1938 to 1944.
The project's findings support the thesis that Swedish anti-Semitism during the Hitler era was to a lesser extent an imported "evil parentheses" but was more derived domestically and backward in time. The results also provide empirical support for a hypothesis that a polarization of attitudes towards not only Jews but also towards anti-Semitism existed. From 1933 and onwards a more vocal and more threatening anti-Semitism emerged, but also a more open rejection of discrimination and violence, even from people who previously had expressed anti-Semitic views. This is also supported by the fact that directly expressed anti-Semitic notes in the source material become rarer in the 1920s, even if officials carefully ethnically categorized those non-Mosaic believers whom they suspected to be "of Jewish origin", "half-Jew "etc.
Besides the fact that citizenship issues were no longer the first "sorting option," and that the attitudes towards anti-Semitism were polarized, the reduced discrimination can also be explained by a greater ambition to implement a transparent and legally secure procedure for naturalization applications. This reduced arbitrariness favored a stigmatized category like Jews. Another explanation is that the previous connection between Eastern Jews and peddling disappeared since this stigmatized profession more or less ceased.
Another important result is that from the early 1920s - although the direct discrimination against Eastern Jews ended - it generally became more difficult to become naturalized. The formal requirements became stricter in the law of 1924, particularly in pronounced practices. Thus, the requirement of five years residence in the country, stated in the 1924 law, was declared to be a minimum period concerning only "ethnic Swedes", or applicants from other Nordic countries, while others might have to wait in six or seven, or from 1939 even up to ten years. In 1938, it was even proposed that some foreign nationals from distant countries should not be allowed to become Swedish citizens at all, but this was never implemented.
Simultaneously, the possibility of obtaining an exemption from the five year requirement increased. Thus, the differentiation of various kinds of "strangers" increased based on how closely related to "Sweden" and how "Swedish" an applicant were considered. However, there is no evidence suggesting that for example a German Jew would have greater difficulties becoming a Swedish citizen than a German non-Jew.
In some cases, however, a kind of indifference to Jewish vulnerability can be observed. Decisions were often solely based on Swedish national interests. Only at the end of World War II was there a shift and the authorities could, for humanitarian reasons and in order to save lives, grant citizenship to Jews even if they were not residents in Sweden. The analysis of these so called emergency applications will be presented in a separate monograph (see below).
A third important result concerns the role of the elders in the Jewish community of Stockholm who served as the "local referee" for applications from Jewish residents in Stockholm. It can even be stated that, in practice, the community had a veto. Despite the elders' negative views of Eastern Jews before 1921, they relatively frequently supported their applications for naturalization. This support increases during the period studied, and a negative judgment was very rare. Whether one considers the elders' actions against Jewish refugees wanting to come to Sweden as supportive, obstructive or ambivalent, it is clear that they supported naturalization for those who already resided in Sweden. This discrepancy between discourse, rhetoric and practice can be explained by the concept of "bureaucratic distance".
NEW RESEARCH ISSUES GENERATED BY THE PROJECT
Several new questions have been generated during the research process, not least concerning the Jews of Sweden as active agents, and not only simple as objects to the actions of others. This includes issues of immigration, integration, community organization, identity, and more. I have also been able to raise many of these issues in the university course on Swedish-Jewish history which I have initiated and continue to lead.
The extensive and rich source material utilized in this project could also be the potential foundation for more refined and longitudinal discourse analysis about Jews and other ethnic categories, especially studies concerning discussions on "Swedish culture", "the Swedish tribe" and similar subjects.
The gender dimension of citizenship can also be emphasized, not least in the changing perception of the family as a legal entity. Other interesting questions that can be operationalized using the empirical data from the source material are, for example, the perception of poverty, old age, supply obligations, crime, good character and political activities of Swedish residents.
The research process has also raised questions about the history of concepts and of historiographical nature. How should one conduct scholarly research in areas with strong preconceptions as well as charged and contested concepts?
THE PROJECT'S INTERNATIONAL CONNECTION
This project has strong connections to the extensive international research on anti-Semitism, to which the special conditions prevailing in Sweden can contribute new insights. During the project years, I have made several international contacts, not only as coordinator of the research network "The Jews in Sweden - the history of a minority" including being chief organizer of three major conferences in Uppsala with international participation. I have presented papers related to this project at two of these conferences and on a related topic in one of them. This project was also presented at a research seminar at the National Archives in Stockholm, at a Nordic conference on the Holocaust in Oslo, and was recently reported in August 2013 at a session on anti-Semitism at The 16th World Congress of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Additionally, project-related research has been presented at international conferences in Hamburg, Vienna and Leiden, and has been published in Swedish as well as international anthologies and journals.
THE PROJECT'S TWO MAJOR PUBLICATIONS AND PUBLICATION STRATEGIES
The major monograph of this project will be titled "Governmental anti-Semitism in Sweden, 1860-1945. Continuity or Discontinuity?" As long diachronic comparisons are important, the long time period will be highlighted in the title, even though empirical data almost exclusively deals with the period after 1920. The main results are reported above.
A slightly shorter monograph, "A Matter of Life and Death - Jews Abroad Applying for Swedish Citizenship 1942-1945", presents a study of how government agencies initiated and considered applications from non-Swedish citizens living abroad in Nazi controlled countries. By granting citizenship, the aim was to obtain exit permits and thus prevent deportation and possible death. The procedure was much more cumbersome than the process of obtaining quasi-legal documents such as Swedish protective and temporary passports, but a granted citizenship had much greater legal weight. It was however necessary to use this tool carefully as there was a risk it could be counterproductive. There are several reasons to publish this study separately, not least that the analysis answers different questions than the main study, but also that the survey can be placed in a different research context.