Antisemitism and the Economic Situation of Jews in Sweden during the Second World War

There is a debate whether Swedish companies and businessmen used Aryanization for their own profit at the expense of Jews.

A Swedish state commission from 1999 concluded that no one in Sweden deliberately used Aryanization to enrich themselves, while two researchers (Nordlund 2009; Blomberg 2003) claimed they found cases in which Swedish companies and businessmen used their positions and participated in the looting of Jewish assets and ensured that Jews lost their jobs.

Based on his findings Nordlund (2009) argued for the necessity to quantify and conduct systematic calculations to evaluate the general impact.

The purpose of this project is to analyse economic antisemitism during the Second World War in Sweden with the aim of giving a scientific answer to the question if antisemitism in Sweden increased significantly or not in period of the Second World War compared with the 1930’s.

By applying a quantitative and innovative method to calculate the incomes of Jews in Sweden and compare them with non-Swedes, we will receive an important indication on the level of impact of antisemitism and a definite answer to the main question.The project is innovative regarding the use of sources (taxed income and business reports), methodologically (quantitative) and theoretically (economic antisemitism as a discourse and an action).

The project will run for four years (2024-2027) by Anders Blomqvist, who appiled this method and theory on Hungary and Romania.