The results of the September 1998 elections demonstrated that parties with an
anti-immigration agenda in Sweden could attract over 100,000 votes. The
1990s have been marked by a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic propaganda,
with anti-Semitism again becoming a central theme in extreme right
ideology. Further, Sweden is now one of the world's largest producers of Nazi
music. There was a slight increase in the number of recorded cases of anti-Semitic
incidents in 1998. Almost one million copies of a book designed to
further Holocaust education were circulating in Sweden in 1998.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
Sweden has a Jewish population of about 18,000 out of a general population
of 8.9 million. The majority, approximately 10,000, belong to the major
communities in Stockholm, Göteburg and Malmö. Smaller Jewish communities
can be found in Boras, Uppsala, Norrköping and Helsingborg. The
various communities are independent, but linked together through the
Council of Swedish Jewish Communities.
Several of the major international Jewish organizations have affiliates in
Sweden, and a Stockholm-based periodical, Jewish Chronicle, appears bi-monthly.
Shechita (ritual slaughter) is prohibited and kosher meat is
imported from abroad.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS
Since the early 1980s there has been a steady increase of both the Swedish
Nazi and the populist ultra-right, which today form a vocal fringe. The
common denominator among these groups is xenophobia and anti-immigration
sentiment, tinged with extreme nationalism and anti-communism.
The overall tendencies seem to be, on the one hand, a sharpening of
division between "respectable racists" and the militant Nazi scene, and on
the other, a movement toward strengthening a few of the larger groups
within the respective political spheres.

Political Parties
Nineteen ninety-eight was an election year in Sweden. The total number of
votes for extreme right parties was close to 53,000, including the Sweden
Democrats (20,000), The New Party (25,000) and New Democracy (8,000).
Support for parties with an anti-immigration agenda amounted to over
100,000 votes, thus confirming a shift in voting behavior from the 1980s
when they attracted an insignificant number of votes.
The Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats -- SD) emerged as the
single surviving xenophobic party with a nation-wide organization and the
potential to expand its electoral base. Although it won fewer votes than
expected, the party made substantial local breakthroughs and emerged as
the third largest party outside parliament. Locally, SD gained eight seats in
community councils, an increase of three mandates. The party now hopes to
triple its vote and plans an aggressive campaign in the 1999 elections to the
European parliament.
While the SD, the inheritor of the racist campaign group Keep Sweden
Swedish of the 1980s, is not a Nazi organization, a large section of the party
leadership as well as its rank and file is made up of those previously or
simultaneously active in neo-Nazi groups. Its political platform calls for
repatriation of immigrants and the introduction of the death penalty for
serious criminal offenses. The party is vocally against Swedish membership
of the European Union, and also calls for Sweden to leave the UN.
Mikael Jansson, the party chairman since 1995, is a shrewd political
organizer who has spent much time reshaping the public profile of the party.
One of his first actions when he assumed office was to impose a ban on the
wearing of Nazi insignia and uniforms at public meetings. The ban had the
effect of pushing the most notorious and well-known Nazi activists to the
sidelines.
Although the SD have been very careful not to voice any anti-Semitic
sentiments, the party became a full member of Jean-Marie Le Pen's EuroNat
in 1998. A few days before the 1998 Swedish election, it was revealed that
Le Pen's Front National had provided a large portion of the SD election fund
(see France). The SD are also members of NordNat, made up of four
Scandinavian extreme right parties.
Originally led by the millionaire Count Ian Wachtmeister and record
producer Bert Karlsson, Ny Demokrati (New Democracy -- NyD) was torn
by internal strife and bitter political infighting following its initial success in
the 1991 elections. Since then, the party has had a succession of leaders while
membership has steadily declined, to the extent that it is virtually defunct.
The Det Nya Partiet (The New Party -- DNP), formed by Count
Wachtmeister, who broke away from the NyD in 1994, failed in its attempt
to repeat the success of the NyD in 1991 despite a nation-wide campaign. In
contrast to the 1991 NyD campaign, the DNP openly played the race card in
1998, and two of its candidates had been exposed in 1996 as leaders of a
clandestine anti-immigration lobby largely made up of academics, the
Society for National and International Development.
Formed in 1997, Skanes Väl (Scania's Welfare -- SV) is an alliance made
up of 13 local parties and groups in the southernmost region of Sweden (see
ASW 1997/ 8). In the last decade, local populism has made substantial
progress, particularly in Scania. Drawing on dissatisfaction with the
established parties which are often described as corrupt and treacherous,
some of the parties in the alliance have been very successful and won a
number of local seats in recent elections. Anti-immigration plays an increasingly
important part of the populist message. In the 1998 election the SV
alliance won 47 mandates in local assemblies. If one includes parties outside
the SV alliance, the total populist gain in Scania was close to 100 mandates.
The tiny Konservativa Partiet (Conservative Party -- KP) is a 1995
splinter from the SD. Its moderate name notwithstanding, the KP is heavily
influenced by traditional Nazi groups. The party leader, Leif Larsson, is a
veteran Nazi activist, whose past associations include head of the Nordic
Reich Party Action Groups and of the notorious, violent Reich Front
(Rikstfronten). The party did not run in the 1998 elections.

Extra-parliamentary Groups
Sweden has become one of the world's largest producers of Nazi music.
Much of the interest in the neo-Nazi scene in recent years has focused on
the ongoing internal strife inside the White Power music industry. The
feuding sides are the Nordland music empire, whose inspiration comes
from the imprisoned US murderer David Lane and the defunct terrorist
organization The Order, on the one hand, and Ragnarock Records, which
is associated with the British terrorist group Combat 18, on the other (see
ASW 1997/ 8). The feuding is not so much over political issues as over
political control of the funds generated by the industry. During 1998
hostilities markedly diminished, although both sides continued to slander
each other in various publications.
Nordland, which is run by Peter Melander, developed out of the skinhead
scene centered around the pro-terrorist Storm Network of the late 1980s and
early 1990s. Headquartered in Linköping, south of Stockholm, Nordland
publishes a professional and costly color magazine of the same name.
Ragnarock Records, based in Helsingborg, is run by the former
Norwegian Nazi leader Erik Blücher, aka Erik Nilsen. Blücher is closely
aligned with the Danish Nazi video production company NS88, which is run
by the German-born neo-Nazi Marcel Schilf. Together Blücher and Schilf also
run Blood & Honour/ Scandinavia, which has become increasingly important
in the Nazi milieu (see below).
White Power merchandising has been successful in Sweden partly
because of the reluctance of the judicial system to deal with the problem.
Although Sweden has clear legislation against incitement of racial hatred, the
number of charges and convictions over the years has been few compared
to the actual number of offenses. However, in 1998 a tougher stance was
taken by the police and prosecuting authorities.
Since much of the Nazi cash flow is generated by concerts which by
definition are racist and anti-Semitic, anti-Nazi organizations have been
demanding that the authorities intervene in a much more systematic way. On
New Years Eve the police raided a Nordland skinhead gig featuring the
bands Swastika from Sweden and Max Resist from the United States. Three
hundred and nineteen skinheads were arrested and several were charged
under anti-incitement legislation. The raid was followed by similar actions in
February and March. Although Nordland was able to hold a gig in Stockholm
in September, the total number of skinhead concerts was far lower in 1998
than in previous years.
Furthermore, anti-fascist journalists revealed that Nordland and several
other important Nazi magazines were printed at Printall, the government-owned,
largest print shop in Estonia. The exposure prompted an embarrassed
Estonian president to promise an investigation into the matter.
Ragnarock Records and Blood & Honour/ Scandinavia (B& H) were
increasingly active in 1998. For the first time in 15 years, behind the scenes
activist Erik Blücher surfaced as a key organizer of a pan-Scandinavian
network of Nazi organizations, which includes B& H, the National Socialist
Front in Sweden, the Norwegian National Socialist Movement and the Danish
National Socialist Movement. The groups plan to publish a joint Scandinavian
magazine and have agreed to lend financial support to each other.
Ragnarock also suffered some setbacks, in particular, the conviction of
Blücher and three of his closest associates for inciting racial hatred. Blücher
was sentenced to three months in prison for producing records seized at a
Nazi concert in 1997. This was the first time Blücher had been convicted after
close to 30 years as a Nazi activist.
Launched in 1994, the Nationalsocialistisk Front (National Socialist
Front -- NSF) is currently the fastest growing neo-Nazi organization in
Sweden. Led by Anders Högström, NSF is headquartered in Karlskrona in
south Sweden, but has established branches in a number of cities. The NSF
calls for a return to traditional National Socialism, and has adopted much of
the style and traditions of the original Brownshirt ideology of the 1930s.
For May Day (Labor Day), NSF announced it would hold a rally in the
industrial mid-Swedish city of Örebro. When the rally was banned by the
police, some 85 NSF activists descended upon the nearby small town of
Nora, taking the unprepared local police by surprise. After a brief clash, NSF
was able to carry out its demonstration and hold its May Day speech. Only
when reinforcements arrived were NSF activists arrested. The party leader
and several of his closest associates were sentenced to several months in
prison for rioting.
Closely linked with the NSF, the National Socialists in Stockholm
(NSS) were formed in 1997 as an umbrella for various activities. The group
is led by Robert Westerlund, previously active in the SD.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES
Violence and Vandalism
There was as a slight increase in the number of recorded cases of anti-Semitic
incidents (desecrations and graffiti), but the overall figure amounted
to less than a dozen cases. In March four graves at a Jewish cemetery in
Kalmar were desecrated, and in July a similar incident occurred in the
southern city of Malmö.
Individual members of the Jewish community reported cases of threatening
phone calls and letters, most of which seemed not to have been on an
organized basis. One individual received a number of harassing letters and
calls.

Propaganda
Compared with the situation ten or fifteen years ago, when outspoken anti-Semitism
was still more or less taboo even among hard-line Nazi groups,
there has been a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic propaganda in the 1990s.
Today, anti-Semitism is again a central theme in extreme rightist ideology.
Nordland and Ragnarock continue to disseminate anti-Semitism through
White Power CD records, videos and various publications. Possibly due to
the authorities' tougher stance toward their music, Ragnarock publications,
B& H and Viking Order, in particular, have resorted to increasingly
threatening rhetoric in their publications. In several articles Ragnarock have
warned the government that "unless the harassment against patriots ends," it
will have to pay for the consequences. At a private meeting in June 1998
Nazi leader Erik Blücher openly declared, "We will crush ZOG (Zionist
Occupation Government)," and "We will build a white Sweden."
The NSF, through its propaganda chief Björn Björkqvist, leads much of
the ideological anti-Semitic rhetoric. A new feature in the party magazine The
True National Socialist is a column entitled, "The Hooked Nose of the
Month," evoking parallels to the anti-Semitic images which appeared in Der
Stürmer.

Internet. A number of homepages originate in Sweden or Norway, including
the Swedish Heathen Front and the Pro Patria. The latter homepage
features anti-Semitic jokes, such as: What is a Jew doing when he looks into
an ashtray? -- Genealogical research.
Although hard-core anti-Semitism is still mostly limited to militant Nazis,
researchers have noted a disturbing tendency whereby some of their
attitudes are spilling over to the populist right and anti-immigration groups.
The anti-immigration magazine Fri Information, for instance, has carried
several articles in recent years deploring ritual slaughter (although this is
already prohibited in Sweden), and referring to a worldwide review of anti-Semitism,
it asked "Who gains from anti-Semitism?" Another anti-immigration
publication Blågula Frågor said it deplored anti-Semitism at the same time
as it criticized a government campaign against anti-Semitism on the grounds
that Swedish youth was already well aware of the problem and needed no
further education.
Also notable, but rarely discussed, is the dissemination of numerous anti-Semitic
conspiracy theories through various so called New Age outlets.
Fashionable New Age theories are not directly linked to Nazi activism and
reach a different (professional, more mainstream) audience.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST
AND THE NAZI ERA

Holocaust Denial
Ahmad Rami, the operator of Radio Islam, remains the main disseminator
of propaganda denying the Holocaust, although most of his activities in
recent years have been limited to the Internet. In spite of his Moroccan
background, Rami has gained the approval of several White Power groups,
including the NSF.
Nazi propaganda in 1998 continued to ridicule Holocaust survivors, and
cases of stickers and leaflets denying the Holocaust were reported in
schools.

Jewish Assets
The second report released by the US State Department in June named
Sweden, along with several other neutral countries, as a provider of essential
materials for Germany's war machine in exchange for looted gold. The
Swedish governmental committee set up to investigate this issue has asked
to extend the date for publication of its findings. In December 1998 the
Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter revealed that looted gold was transferred from
Germany to Switzerland by diplomatic pouch, and that after the war some
500 Kg of gold found in the German embassy in Stockholm was returned to
Germany without the international commission investigating the issue of
looted gold having been notified.
The Wallenberg family, which controlled the Enskilda Bank during the
war years, refused permission for investigators to examine the family
archives. Enskilda served as a branch of the German State Bank for the sale
of looted property and its transfer, in Valleta, to Germany.

Holocaust Education
Following the 1997 survey revealing that close to 30 percent of Sweden's
schoolchildren were uncertain whether the Holocaust had actually taken
place (see ASW 1997/ 8), Prime Minister Göran Persson launched a program
to further Holocaust education, which in 1998 resulted in the production of
an educational package and a 80-page book ... Tell Ye Your Children ...,
distributed free to schools, youth centers, study groups and the general
public. The book, written by historians Stéphane Bruchfeld and Paul A.
Levine, is a brief, but comprehensive history of Nazism and the Holocaust.
With close to one million copies in circulation in the country, the book
appears to have disturbed neo-Nazi propagandists. In an unconfirmed report
the NSF claimed to have organized a book burning ceremony.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
Legal Proceedings
A doctoral candidate at the Department of History at Umea University in
northern Sweden, became the focal point of a controversy. Claiming to be
researching right-wing extremism, Karoline Matti invited Dan Berner, a
leading Nordland neo-Nazi, to give a public lecture on his political views. In
an hour-long speech, Berner denied the Holocaust and committed several
breaches of the law against incitement to racial hatred. It was later revealed
that Matti was actually Berner's girlfriend, and that the event was a Nazi
propaganda stunt. Matti was sacked from the university, and both she and
Berner were tried and convicted of incitement.
Parallel to the legal proceedings, a public debate took place. Arguing for
academic freedom of speech, Matti received a measure of support from some
academic and judicial circles. FiB/ Kulturfront, a progressive journal active
since the 1970s, claimed that the prosecution of Matti was an academic
witch-hunt. FiB used the headline "Goebbels' Actions at Umea University,"
which referred not to Berner's lecture but to the actions taken by the
university authorities.

Public Activity
The Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism (SCAA) continued to arrange
lectures on anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, neo-Nazism and White Power
music throughout the country, mostly for teachers and school personnel. It
cooperated for a second successive year with the Stockholm school
authorities and the University of Uppsala in giving an in-service training
course on the Holocaust for high school teachers, including a study tour to
Poland. The SCAA also arranged a study tour for Swedish teachers at the
Israeli Holocaust memorial institutions of Yad Vashem and Lohamei
Hagetaot.
Study trips to former concentration and death camps have in general
become more frequent in Sweden and are part of a new strategy to combat
racism and anti-Semitism. For the fourth consecutive year the city of
Stockholm sent about twenty pupils from Stockholm high schools to visit
Auschwitz, Maidanek and Warsaw. The visit was arranged by the Stockholm
Jewish community and the city's director of education.
The University of Lund, in southern Sweden, regularly gives an advanced
level history course on the Holocaust. The course, which so far has been
offered twice, deals with the different historical phases of the Holocaust and
with revisionism, and includes meetings with survivors.
The Association of Holocaust survivors, established in 1992, continued
their frequent visits to schools all over the country. Their visits often
constitute one of the components in a special week designated to further
education on racism and the Holocaust.