Why Did So Many Scandinavians Volunteer For Germany In WW2?
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- In the Second World War, it wasn't just Germans fighting for Germany. Belgians, Frenchmen, Armenians, Latvians, Portugese, Spaniards and more all answered the call. There was one group however that went down in the history books more than any others and were the main component of the most famous Waffen-SS Division of all time, the SS-Wiking. The Wiking was comprised of 1000's of Scandinavians who all voluntarily decided to join Hitler's war effort against the Soviet Union for a variety of reasons. Let's find out what let these men to risk their lives when they could easily have not done.
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As a Finn im so grateful for every german, swede, norwegian, estonian and hungarian that helped us during those times, either with supplies or blood. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten. Eläköön Suomi!
Learn Arabic. That's a future Finns prefer.
also flemish boys
Love from Sweden ❤
We Will fight agin the red, muslim, jews...
Do you know who also is grateful? Robert Aschberg
@@HoodRoI3 whos he?
Should I turn this into a small mini series on the SS Wiking going from this episode right up to the end in Berlin and their fates after the war?
That would be very interesting
Would enjoy that for sure. This was a great video.
Yes, do it.
Yes
Ja bitte.
With German help Finland remained indipendent!!! Thank you for the help!!!
🤝
And when Hitler asked the Finns for their help to attack Leningrad they told Hitler to stuff it.
They played Hitler like a fiddle.
I love suomi. Terveisiä saksalaiselta toveriltasi. Suomalainen saksalainen ystävyys!
@@lumox7 well, at the time it was obvious Germany were going to lose the war, no matter what. Had Finland continued fighting the Soviets, the outcome after the war would have been worse. It actually turned out rather OK, not being forced into the Soviet sphere of influence, unlike more or less every other country in a similar situation - they only had to do more business with the Soviets, buy their weapons, vehicles, be open to trade, travel, etc. In the long run, it probably was the best choice they could have made.
Grammar
CORRECTION: When I stated the leader of the DNSAP in Denmark, I named the leader of the youth wing as the party leader. I'm not sure how I made this mistake. My apologies. I've been very kindly corrected by a Dane. The actual leader from 1933-1945 was Frits Clausen. The information was all about Frits Clausen but I somehow put Von Schalburg's name instead.
There is an ancient saying:"You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." So true in most aspects of human life.
Also "The early bird gets the worm".
I can tell you... literaly you don't catch any flies with honey. I tried 😂
Many today dont understand the power dynamics at play in Europe after WW1. Moscow, Berlin & London were the three centres of military power. The French & Belgian humiliation of Germany in the Ruhr assured thered be a war. As France's ally Britain was humiliated at Dunkirk, again Norway..as the Germans pushed them out of continental Europe - leaving Moscow & Berlin to fight. For other nations it was more often "Who to fight against?" than "Who to fight for?". Ukrainians & Croats fought to be free FROM Russia. Belarus fought to be rid of Nazi butchery. The Baltic States saw tgeir chance to be free of Stalin. The Nordic states had no desire to be communist. People weren't fighting for leaders, they were opposing a particular ideology..
Croats and Bosnians fought to be free of Serb domination.
The Ruhr situation and the Polish Corridor assured there would be a war.
after seeing the documentary;
The Last Battle Of Europe, you start to wonder...
like REALLY wonder...
trust your gut.
I have been watching it since a week or something, and am completely shocked by all those facts kept away from history books, but I also think they make a lot of assumptions without historical foundation
Tried to find that documentary, but they've bloody made it impossible here in Canada. Is there a site where I could stream it with a VPN?
@@MrTyrantSparda I watch it on free sites like fmovies or soap2day
@@MrTyrantSpardait's on Internet archive.Dont know I you can access that site in Canada.
Wherever you saw “extremism”, it was because of communist infiltration and outright invasions so there was little choice, either bow to communism or stand and fight back. What would you do?
I guess we're living the moment now
What people fail to realize is that fascism/National Socialism was a reaction against Communism.
See much propaganda lately Mr echo-chamber? You really think all the extremism was the communists fault is such a flawed premise to begin with it’s not worth an argument but definite worth a laugh at a time when I might have thought something dumb after watching misleading videos lik this
My great great uncle and his cousin served in the third ss panzer Korps which was largely made out of Wiking, thank you for honoring these men
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing
You are blessed to have such a honorable, & noble blood line.
I once met an elderly man at Walmart whose father fought against Russians in a Waffle SS unit.
I told him, "Thanks to your father, Russia got Eastern Europe instead of most of Europe."
Grow up
So communism is worse than being a Nazi?😂@@linagreenlyfe6705
Why is there a Swedish flag in the thumbnail? There where only a couple of hundred Swedish volunteers in the Waffen SS. Half of them worked for the Swedish Military Intelligence
Cus Sweden is the best
@@Komeijientity 🍻skål brother
Source??
@@polishherowitoldpilecki5521he is the one accusing us of supporting nazis, why would we need a source, he doesn’t have one?
Find out yourself, you lazy bum. Its not my job. You have access to a computer and internet.
I once saw a late war SS recruiting poster from Denmark. Death was dressed as a Russian soldier, sitting on the caboose of a train (looking at the viewer) (heading for Siberia?). And then just one word across the poster at the top: NEVER!
The Danish posters are the best.
One word - anti-communism. Here in Sweden 🇸🇪 many people volunteered to go to Finland 🇫🇮 when it was attacked by Russia and many saw the German attack on Russia as the continuation of that. Then there were also some real life Nazis, of course, but in general the support for the Nazis was never strong.
What was the swedish people thoughts about the Jews at that time?
@@caioalmeida4139 probably negative as in having stereotypes about them being greedy businessmen but nothing of the genocidal level of Germany or, for that matter, the pogrom level in much of E Europe. Probably more like in the UK.
@@oskar6607 Protestantism influence? Also, Catholic contries like Portigalan, Spain were les anti-Semitic
Anti-Communism is one of the main pillars of National Socialism, so there’s a lot of ideological overlap there. The Germans had more real life experience with Communism than the Nordic countries, so it’s logical that they would have stronger feelings about it.
@@oskar6607 You should look into how Hitler collaborated with zionists and helped thousands of jews migrate from Germany to Palestine in the 30's.
This video was Sigmar's video request! If you'd like me to make one of your videos then be sure to sign up to my patreon! Thanks for all the support lately fellas, things are going well. Much appreciated!
A good video though i will need to mention as a swed that they were seen as high quality riflemen partly due to our long tradition of hunting with high morale and overall good men though the attrition only rose and only about 265 sweds fought in total.
@DailyWokeInsights 100% although I did touch on it on the how did the soviets treat civilians video
I fished in the Bering sea with a few Scandinavian descendants. They really are built different. I couldn't deny that they were superiorly built for the insane job we were doing.
That’s interesting!
Still fishing?
@@peterludwig3684 I wish. Too old and broken now. It's like the NFL. Anyone over 35 is an antique.
I believe you. 0ne cannot deny that they are not a striking people
@@pbohearnnot?
German was the second language in Sweden before the first and 2 world war , and I do not know but I would be surprised if it was not the same in the other nordic countries, after the 2 world war Sweden changed that to english. For a long time before that change both the German language and culture was as strong as the American and Brittish is today in Sweden.
This video certainly is well received. I look forward to more.
Because Germans helped Finns, they demanded counter action, which were men from Finland. Finnish government wanted to have these volunteers to be part of Wermacht, but Germans wouldnt have it. 1400 Finns were directly assimilated into SS Wiking, unlike majority of volunteers who formed own legions with own commanders. Like French Charlemagne. Finnish volunteer Lauri Törni alias Larry Thorne, is the only SS soldier who is buried in Arlington Military cemetary. After WW II he fleed to US and became legendary green baret , he died on a mission in Vietnam. His US memorial is the Larry Thorne Headquarters Building, 10th SFG(A), Fort Carson, Colorado.
They shall be remark as heroes.
They fought against communism not for the sake of Germany, but for the sake of Europe and they’re Nations.
I am proud of my nation, who stood shoulder to shoulder fighting against them as
The Blue Division, and then,
The Blue Legion, defending Berlin to the very end.
De er landsforæder hæld syer ud over deres grav smader deres gravssten
The whole proud talk comes from weakness.
@@bentchristensen3770jødesvin
Cope @@dans9463
This is all good and great, except for the fact that they did not just fought Communism. That honor only goes to ROA and perhaps some other volunteer units, but Wehrmacht itself had different plans.
Fascism literally means anti-communist so if someone calls you a fascist it isn’t much of an insult.
Me when I tell this kid that Mussolini was communist at first.
Little kid knows shit
@@notsee494 so?
@@uglukthemedicineman5933 SO? If you need explanation about basic facts you are not even woth my time my edgy "lone wolf "buddy.
@@notsee494 who said anything about needing an explanation?
Sad that edgy lone wolf buddies are not woth your time
This video very nicely illuminates, how complicated that war was, including various alliances that seemed like strange bedfellows at a superficial level.
I am from Norway and would like to add a few notes regarding the situation.
During the interwar period, people were not as happy as to get by as you paint it. This is a common mistake made by historians as people like to ignore the political situation in Norway before ww2 so they can more easily demonize the Germans for invading.
After the Communists seized power in Russia, Communism was spreading rapidly and in Norway, the political situation heavily divided between the communists and the nationalists.
The Communists would organize strikes to get what they wanted, sabotage the military, raise the soviet union flag in the flagpole during the National Day instead of the Norwegian Flag, and wrote songs and poetry of their dreams of a "Soviet-Norway".
The Nationalists on the other hand participated in volunteer work and were very supportive of Finland's struggle against Ussr Aggression.
Schools did alot of volunteer work by making backpacks, mittens, scarves and other equipment which was shipped to Finland to help the Brave Nationalists defending the Border of Scandinavia against communism. Many Norwegians also travelled to Finland to volunteer as Soldiers in the Winter War.
Even one of the most famous Norwegian Resistance Fighers, Max Manus had served in Finland as a volunteer Soldier fighting Communism.
After ww1, Communist Politicians in Norway had began to heavily defund the Military, which is a critical reason to why Norway was so helpless against the German Invasion in 1940.
They argued that after the devestations of ww1, there shall be no more wars and made plans to dissolve the Norwegian Military and replace it with an unarmed landguard.
It is heavily theorized that the main reason the Communists in Norway was so rampant on defunding and unarming the military, was so that Norway would be vulnerable enough for a Communist Revolution.
When the war broke out, England made plans to invade Norway to get a foothold on the Northern European Continent.
Germany learnt of this plan but didn't invade until the Norwegian Government, which office's was held by the Communist Party (The Labour Party/Worker's Party)
failed to uphold the laws of Neutrality, when they allowed English soldiers to kill Germans on Norwegian Ground.
After the war ended, the communists in Norway started pretending to not be communists as they had fled to England in 1940 and was allied with the west as the cold war was breaking out.
But they had close ties to Moscow and there are many documentaries about Norwegian Communists serving as spies for the Soviet Union during the cold war.
Also keep in mind that the greatest number of casualties of Norwegians during World War 2 was civilians killed by British Ships.
Fish boats and civilian vessels were targeted for fear of them being secretly smuggling Germans and Weapons.
Nasjonal Samling (The Norwegian NS Party) was the biggest political party in Norway by 1943, with more party members than current day Norway has soldiers.
In total, a little over 5000 Norwegian Men volunteered in the Waffen SS, and a great reason for this was to Defend the West against Communism, as we already know that The Soviet Union was going to Invade Europe in 1942 and conquer her under Soviet Rule.
мы уже знаем, что Советский Союз собирался вторгнуться в Европу в 1942 году и завоевать ее при советской власти.🤣
i met a fellow whos family moved to america after their house in Karelia was siezed by the soviets. they were a rich norwegian family that was labeled as kulaks by the soviets and expelled
sad about beautiful karelia lost. I met a finnish guy who built a half size viking boat here in australia and he had a dna test that showed him to be a norvegian
I am thoroughly enjoying your channel. Objective history. Respect.
Good video. perhaps do a vid about those who joined Germans in Eastern Europe/soviet controlled areas sometime?
It’s on the list
Turn this into a mini series, I'd literally watch videos of you talking about Hitler's favourite Teletubbies.
Hitlers fsvourite teletubbies coming tomorrow
@@ZoomerHistorian Now THIS is what mainstream Historians deliberately swipe under the rug all the time.
@@h.p.lovecraft7286they don't want you to know the truth
Another great video! Could you make a video on Himmler or some of the other high ranking members of germany someday? A mussolini video would also be cool.
Mussolini Series i will make when Hitler has finished (although nowhere near as long lol), I will 100% make individual maybe 1 hour long videos on Goebbels, Hess, Goring etc as well as minor-foreign leaders like Franco, Horthy etc
@@ZoomerHistorianMan I just found your channel yesterday and just wanted to say I love it and am really excited to see all of that stuff. It's very hard to find objective history content on this topic in particular.
Which other foreign SS divisions would you like me to cover?
The Charlemagne Division and I don’t know if this was an SS division, but the Blue Division too.
P.S. Maybe talk about the Free Arab Legion too, no rush.
Leibstandarte, obviously.
12th HJ.
All the foreign Waffen-ss
Please cover Walloon and Degrelle
Why are you using the Swedish flag with your claim about Scandinavians? Sweden had the fewest volunteers by far. Denmark, Norway and Finland all had more volunteers. A mere 200 Swedes joined the Waffen SS.
Desinformation smear 's the new warfare man.
This guy should make a video of the 🇬🇧 Frei Korps.
But Norway and Finland was Sweden not so far ago 😂
This also grind my gears. Very bad take on the whole thing really. Clearly made to put nordic countries in bad light. Also using the words of a nazi to tell the story of how the norwegian occupation was. Fact is Norwegians fought tooth and nail to remain free as hard as finland at least (which says a lot). Also Swedish support to Finland. "Sweden also declined to join", should be "Sweden didn't declare war on the biggest country in the world, but led their support in terms of equipment (everything they had really)"
@swedishsniper1428 Norway have never been part of Sweden, but I guess you haven't looked into to our shared history. We shared a king and that was all
@@jonnor6883 The French and Dutch once shared kings.
.. Doesn' t make me a fr.. Frenchman, does it? 🤣
Your channel is excellent. Extremely well edited and delivered with the kind of thoughtfulness that’s rare these days. Well done.
Thanks for your work
Thank you, an exceptionally well-researched and insightful take on the matter at hand. Though not part of Scandinavia (but of the Nordic countries), Finland also contributed a battallion and some more to the Wiking. This was not what the Finnish government wanted, though; they suggested a battalion to be trained and serving in the Heer.
It was repeatedly refused by Himmler, so they went to train and fight with the Wiking. They were discharged in 1943, after heavy fighting to join the Finnish Army.
if so many volunteers joined the German army, it's because WW2 was an ideological war, not simply a war of conquest. Two visions of the world clashed, and some just chose to join the side of those fighting against bolshevism/capitalism
Well yes that’s the point of this video 😅
Please make a video about Latvians too, thank you!
I have, it’s one of my biggest videos! Search Zoomer Historian Latvian legion or just search by popular on my channel
@@ZoomerHistorian found it, bless!
Thank you for all your effort and historical work
The Fins are a Baltic people much like Latvians and Lithuanians. They are not Germanic Scandinavians by blood but culturally they have been influenced by Scandinavians by quite a bit. Most people don’t know about the different genetic groups in Europe except for the main ones so they assume that everyone east of the Germans are Slavic but that’s not true at all. Even the Hungarians are not Slavic, as they are an ethnic group called the Magyars. Romanians are not Slavic either as they are descendants from the ancient group known as the Dacians.
You mean Uralic or Finno-Ughric
Awesome. We have such an information vacuum on these subjects. Keep up the good work!
It where hundreds of Swedish people fighting for Hitler
An excellent show,, thank you Brother🇦🇺
,,,,Because as fellow European Christians they had understood and recognised the intentions of ZOG and the fate instore that awaited Europe if the christan axis lost the war, 80 years on they've been proven correct!
Where do you learn history, from Mein Kampf?
Enjoy your Muslim neighbors, who are rioting and basically trashing your country! 🤣🤣🤣
@@sealandsand1225 where do you learn history?
From people who claim things were real in their mind?
A series on this division would be incredible
Alot of the Danish volunteers were former soldiers who felt they had been backstabbed by the government for surrendering. Even though the outcome was never in doubt, they felt like they hadnt had the opportunity to show that they were good, hard fighting soldiers. So in a bit of a twist, they joined the germans to prove that they could fight and the stigma against them was unjust.
That kind of explains why the numbers of soldiers before the invasion almost match up to the number of volonteers to the German army. I always figured it was just a strange coincidence that they were so close
The Finns sniped the shit out of the Soviets.
Brilliant video Zoomer. Im interested in this era and over the decades I've read much about it. A very interesting story i read was of two Irishmen who served in the SS. Their names were Frank Springer and James Brady. I believe they were captured in Jersey in 1940, and Joined the Germans. They were in the Brandenburgers, and both fought in the battle of Berlin in 1945. Both married German women and survived the war. Could you do a bit research on these two?
Why does the thumbnail have swedish flag behind finnish soldiers?
Soviets lost 80,000 to the SS who lost only 50,000 in the battle of Berlin. What a meatgrinder for nothing. Neither empire exists today.
Are you sure about that ?
@@karilang9377
Do you see the USSR or Nazi Germany on a map?
@@GodEmperorEnjoyer I can see fading borders of Nazi USSR
@@GodEmperorEnjoyernew name still communists
@@karilang9377 It's not hard to believe considering how awful the soviet equipment of the ordinary soldier was, aswell as the bloody strategy used by the red army generals to just send soldiers straight at the enemy without any regard for tactics.
Soviet Soldiers were sent to the frontline without a rifle in many cases and were ordered to pickup their dead comrade's gun and fire at the enemy, if they retreated they would get shot by their own officers.
It was an extremely brutal way of waging war.
It could go deeper into history before the 1930ies. But within the given framework, it is a good overview.
Only 200 Swedes joined the Waffen-SS or the Wehrmacht of 1939-1945. In the same period, 9,000 Swedish citizens joined the Americans, the British, the Norwegians, and the Poles. In addition, well over 200,000 men of Swedish descent served in US, British, Canadian, and Australian Armed Forces.
12,000 Swedish volunteers went to Finland
@@kronop8884 As they should have.
Germans weren't very popular i Denmark, being the invaders an all.
I've heard personal accounts of how the Nazi's confiscated horses to use for the war effort. Germans in general seem more authoritarian than Danes.
The policy of Denmark was to retain peace and public order by cooperating, and would have been considered German allies if it wasn't for the resistance toward the end of the war. The German policy was to let life continue as it usually did, an example is how Jazz clubs in Copenhagen still continued having Afro American musicians frequent.
Hitler didn't ideally want to invade Denmark, he'd even mention Scandinavians as brotherfolk. However time being of the essence it was a strategic wartime maneuver. Most people seem to overlook this fact.
If you haven't already, (your videos are amazing btw) could you one day make a video on ss charlemagne? The french ss volunteer division who fought against the Soviets in berlin
Yes I was going to make it in the next few months anyway
@@ZoomerHistorian great 👍
@@ZoomerHistorian great 👍
@@nebhalabir1201 I hope u don’t support these French volunteers
@@alexbayer2365 what's it to you if I did? You can only complain on youtube
Great video, hope to see more.
Its really inspiring reading about the Norwegians in the SS during the war. They were incredible fighters and i am very proud of them. Its a shame they still have such a bad reputation in Norway
Norway is very under covered in WW2 but I find it very interesting, such an incredible story
SS is not a good, u know what? Proud for what?
Still the Norwegians scream at us swedes that we did everything to help the Germans, but Norwegians are know to be smooth brained
“Inspiring”?
@@luki6574 You can be inspired by someone you don't necessarily agree with, sir.
The leader of the very small and insignificant Danish Nazi party DNSAP was the until the reunion in 1920 German citizen Fritz Clausen, not C.F. von Schalburg. Schalbourg, however, was the leader of Frikorps Danmark - the Danish volountary “freikorps” that fought on the Eastern front which was later absorbed by the SS Viking division.
I would like to point out however, that the IKL reached a membership of 100,000 and were a nationwide phenomena. There were also several, smaller national socialist parties in finland. Arguably the largest being the Finnish People's organization (suomen kansan järjestö) which had around 20,000 members at its peak.
Also, do you know how communism was banned in finland? It was the legal predecessor of the IKL, the Lapua movement who got it done. They arranged a 12,000 man march on the capital and demanded communism be banned. And they were successful.
Based.
Finland is not really Scandianavian from what i understand. But it counts as Nordic.
Strictly a language thing.
@@maggan82Its also an ethnic and geographical thing. Finns while influenced by Scandinavians, are their own ethnic group, and Finland is technically part of Fennoscandia, not Scandinavia proper.
i'd definitely like more videos on the viking, please make it a series. (i'm biased as a norwegian though).
It looks like that is what the people want
I have a deep respect for the Finns. Can't even explain it, really. I absolutely love those people, and I've always found them to be the unequalled masters of expressing the emotion of anger. There really isn't anyone quite like them. There's something about the sincerity and seriousness of the way they show their anger that speaks to the soul. It's almost like you are witnessing something from long long ago, like something that other Europeans have forgotten. One wonders if the Finnish people were the original inventors of anger, and the rest of us European peoples are somehow just attempting to mimic them, but it isn't the same.\o
Tell me more
@@sundvallen I'm not quite sure how deep it goes. My comments are sincere though. Just watch a bunch of Finnish videos. They have a unique expression of emotion. It may be more noticeable to outsiders, than to Finns themselves. I'd guess that political topics or contentious historical topics would be a good place to start looking for what I mean. Regardless, I really do like the Finnish people and enjoy their unique accent when speaking English.
@@sundvallen On a related note: If familiar with that guy who runs the "Hydraulic Press Channel", there's something awesome about the way he exclaims "Holy Sh*t!!!", as he often does, upon seeing the destruction he just caused. That gets me every single time. 🤣
I think its in Twilight of the God by Thorolf Hillblad. A Swedish volunteer in the SS. He talks of a follow country man, with a large young family who volunteered.
It struck me the belief in his conviction, that it was a battle for civilization itself, to leave his safe neutral country and his family. To risk it for their future and fight in another nations uniform.
I think the Sweden of today proves these Men to be on the highest order. Not the cheap mercenaries which do such things nowadays with no moral compass or political world view.
Yes! Let's don't forget these people lived in times or soon after bolshevists swines slaughter half if Russia, Europe seen it all and then those people seen this savage ideality infiltrating their countries. They didn't want that red cancer in their countries or Europe in general
more videos about ss volunteers would be good, maybe about french and belgian or even the russian ss divisons. or go more in depth what they did in the war, the spanish blue division is also legendary
People liked it so I’ll make this a mini series, I’ll cover other SS divisions over time too yes
This is not true
Compared to other occupied countries there were actually very few scandinavians.
A couple of thousands from Denmark and Norway. And from Sweden there were only a couple of hundreds.
Check your sources
We're going on a adventure!
Quick tip for anyone foreign trying to pronounce the "ø" in the Danish language: it resembles the "ea" part of "learn" or "heard" or the "er" part of "herd".
The choice between Bolshevism versus National Socialism had to be very clear to these men
Because they knew that it was only a matter of time before Soviet International Communism moved Westward and they were justifiably terrified of the prospect...
Look into Oskar Dirlewanger. Serving in Poland and Belarus, Dirlewanger is closely linked to many atrocities, being considered one of the most cruel and brutal individuals throughout the course of World War II, with his unit being responsible for the deaths of at least "tens of thousands" in Poland and Russia.[1] He also fought in World War I, the post-World War I conflicts, and the Spanish Civil War. He reportedly died after World War II while in Allied custody.
a very good channel
What i understandt of Finnish ss man is that they went to germany get military training and was suppose to return to fight in Finland same as what happened during Finnish civil war.
These men were ”forced” to stay in germany and join ss and for this Finland got lot of weapon support from Germany.
no all were volunteers who joined with the soecific goal of fighting the soviet union. all be it alot of them were from karelia and their homes were under occupation like Lauri Törni
Difficult times, difficult choices and lots of propaganda. Not easy for a simple man to know what is right or wrong.
My great grandpa has an SS Wiking ring though he won't tell me how he got it lol.
A lot of danes joined Frikorps Danmark and received the blessing of the danish government.
Just a small additional note, the more radical predecessor of IKL in Finland, Lapuanliike, was banned in 1932. IKL was founded as spiritual successor, but it never achieved popularity in such manner.
All of these men are true heroes!
Sweden was not a liberal democracy during WWII, it was a constitutional monarchy with a conservative socialist govermant, which held a almost isolation styled neutrality foreign policy, yet strongly anti sovietism.
Lindholm himself even commented after the war that if Germany would have occupied Sweden, like its neigbhours, there'd be no need to change the govermant since similare policies where already at play. Look at Folkhemmet etc for instance.
Not close to the liberal state that Sweden is today, infact so far apart that the PM at the time Per Albin Hansson probably would ve called a fascist racist by todays standards lol.
Note: It is the "Hird" in Norway, menaing vanguard, and not as expressed in the video as the "Herd", although both words implicated herd-mentality during WW2.
" herd-mentality " That's human. Humans tend to flock.
Broooo, in the future you would make videos of another history topics??, like idnk, Ancient Rome and Greece, crusades, etc
Not on this channel that’s for sure, this will exclusively be things related to WW2, as far as I’d go either way is the Treaty of Versailles back in time and then decolonization forward in time
Nice vid
0:32 you forgot to mention the remnants of the blue division. Btw great episode as always
There was more too I believe, I didn’t mean to make a full list
Thanks for the kind words tho
6:15 lmao wonder where we heard that before...
WE DEFETED THE WRONG FUCKIN ENEMY
Nope
I'd love to hear more about my own peoples involvement in this war. We aren't taught much, if anything at all, about our participation, albeit through volunteers.
It's often a comical joke in TV skits and such, that a relative had secretly volunteered and been a part of the Nationalsocialist German armed forces, as if it were disgraceful.
Meaning; propaganda.
The men in thumbnail are not Swedes, but Finns in my home city.
SVERIGE 🇸🇪 🇸🇪 🇸🇪
BÄSTA ARIERNA 🇸🇪 🇸🇪 🇸🇪
SWEDEN NUMBER ONE 🇸🇪 🇸🇪 🇸🇪 🇸🇪
NORWAY #1
NORGE!!!
I'm actualy happy to see the Dutch flag upside down.
WTF? Are you a Nazi?
Sooooo many unpunished countries. So many.
Bruh imagine being so garbage that you shit on people that defended the world against Bolshevism and then show you're true face by wanting to "punish" entire populations, what you mean by punish is rape murder and inflation stop hiding behind buzz words and say it like you mean it, exactly what all commies and capitalists want.
Simple, their own governments were not fighting Bolshevism and the Germans were.
I'm not part of the usual viewers but I enjoy the well researched and put together videos. Bravo
A few poonts concerning the Finns. First of all, during WW1 Finnish volunteers had illegally left the Grand Duchy of Finland, then belonging to Russia, to get military training in Germany, in order to free Finland of the Russian rule by military force. These Jaegers soon formed tho core of the White army officers that guaranteed the victory in the Finnish civil war in 1918. Later they formed the core of the Finnish army officers during WW2. Therefore going to Germany was nothing new for the Finns.
In WW2 the role of the Finns was totally different than that of other Scandinavians (I ignore the fact that Finns are Nordic, not Scandinavians). After the Winter War Finland was in a situation where it had lost all fortifications on the Russian border, as the regions had been ceded to the USSR. Finland seeked German assistance as it was obvious the war in Europe would keep going on. The Finnish SS batallion was called 'panttipataljoona' s pawn batallion in Finland, as it was given to ensure German assistance in return. Some 1400 volunteers left. 255 were killed in action, 686 were wounded and 14 reported as missing.
The operation was based on a two year contract between Finland and Germany, and it ended in the spring of 1943. The Finnish batallion was separated from the Wiking division and the men returned to Finland June 2. 1943. Therefore there were no Finns fighting for Berlin at the end of the war; the former SS-men had been fighting on the Finnish front to stop the USSR for the second time in the summer of 1944, and very likely some ended up to the Lapland war against Germany.
Another very common misunderstanding about the Winter War: you often hear that in the war Finland lost more territory to the USSR than what was initially demanded by the Soviets before the war, as if accepting had been a better option. In reality, the USSR demanded all the fortified regions on the Karelian isthmus. It is like suggesting that give us all your weapons and ammunition and we shall not invade you, although we just took half of Poland and marched to the Baltic countries. If Finland had accepted the offer, I would now be writing a completely different story, and in cyrillic.
It is an interesting coincidence (?) that the sign by the road at 2:23 has LINDHOLM on it, as is the name of Sven-Olof LINDHOLM at 2:43 😀
Some men also signed up due to strong anti-capitalist feelings, a desire to fight against England. Some of these men went on to serve on the eastern front instead. Generally, the volunteers fought for Europe, and their respective countries position and honor in the new post-war Europe. For that they were treated most disgracefully.
The claim about Berlin is shite. There were 300 French in Berlin.
Wiking division consisted of 90% German’s throughout its existence.
OK, in the Swedish election in 1936, SNSP were so bad that Furugård decided to disband the party. Within NSAP there were a lot of animosity between different factions so they split upp. The got less than 1% in that election. (they got 0.9%)
Between 180 to 300 hundred swedes enlisted in SS-Waffen, som speculations has been made that up to 500 signed up, but that has never been substantiated.
Germany were not allowed to recruit in Sweden.
0:55 some men fight for country while others fight for and idea, which might explain why the chief of German military intelligence wilhelm canaries betrayed Germany and thus ensured a German defeat.
Germany should have treated Eastern Europe the same way.
Fyi both kings during the great war and ww2 the kings of Sweden put alot of pressure on the politicians to join Germany. Finland is not Scandinavian but nordic
Germany, Sweden and Finland were natural ally.
Perhaps because they realized who the true enemy was.
Actually the danish military were also left alone - the first years.
it's pronounced "vaffen", not "uaffen".
Common sense-- ideas, concepts, movements, are NOT restricted by country.
I always figured Britain's activities and general disrespect for Scandinavian sovereignty pushed the Scands to ally with Germany, or atleast be cooperative with them. The Fins especially. Britain did them so dirty when the Soviets invaded
Many Danes signed up to fight communism, not for the jewish part of it. You can hear that in post war interviews from Danes returning from the east.
Over ten times the number of Norwegians served in the Allied cause (Norwegian Army in exile, Royal Norwegian Navy, Royal Norwegian Air Force, and the unsung heroes of the war, the Merchant Marine) as ever joined the SS.
@LittleDolfie Look up the branches individually. The Naval Encyclopedia, the Forsvaret page, and Wikipedia among others.
No, Little Adolph, those are Norwegians who left Norway to fight with the Allies, including over 1000 Norwegian merchant ships. And you might ask where the Friekorps wannabe who runs this site gets his material. What he skips over, for instance, is that foreign SS divisions were always majority Volksdeutsche.
@LittleDolfie I'm talking about AFTER the conquest.
@LittleDolfie His latest is a 12 volume history of the SS. His opinion is that he wants Germany to have won the war, The Cute Austrian was blameless and forced into war by the Jays, who basically controlled Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, and that the Allies were the aggressor war criminals who covered up their numerous war crimes. And his Hitler fan followers agree. Idiocy, ignorance and bigotry are almost impossible to "deboonk".
@LittleDolfie "Deboonk" his 12 volume history of the SS? I'm sure it's a glowing fan celebration that doesn't mention the Einsatzgruppen or any of the atrocities and war crimes the SS is so infamous for.
@LittleDolfie By "dissidents" you mean collaborators and traitors.
"Deboonk" his latest video? You mean the 12 part history of the SS he just posted that doesn't mention their war crimes or their participation in the Hollow cost? Kind of debunks itself.
Very good and fair thinking.Keep up the historical education.