Refugee policy in a Sweden governed by social democrats was rigidly enforced until well into World War II. As in Switzerland, refugees were often only permitted to stay for a limited period. The authorities prioritised people who had left Germany for political reasons over the Jews, who were classified as “economic refugees”. In 1938, both Switzerland and Sweden called for the introduction of a J stamp in German passports. By 1939, the number of people from Germany and Austria who had found refuge in Sweden only amounted to about 5,000.

After Germany occupied Norway and Denmark in 1940, many of the exiles who had previously fled to these countries tried to move on to Sweden. However, Swedish refugee policy did not become more liberal until 1942, when Jews with Norwegian citizenship were threatened with deportation from the neighbouring country.

Since most refugees were forbidden to work, they were dependent on the support of aid committees such as the Jewish communities, the “Rote Hilfe” (Red Aid) and the social democratic and trade union organisations. Initially, the opportunities for political and cultural work and networking were limited; however, they improved as the war progressed, due for example to the establishment of exile journals. The “Freie Deutsche Kulturbund” was founded in 1944. The “Freie Bühne”, a German-language exile theatre, had no widespread impact.

The political refugees exiled in Sweden included many members of the SPD and KPD, including Willy Brandt, Bruno Kreisky and Herbert Wehner. The artists included Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, Bertolt Brecht, Lotte Laserstein, Maria Lazar, Nelly Sachs, Margarete Steffin, Hugo Steiner-Prag, Helene Weigel and Peter Weiss. For most of them, Sweden was just one stop on their journey in exile.

Further reading:
Klas Åmark: Schwedens Flüchtlingspolitik und die Flüchtlinge aus dem Deutschen Reich 1938-1945, in: Nawrocka, Irene (Hg.): Im Exil in Schweden: österreichische Erfahrungen und Perspektiven in den 1930er und 1940er Jahren, Wien: Mandelbaum-Verlag 2013, S. 26–45.
Helmut Müssener: Exil in Schweden, in: Petersen, Hans Uwe (Hg.): Hitlerflüchtlinge im Norden: Asyl und politisches Exil 1933–1945, Kiel: Neuer Malik-Verlag 1991, S. 93–121.