Baltic extradition

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Baltic and German soldiers in the Eksjö camp

The extradition of interned members of the Wehrmacht, referred to as the Baltic extradition ( Swedish Baltutlämningen ) or also German extradition ( Swedish Tyskutlämningen ), occurred from November 1945 to January 1946 after the end of the Second World War . In Sweden , about 3,000 were interned members of the German armed forces, of which about 2,520 by Sweden to the Soviet Union and 50 in Poland were delivered. About 310 men were handed over to the British occupation authorities in Germany. 80 men evaded extradition by self-mutilation and were handed over to civil authorities after further internment, a few fled.

Internment of the members of the Wehrmacht in Sweden

A large number of members of the Wehrmacht were fleeing the Red Army from the last bridgeheads of the Wehrmacht in the eastern Baltic Sea region - the Hela peninsula, the mouth of the Vistula , Curonian Spit and Courland ( Latvia ) - with boats, ships and aircraft on the Swedish coast stranded or fled there. Some of the members of the Wehrmacht who ended up in this way continued to flee towards Schleswig-Holstein after the vehicles had been repaired. 3000 German soldiers were interned in up to six Swedish camps : Bökeberg (only in May 1945), Havdhem , Ränneslätt (near Eksjö ), Grunnebo (near Trollhättan ), Backamo (near Uddevalla ) and Rinkaby (near Kristianstad ).

Request for extradition by the Soviet Union

On June 2, 1945, the Soviet leadership demanded in a note from Sweden the extradition of the men who, after May 8, 1945 (the day of the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht ), from German military service in areas that were now formally under Soviet sovereignty Sweden had reached. The Swedish government under Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson and Foreign Minister Christian Günther then declared in their reply of June 16, 1945 their willingness to extradite all those who had escaped from Soviet-controlled territory after and before May 8, 1945.

In November 1945 the Soviet Union sent the Kuban cargo ship to Trelleborg . When the delivery date became known two weeks in advance, there was passive resistance from soldiers of the Wehrmacht, some of whom went on a hunger strike . Parts of the Swedish population also protested. Since several Swedish officers refused to execute the extradition order, the State Police (Statspolisen) were tasked with carrying it out. On November 30, 1945, the first day of extradition, the soldiers resisted, suicides and attempted suicide as well as self-mutilation .

Due to the Hague Land Warfare Regulations, Sweden was not obliged to hand over the former soldiers of the Wehrmacht, as the country remained neutral during the war. On November 27, 1945, the International Committee of the Red Cross wrote a letter to the Swedish government suggesting that the prisoners be released.

delivery

1,600 men were delivered in the first transport. The wounded followed in two transports on December 17, 1945 and January 24, 1946. The individual transports were initially collected in the "Sugar Factory" camp in Libau (Latvia). These internees were also called "Swedish drivers" in the camp jargon. In addition, about 310 men were extradited to the British authorities in their occupation zone in Germany, as they had come to Sweden from Norway, Denmark, from the submarine U 3503 fighting the Royal Navy or from other areas occupied by British troops. Some men managed to escape. A total of around 2,520 members of the Wehrmacht were extradited to the Soviet Union - including 146 men who came from the Baltic States. 130 of the 146 extradited Balts were Latvian members of the Waffen SS who had fought in the ranks of the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division until the end of the war in the Kurland basin and were then able to flee to Sweden via Danzig or Windau . The soldiers were extradited at a time when Sweden was drawing closer to the Soviet Union, with which an economic agreement was concluded in 1946. The further fate of all those extradited to prisoners of war had not yet been researched in 2005.

reception

Even during the events, there were public debates in Sweden, which were sparked mainly by the Baltic members of the Wehrmacht, who mostly fought in the ranks of the Waffen SS . Although only 146 of the interned members of the Wehrmacht who were extradited to the Soviet Union were of Baltic origin, while more than 2,400 of those extradited came from Germany within the borders of 1937, Austria, Czechoslovakia and other countries, the fate of the Balts dominated the public discussion. This is also expressed in the term "Baltic extradition" (Swedish: Baltutlämningen ), as Sweden felt historically strong ties to the Balts.

In 1968, the Swedish author Per Olov Enquist published the novel Legionärerna on extradition , which was also published in Germany under the title Die Ausgegelierter . The novel was honored with the Literature Prize of the Nordic Council in 1969 and filmed in 1970 in Sweden under the title Baltutlämningen . The bestselling author and former SS officer Paul Carell treated the events in 1980 in a chapter of a book that appeared in nine editions by 1996.

On June 20, 1994, King Karl Gustav of Sweden received a group of 40 Balts who had survived extradition at the Royal Palace of Stockholm ; During the reception, the Swedish Foreign Minister Margaretha af Ugglas apologized on behalf of the government for the “hasty and incorrect extradition decision”.

In 2000, among others, the retired Swedish officer Curt Ekholm, who had published about the extradition of the Baltic Sea, called for the foundation of a privately financed monument in Trelleborg to commemorate the dramatic events on the Swedish coast during the Second World War. This was intended to commemorate the refugees and concentration camp prisoners who drowned in the Baltic Sea, the refugees who died in the air raids and the extradited prisoners of war - especially during the "extradition of the Baltic". As a result, the “Stranded Refugee Boat” memorial was erected by the stonemason Christer Bording from Glimåkra . The monument made of gray granite and diabase shows a white dinghy on a dark base ; the boat bears the German-language red label "HEIMWEH".

literature

  • Modris Eksteins: Walking Since Daybreak . Houghton Mifflin, Boston 2000, ISBN 0-618-08231-X (English).
  • Per Olov Enquist: The Delivered . Roman (original title: Legionärerna translated by Hans-Joachim Maass). Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1969, DNB 456545646 , 2nd edition [1970], ISBN 3-455-01880-7 ; Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 3-446-23632-5 (belletristic representation).
  • Peter Fritz: Place of capture: Sweden. For the extradition of members of the German Wehrmacht from Sweden to the Soviet Union in 1945/1946 . In: Swedish Perspectives: "Writings of the Center for German Studies " Volume 4, 2005, pp. 145–165.
  • Sten Körner: The Baltic refugees and the Baltic extradition by the Swedish government . In: Robert Bohn, Jürgen Elvert (eds.): End of war in the north: From hot to cold war , Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, pp. 85-104, ISBN 3-515-06728-0 .
  • Thomas Magnusson: Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States. In: Robert Bohn (ed.): Neutrality and totalitarian aggression. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, pp. 207-220, ISBN 3-515-05887-7 .
  • Föreningen Gamla Christianstad: Information sheet on extradition to the Baltic Sea (Swedish / English / German; PDF; 1.7 MB)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sten Körner: The Baltic refugees and the Baltic extradition of the Swedish government . In: Robert Bohn (Ed.): "End of War in the North" Steiner, Stuttgart 1995, pp. 85–94.
  2. ^ Thomas Magnusson: Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States . In: Robert Bohn (Ed.): "Neutrality and totalitarian aggression". Steiner, Stuttgart 1991, p. 219.
  3. ↑ Curt Ekholm: Baltoch Tyskutlämningen 1945-46: Omstandsigheter kring interneringen i läger i Sverige och utlämningen till Sovietunionen av fd tyska krigsdeltagare , volume 2. Uppsala 1984.
  4. ↑ Peter Fritz: "Place of Capture: Sweden" - For the extradition of members of the German Wehrmacht from Sweden to the Soviet Union in 1945/1946 . In: "Swedish Perspectives: Writings of the Center for German Studies ", Vol. 4, p. 147. ISSN  1651-8209 .
  5. ↑ Peter Fritz: "Place of capture: Sweden". In: "Swedish Perspectives: Writings of the Center for German Studies", Vol. 4, p. 161.
  6. ↑ Peter Fritz: "Place of capture: Sweden". In: "Swedish Perspectives: Writings of the Center for German Studies", Vol. 4, pp. 145–47.
  7. ↑ Thomas Magnusson: Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States , pp. 219–220. In: By Robert Bohn and others (editor): Neutrality and totalitarian aggression: Northern Europe and the great powers in World War II . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1991.
  8. ↑ Peter Fritz: "Place of capture: Sweden". In: "Swedish Perspectives: Writings of the Center for German Studies", Vol. 4, p. 155.
  9. ↑ Freivalds, O. De internerade balternas tragedi i Sverige år 1945-1946. Daugavas vanagi, Stockholm, Sweden, 1968.
  10. ↑ Modris Eksteins: Walking Since Daybreak . Houghton Mifflin, Boston 2000, p. 141.
  11. ↑ Peter Fritz: "Place of capture: Sweden". In: "Swedish Perspectives: Writings of the Center for German Studies", Vol. 4, p. 162.
  12. ↑ Peter Fritz: "Place of capture: Sweden". In: “Swedish Perspectives: Writings of the Center for German Studies”, Vol. 4, pp. 151–153.
  13. ^ Myths of Nations - Sweden - an exhibition in the German Historical Museum. (Retrieved January 9, 2009.)
  14. ↑ Per Olov Enquist: The Delivered , from the Swedish by Hans-Joachim Maass. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1968. ISBN 3-455-01880-7 .
  15. ↑ Baltutlämningen in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  16. ^ Paul Carell and Günter Böddeker: The Fall of Man in Sweden . In: "The prisoners: life and survival of German soldiers behind barbed wire". Ullstein publishing house. Berlin 1980. ISBN 3-550-07901-X .
  17. ↑ Carl Ekholm, Helmut Schulze: Flyktingminnesvård i Trelleborg ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Fritt Militärt Forum , No. 1 (2000). (Private web forum, accessed September 8, 2010.)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.forsvarsframjandet.org
  18. ↑ Strandad flyktingbåt on Christer Bording's website. (Retrieved September 8, 2010.)