A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
‘A Hellish Nightmare’ : The Swedish Press and the Construction of Early Holocaust Narratives, 1945–1950 (2021)

Holmila, A. (2021). ‘A Hellish Nightmare’ : The Swedish Press and the Construction of Early Holocaust Narratives, 1945–1950. In J. Heuman, & P. Rudberg (Eds.), Early Holocaust Memory in Sweden : Archives, Testimonies and Reflections (pp. 163-187). Palgrave Macmillan. Holocaust and its Contexts. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55532-0_7

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Holmila, Antero

Parent publication: Early Holocaust Memory in Sweden : Archives, Testimonies and Reflections

Parent publication editors: Heuman, Johannes; Rudberg, Pontus

ISBN: 978-3-030-55531-3

eISBN: 978-3-030-55532-0

Journal or series: Holocaust and its Contexts

Publication year: 2021

Publication date: 01/12/2020

Pages range: 163-187

Number of pages in the book: 334

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Place of Publication: Cham

Publication country: Switzerland

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55532-0_7

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/78644

Abstract

This study examines how the Swedish press responded to and portrayed the Holocaust immediately after the war. The liberation of the camps, the role and guilt of ordinary Germans, the Nuremberg trials and the ongoing problem of Jewish DPs in Europe were the most important issues on the basis of which the Swedish press had shaped the early post-war view of the Holocaust. Moreover, the fate of the Jews under Nazi Germany formed an important element of such reporting. The author argues that, contrary to the dominant Anglo-American historiography, which holds that the first post-war decades were marked by silence surrounding the German genocide, the Swedish press wrote about the Holocaust often and in a more nuanced way than dominant scholarly knowledge would have it.

Keywords: Second World War; Swedes; Jews (religious groups); neutrality; history; representation (mental objects)

Free keywords: second world war; Swedish neutrality; Swedish-Jewish history; historical representations

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2021

JUFO rating: 3