Sweden’s Middle Road

This March of Time film explains the concessions Sweden made to the Nazis in order to remain neutral, while highlighting the ways in which the country was also helping the Allies and defying Germany. Scenes of Norwegian refugees being welcomed across the border, and everyday acts of defiance like the humiliation of a German diplomat in a bar, present a sympathetic view of a country for whom neutrality was a precarious balancing act.

Nonchalantly holding up his telephone to capture the sound of Berlin being bombed, a Swedish newspaper correspondent phones in his story to Stockholm, as Scandinavia’s last neutral capital senses the balance tipping in favour of the allies, and Swedes become bolder in their defiance of the Nazis. For many Swedes life during war was a mixture of normality and deprivation - there was no petrol and rationing was the similar to the UK - but, as the scenes of bustling cafes and crowded beaches show, compared to her conquered neighbours, life in Sweden went on as normal. This film explains the delicate political balancing act behind this strategy, praising Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson for his pragmatism.