Editing History of Sweden (section)

=== Sweden during World War II ===
[[File:HMS Gustav V.jpg|thumb|250px|Coastal defence ship of the Swedish Navy HM Pansarskepp Gustaf V (Agfacolor photo until 1957)]]
{{main|Sweden during World War II}}
Sweden followed a [[Swedish neutrality during World War II|policy of armed neutrality]] during [[World War II]], although thousands of Swedish volunteers fought in the [[Winter War]] with Finland against the Soviets. Sweden did permit German troops to pass through its territory to and from occupation duties in Norway,<ref>N. Vukolov, "In Sweden at the time of World War II," ''International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy & International Relations'' (2010) 56#4 pp. 247–61.</ref> and supplied the Nazi regime with steel and ball-bearings.

The dominant historiography for decades after the war ignored the [[Holocaust]] and used what it called the "small state realist" argument. It held that that neutrality and co-operation with Germany were necessary for survival since Germany was vastly more powerful, concessions were limited and were only made when the threat was too great. Neutrality was bent but not broken; national unity was paramount; and in any case, Sweden had the neutral right to trade with Germany. Germany needed Swedish iron, and Sweden had nothing to gain and much to lose from an invasion.<ref>John Gilmour, ''Sweden, the Swastika, and Stalin: The Swedish Experience in the Second World War'' (2011) pp. 270–81 [https://www.questia.com/library/120075612/sweden-the-swastika-and-stalin-the-swedish-experience online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527124551/https://www.questia.com/library/120075612/sweden-the-swastika-and-stalin-the-swedish-experience |date=27 May 2019 }}</ref> The nation was run by a national unity government, which included all major parties in the Riksdag except the communist party. Its key leaders included Prime Minister [[Per Albin Hansson]], [[Gustaf V of Sweden|King Gustav V]], and Foreign Minister [[Christian Günther]].

Humanitarian aid to Jews facing the Holocaust was the mission of Swedish diplomat [[Raoul Wallenberg]]. As the secretary of the 1944 Swedish delegation to Hungary, to co-ordinate humanitarian relief for the Jews of Europe during the Jewish Holocaust. He helped to rescue tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary in late 1944. He disappeared in January 1945, and probably died in a Soviet prison in 1947.<ref>Johan Matz, "Sweden, the United States, and Raoul Wallenberg's Mission to Hungary in 1944," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' (2012) 14#3 pp. 97–148 [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_cold_war_studies/v014/14.3.matz.html in Project MUSE]</ref>