Annons

Skeletons at the tea table


This past November 9 was the 75th anniversary of the Kristallnacht. It’s been a long time since, but the shards of those broken glasses are still sharp. While people all over the world – also in Sweden – were commemorating the pogrom victims, a 80 people-strong neo-Nazi demonstration marched through the streets of Östermalm.

In a few more weeks, we will also have our own 75th anniversary here in Uppsala – and there is nothing to celebrate in this case either. The event I am referring to is the so-called Bollhus meeting that took place in Uppsala on February 17, 1939. As a result of the Nazi terror unleashed after the Kristallnacht, the Swedish government had plans to shelter 10 Jewish doctors fleeing from Germany. In protest, extreme right-wing students at Uppsala university managed to get the student union to call a general meeting and to approve a motion condemning the plans of the government. In those days, when studying at Uppsala was only within reach of the privileged few, the motions of the student union did not pass unnoticed. The motion had an actual impact in Swedish foreign policy, effectively obstructing the arrival of Jewish refugees.

In 1999, Uppsala’s student union extended an official apology to the Jewish community in Sweden for their involvement in the Bollhus meeting affair. Other parties involved, however, were not in a hurry to apologise – not after 60 years at least. Some of the most prominent students behind the Bollhus meeting, for instance, were at that time board members at the student association Heimdal. To this day, Heimdal denies any wrongdoing arguing that the actions undertaken by their board members were a private matter unrelated to the association. One of those students, Th. Åke Leissner, was particularly notorious for his obsession to write up lists of Jews in Uppsala university. He went on to co-author a pamphlet – Den Svenska Linjen – with clear racist and anti-Semitic views. He was also one of the founders of what is currently the moderate student association (I wonder when he found the time to study at all).

Any student association that is old enough to have been around since the convoluted 1930s, has definitely a skeleton in the closet. What seems quite peculiar of the moderate student association (Fria Moderata Studentförbundet) is that they have their skeleton sitting at the tea table munching biscuits. The association’s magazine is still called Svensk Linje in open reference to the piece of racist literature mentioned above. Ingvar Kamprad would not have shown less political sensitivity if he had given the name Lebensraum to the Ikea catalogue.

Dear fellow students at Heimdal and FMSF, better late than never. The coming 75th anniversary of the Bollhus meeting is an excellent occasion to finally assume your responsibilities and make a clean break with the past.


Annons

Annons

The article has been edited:

Instead of Moderate Party s student association it now says moderate student association – as FMSF is not part of The Moderate Party.

Läs mer

2024-03-01 09:23
Eric Axner-Norrman ponerar med sedvanlig humor och precision de olika vetenskapsdisciplinernas inbördes ordning i den…
2024-01-31 08:38
Eric Axner-Norrman skriver om tidsmaskiner och katter gömda i Engelska parken i månadens kåseri.
2023-12-21 12:10
Redaktionen sammanfattar året med Ergo inför årets slut. Vad har hänt sedan nyår egentligen?