Swedish Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII
During the Second World War Sweden was a neutral country with a relativelystrong pro-Allied sentiment. The last major fighting Sweden took part in wasduring the Napoleonic Wars. When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in1939 though, at least 10,000 men volunteered for service with the Finnishforces to fight against the Soviets. This number is especially significantbecause there were approximately 6.5 million people living in all ofSweden at the time. Sweden and Finland are both Northern Europeancountries and had much in common, therefore, when the Soviets invaded,many Swedes felt compelled to join the Finnish Forces. Because Sweden was a strict neutral during WWII, other than during the shortexperience of the Winter War in 1939, it did not openly allow forrecruitment into foreign armies. When Germany invaded theSoviet Union in 1941 its sentiments changed very little, although the Finnswere allowed to garner volunteers once again. Approximately1,500 Swedes volunteers for service with Finland between 1941 and 1944. Before Germany invaded the Soviet Union, very few if any Swedes servedwith the Germans, although at least one Swedish volunteer was listed asserving with the 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking.When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Swedish volunteers for theGerman Wehrmacht was gathered either through the German Legation in Stockholmor through the Auslands Organization, both via Norway. Swedish approval ofrecruitment was still not official after the invasion of the Soviet Unionthough, and the volunteer operations were very much clandestine affairs.In total between 130 and 300 Swedes are thought to have servedin the German Wehrmacht. David Littlejohn lists the number of Swedishvolunteers at 130 in volume 3 of “Foreign Legions of the Third Reich”, 150volunteers are listed according to Swiss Dr. Franz Riedweg – the head ofGermanic Volunteer recruiting, 175 volunteersare listed by H. Picker in “Hitler’s Table Talk”, and 315 volunteers are listed by Gottlob Berger in an unpublished biography. 300 is the generally accepted number of volunteers in the German Wehrmacht, but approximately 30 to 45Swedes were killed in WWII under Axis control with 130 Swedish volunteers surviving the war, according to Lennert Westberg, which would, therefore, place the actual number of volunteers at about 175. 11 Swedes are said to have gone to the SS Officers school at Bad-Tolz, and Swedes also are known to have fought in theBattle of Berlin in April of 1945 while serving in the Nordland Division. The vast majority of Swedes served in the ranks of the Waffen-SS, but never in a national unit or legion like many other ethnicgroups. Most Swedes were scattered within different Waffen-SS units and formations. The 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking, 11.SS-Panzergrenadier-Freiwilligen-Division Nordland,and the 23.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-DivisionNederland are all known to have had Swedes in their ranks. At least one small unit, Panzergrenadier-Kompanie 3 -Panzer-Aufkläkrung-Abteilung 11 – 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-DivisionNordland, (3rd Company of the Armored Recon Battalion of the 11th SSVolunteer Armored Infantry Division Nordland), was composed of a large number of Swedes. In fact, Panzergrenadier-Komapanie 3was given the title Swedenzug as a result of the number of Swedes in its ranks. The Swedish volunteers served in the4.Zug of Panzergrenadier-Kompanie 3. Order of battle of the SS-Panzer-Aufklärung-Abteilung 11 Kommandeur: SS-Hstf Rudolf Saalbach Authorized strength of the Abteilung: 800
Späh-Kompanie 2: (Ostf. Heckmueller) Panzergrenadier-Kompanie 3 “Swedenzug”: (Ostf. Kaiser, Ostf. Pehrsson, Ostf. Ahrens, Ostf. Pehrsson) Panzergrenadier-Kompanie 4: (Ostf. Viehmann) schwere-Kompanie 5: (Ostf. Schmidt) Source: Lennart Westberg, Die schwedischen Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |