Posted on 05/21/2021 8:09:24 PM PDT by Jonty30
That was a question asked in Quora.
I assured the person that there are plenty of chickens in Sweden.
They were neutral in WWII.
They sold licenses to produce Bofors AA guns to both sides. And they sold Iron and nickel to the Germans.
I think they were more Quisling than chicken
Don’t waste your time at Quora...
I love chickens. I worked with a bunch for a research project many years ago. The females were lovely - they liked cuddling and sinking down into one’s lap and sucking heat. And the eggs we got were amazing - nothing at all like the ones in a carton from the supermarket.
The roosters could sometimes be nasty...
Tucker Carlson interviewed a ‘chicken enthusiast’ recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOXDCnPwBWQ
(Less than 5 minutes...)
To be fair, they didn’t have a bone in the war. And during the pre-war years of Hitler’s power (1933 to 1939), some 3,000 Jews migrated to Sweden to escape Nazi persecution. Because Sweden was neutral during World War Two, it helped facilitate the rescue of relatively many Jews from Norway and Denmark: in 1942, 900 Norwegian Jews were given asylum from Nazi persecution in their home country, and, most importantly of all, almost the entire Danish Jewish community, some 8,000 people, was transported to Sweden in October 1943 (see Rescue of the Danish Jews). Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg also saved thousands of Hungarian Jews in Budapest by providing them with “protective passports”.
Little Red Rooster--Margie Day with the Griffin Brothers' Orchestra (1951)
Sweden, your chickens are coming home to roost!
#6. Good historical overview comment on how the Swedes helped save the lives of many European Jews fleeing the Nazis.
Re Sweden dealing with both sides, they had no choice re Germany, who threated to invade and take them over if they didn’t trade with Germany and let German troops go thru their country. Sweden had no army to speak of and it would have been a slaughter as the Poles suffered resisting the German might.
Switzerland did something similar in that it dealt with all countries in its officially recognized capacity as a NEUTRAL non-combatant and Humanitarian country (Sweden also had that type of status).
Much of European WW2 espionage was based in Switzerland as well as the trade business in watches-clock mechanisms, etc. which were used for time-delayed fuses in ammunition and bombs.
The caught-in-the-middle positions of both Sweden and Switzerland will be debated by historians for many more decades but when viewed from an outside perspective, officially they had no choice except to play the game.
One thing Germany did NOT want to do was to invade Switzerland where every male had a rifle/ammo, the whole country was honeycombed with caves, and roads would have been easily blown up.
Several members of my synagogue were given asylum in Switzerland. A few were turned back at the border but survived with the help of friendly Austrians. Others were held in “camps” in Vichy France or escaped the Nazis in Germany only to be turned back at the Russian borders by the Soviets (they went into the forests to hide and/or fight as partisans. Others were killed in the camps).
War is very complicated but so is the history of what really went on. After 50 years I’m still writing about what went on in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as new documents and memoirs emerge, and as new “views” of events were posulated.
Even being there, as I was as a journalist, only gives one a segment of time/events perspectives though a few new books by Vietnam Veterans for Factual History (VVFH.org - the Yellow Yearbooks, 1963-75), provide many often unknown or unread on-the-site memoirs from those who served in every capacity from ground pounders/soldiers to naval personnel, Air Force vets, POWs, US civilian aid and foreign service officers, provincial advisors, presidential advisors, and from researchers who are dedicated to finding out/writing about the truth of the war (and it isn’t Ken Burns’ slanted, anti-American PBS crap).
The hens make a distinct noise when they gather around you expectantly in the morning waiting for their laying mash. The human equivalent would be
wellllllllllll? I thought that was pretty cool as a lad.
I thought every question on Quora had to be about The Beatles.
The only part I’d disagree with is Sweden’s defense. They got more and more serious about national defense in the run up to the war and were arming furiously by 1939-1940. They had mandatory mass conscription and a fairly well trained and equipped army shortly. They also demonstrated how they could quickly blow up the iron ore mines Germany depended on by way of deterrence.
Sweden’s real problem is they are a relatively small country. There is only so much resistance they could have offered before being overwhelmed by the Wehrmacht - especially after the invasions of Denmark and Norway.
Switzerland’s case is different. Their terrain makes Blitzkrieg impossible, renders air power of much more limited use and is ideally set up for Defense. It would be very easy to blow up roads, bridges, tunnels, dams etc....to hold the high ground and force the enemy to fight uphill only to retreat to the next mountain and make him do it all over again. Key war material and personnel could be protected in tunnels. Invading Switzerland would be a nightmare.
Don’t forget to include Switzerland’s male population all got basic military training and civilian marksmanship was encouraged on an ongoing basis for centuries. Schutzenfests there go back to the crossbow era in the 15th Century. It’s a serious, widespread tradition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schützenfest#Switzerland
Getting sniped by people with serious shooting skills intimately familiar with the rugged terrain would not have been a fun time for an invader. A story, probably apocryphal, is told of the German defense minister asking his Swiss counterpart “How many men in your army?” “One million.” “What if we invade with two million men?” “Each of my men shoots twice.”
Denmark folded in four hours.
Hitler’s plan to invade Switzerland was called “Operation Christmas Tree”. The Swiss kicked out citizens who allied with the Nazis.
Who needs citizens who would cheer-on their country’s invaders?
Y’know, like Democrats?
Next Question: Are there turkeys in Turkey?
Denmark folded in four hours.
Hitler’s plan to invade Switzerland was called “Operation Christmas Tree”. The Swiss kicked out citizens who allied with the Nazis.
Who needs citizens who would cheer-on their country’s invaders?
Y’know, like Democrats?
Currently on PBS the program Atlantic Crossing tells the story of the crown princess of Norway finding sanctuary under the watchful eye of Franklin Delano Rosevelt.
President Roosevelt is portrayed as a fatherly wannabe lover.
The King of Sweeden is presented as a spineless coward who appeased Hitler and achieved neutrality. The Crown Princess of Norway who did more for Norway than the Norwegian Government in London exile, was the Swedish king’s daughter.
Capons.
Yes they are called Swedish Flower hens. $59 A chick from Green fire farms. 😏
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