Oh, no - Sweden would never have entered the war willingly. No nation in its right mind does that (which excludes dictatorships like Nazi-Germany or the Soviet Union, of course). All the Nordic countries fully expected to sit out the second world war, just as they had done the first one.
Finland wasn't an independent nation at that time, of course, but when the second world war broke out they planned to follow the example set by the other Nordic countries and declared herself neutral - just like them.
If Norway, Denmark and Finland had not been attacked, I think it's highly unlikely that any of them had entered the war by themselves. Democracies rarely does.
As it happened all the others were of course attacked and forced into war to defend themselves and only Sweden had the option of possibly enter later, on her own terms - but of course she didn't.
It possibly could have happened, in some form, at the very end of the war, when Nazi-Germany still had quite a lot of forces in Norway, while Germany itself was being overrun by the Allies and Soviets.
Nobody knew for certain what the German forces in Norway would do.
Would they surrender if Germany did, or would they stage a fight to the bittern end there?
In that case, there were hypothetical discussions if Sweden should intervene in some way to try and help the Norwegians force the Germans out.
Sweden had been a safe haven for Norwegian resistance fighters against the German occupation during the war, and even allowed Norway to form military units in exile in Sweden - made up of Norwegians that had escaped to Sweden.
So there was a Norwegian force here, ready to begin the liberation of Norway, if they were allowed to.
In the end, it turned out the German forces in Norway and Denmark were only too happy to surrender, so Sweden didn't have to do anything.
The Norwegian force trained here was deployed to Norway, though, and administrated the disarming of the German forces and their evacuation of Norway.
"I have read before that initially Hitler ranked Finns below his vague Aryans but above the Slavs. However, I haven't actually bothered to study the issue myself, so for all I know, that could be utterly false information. The Swedes, at least, did separate Finns from the Nordics in their racial studies."
I'm no expert on this, and it might be true there was some intermediary step in Nazi racial theory between Aryans and the Slavic subhumans where Finns were originally placed - but they must have been viewed as better than subhumans anyway.
But it's really not that important as all of that was just nonsense of course - and the Nazis themselves showed it was, by ignoring their own "science" when it suited them. When they needed the Finns, they made valuable allies against the Soviet, and they gladly allowed volunteers from the Balkans into the SS.
So "racial purity" was always just nonsense.
Hitler even declared a personal friend and his brother "honorary Aryans" to allow them to remain in the SS, after it was discovered (through genealogical studies) that they in fact had Jewish ancestry.
So there were even Jews in the SS - on orders from Hitler himself.
So much for "racial purity".
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@Louhikaarme
Oh, no - Sweden would never have entered the war willingly. No nation in its right mind does that (which excludes dictatorships like Nazi-Germany or the Soviet Union, of course). All the Nordic countries fully expected to sit out the second world war, just as they had done the first one.
Finland wasn't an independent nation at that time, of course, but when the second world war broke out they planned to follow the example set by the other Nordic countries and declared herself neutral - just like them.
If Norway, Denmark and Finland had not been attacked, I think it's highly unlikely that any of them had entered the war by themselves. Democracies rarely does.
As it happened all the others were of course attacked and forced into war to defend themselves and only Sweden had the option of possibly enter later, on her own terms - but of course she didn't.
It possibly could have happened, in some form, at the very end of the war, when Nazi-Germany still had quite a lot of forces in Norway, while Germany itself was being overrun by the Allies and Soviets.
Nobody knew for certain what the German forces in Norway would do.
Would they surrender if Germany did, or would they stage a fight to the bittern end there?
In that case, there were hypothetical discussions if Sweden should intervene in some way to try and help the Norwegians force the Germans out.
Sweden had been a safe haven for Norwegian resistance fighters against the German occupation during the war, and even allowed Norway to form military units in exile in Sweden - made up of Norwegians that had escaped to Sweden.
So there was a Norwegian force here, ready to begin the liberation of Norway, if they were allowed to.
In the end, it turned out the German forces in Norway and Denmark were only too happy to surrender, so Sweden didn't have to do anything.
The Norwegian force trained here was deployed to Norway, though, and administrated the disarming of the German forces and their evacuation of Norway.
"I have read before that initially Hitler ranked Finns below his vague Aryans but above the Slavs. However, I haven't actually bothered to study the issue myself, so for all I know, that could be utterly false information. The Swedes, at least, did separate Finns from the Nordics in their racial studies."
I'm no expert on this, and it might be true there was some intermediary step in Nazi racial theory between Aryans and the Slavic subhumans where Finns were originally placed - but they must have been viewed as better than subhumans anyway.
But it's really not that important as all of that was just nonsense of course - and the Nazis themselves showed it was, by ignoring their own "science" when it suited them. When they needed the Finns, they made valuable allies against the Soviet, and they gladly allowed volunteers from the Balkans into the SS.
So "racial purity" was always just nonsense.
Hitler even declared a personal friend and his brother "honorary Aryans" to allow them to remain in the SS, after it was discovered (through genealogical studies) that they in fact had Jewish ancestry.
So there were even Jews in the SS - on orders from Hitler himself.
So much for "racial purity".