what were spain and sweden doing during ww2?

Question

JuanB: i'm afraid that's just plain wrong. Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (along with Greece and Belgium) all joined the allies in 1940.

and Finland was there for the end (with the allies) in 1945..

Answer 1

Trying to live a normal life, they were both neutral.

Answer 2

Spain has just come out of a bloody civil war. Interesting as the Fascists won and if not neutral Spain would have backed Germany potentially making some difference to the outcome. Nazi Germany had helped the Spanish Fascists a lot in the civil war. In fact, the Nazi's used it to test out a lot of strategy, tactics and equipment as well as personnel gaining experience.

As for Sweden, just lucky. There were many Neutral Countries in the area. Norway, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium. The difference was Sweden was not a strategic location like those other locations.

Answer 3

That's a good question, and I'm not sure about Spain. I know that the Nazi's supported the Fascist element during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, and bombed a Spanish city in support. Maybe Spain was still in shambles at the start of WW II and there was nothing there for Germany. I'm not sure. I do know that Sweden declared itself neutral, but was heavily armed in the event it did have to take action. Sweden had such a small population, it was unable to defend itself anyway for very long. Germany respected Sweden's neutral standing and had only a minimal and non-intrusive occupation force there. However, if Sweden had the natural resources Germany needed or was strategically valued, Germany would have taken it anyway. As it was, Sweden had nothing to offer Germany and was not a threat to them.

Answer 4

The is from the U.S. Department of State Web Site, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, July 2007.

Spain. OFFICIAL NAME: Kingdom of Spain

Following the victory of his nationalist forces in 1939, General Francisco Franco ruled a nation exhausted politically and economically.
Spain was officially neutral during World War II but followed a pro-Axis policy.
Therefore, the victorious Allies isolated Spain at the beginning of the postwar period, and the country did not join the United Nations until 1955. In 1959, under an International Monetary Fund stabilization plan, the country began liberalizing trade and capital flows, particularly foreign direct investment.

Sweden. OFFICIAL NAME: Kingdom of Sweden.

During and after World War I, in which Sweden remained neutral, the country benefited from the worldwide demand for Swedish steel, ball bearings, wood pulp, and matches.

Postwar prosperity provided the foundations for the social welfare policies characteristic of modern Sweden.

Sweden followed a policy of armed neutrality during World War II and currently remains nonaligned.

Answer 5

Neutral.

Answer 6

Spain was neutral and stuck on one end of Europe while Sweden was neutral and stuck in middle of a snasty spat between Germany and Russia and Britain. Sweden stayed out of the fight by being ridgidly polite to all parties and pledging no hostility to anyone. They maintained their neutrality becuase, quite frankly, everyone needs a neutral corner in a fight, even the Nazis understood that. Sweden did continue to sell Iron ore to the Nazi s but no one ever raised a stink.

Spain, ah Spain - - - one one would thank General Franco would be grateful to Italy and Germany for helping him seize power. Certainly it would have helped considerably if Franco fouught the Allies. It frustrated Hitler greatly that Francio sat on the sidelines pleading 'poverty' and other esoteric reasons why. But once again a Neutral Spain was helpful for all parties but mch less so then Sweden. With hindsight Spain might have regain 'glory' by ingloriously joining the Axis of Evil. Spain seizing French North Africa, Gibralter, pushing Portugal into the Axis Camp// Hmm history would have been quite different.

Oh, and Portugal was neutral but allowed Allies to use the Azores, occassionally.. Territorial Eruope was not the only thing that mattered - - - -see the fate of Iceland..

http://www.adl.org/Braun/dim_14_1_neutrality_europe.asp
"" is time for Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal and Spain to acknowledge that there were no truly neutral countries on the European continent during World War II. It is now time for those four nations to acknowledge that they were part of the Nazis' New Order and that they bear some responsibility for the tragic history of the Thirties and Forties.

Neutrality, when practiced by nations, is not always neutral. It does not preclude involvement in international affairs, or even partisanship. According to international law, there are varying kinds of neutrality. For example, Switzerland adopted "differentiated" neutrality in 1920, a decision which indicated a willingness to employ economic sanctions to communicate disapprobation of another nation; in 1938 the Swiss embraced "integral," or supposedly unconditional, neutrality.
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[T]he Swiss are tainted not just by their collaboration with the Reich, but by their postwar failure to confront a problematic past.
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Despite the apparent precision of these legal terms, neutrality for Switzerland during World War II, as well as for the other continental European countries that claimed neutral status during that period -- Portugal, Sweden, Spain, and the Vatican -- can best be summed up by the phrase, self-interested noncombatant.1 These nations shared the common objectives of preserving relative independence in foreign policy and resisting encroachment into domestic affairs. But the costs were high: Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal and Spain, at certain points, deserved the unpleasant label -- to borrow the title from Donald Waters' book on Switzerland -- "Hitler's Secret Ally."2 From a late-twentieth century perspective, these nations can be seen to have occupied a gray area on the continuum between black complicity with the Third Reich and white resistance to the Nazi regime. What is striking about this in relation to Switzerland is not only that it puts that country on a par with fascist Spain, but that it challenges a pervasive myth the Swiss have about their wartime virtue and innocence. Indeed, the Swiss are tainted not just by their collaboration with the Reich, but by their postwar failure to confront a problematic past. To comprehend the magnitude of this "taint," it is necessary both to understand Switzerland's degree of involvement in Nazi crimes, and to place that involvement in the context of the wartime behavior of the other three "neutrals.""""""""""

http://www.glinka.com/2006/02/12/swedish-neutrality-during-world-war-ii/

http://intellit.muskingum.edu/wwii_folder/wwiieurope_folder/wwiieursweden.html

http://wais.stanford.edu/Spain/spain_FrancoWantedWWII(110303).html

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_military_history/v071/71.1keene.html

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2878.htm

Peace.............................

Answer 7

As I recall, they were knitting an afghan that would protect them from harm.