Today, 67 years ago — I

Martin R, the archaeologuy, found a stash of old issues of Dagens Nyheter and gave them to me. I have been reading them and it is now exactly 67 years since these news were published:

• 17 Norwegians have been executed for sabotage actions. The Church of Norway (apparently in the hold of Nasjonal Samling) offers détente for non-collaborating vicars.
• Schlesische Zeitung regrets that the public opinion in Sweden now supports the Allies. The unnatural peace policy of Sweden clearly has distorted its priorities, but SZ hopes Sweden will come around to the right side and support the struggle against Communism. On the other hand, conservative Sydsvenska Dagbladet suggest that, while occupied peoples might in principle oppose Communism, they have first hand experience of Nazi concentration camps, deportations, torture and executions and are fighting the evil they know rather than possible evil they don’t know.
• Bulgarian Jews have been taken to four concentrations camps in the country, but the “worst elements” will be deported to special ghettos in Poland.
• A Red Army offensive has been stopped by the German Army, 14000 Soviet troops are claimed to have been killed. Henry Shapiro reports from the liberated Charkov which has burnt to the ground by the retreating German troops.
• Both Allies and Axis proclaim victories in North Africa. The continued Allied pressure on the North African front is a case for concern, says Dr Kirscher at Frankfurter Zeitung, but he is convinced that the Italians are willing to continue the war. [Italy capitulated five months later.]
• More US citizens are killed by accidents than by the war. Total war losses, including POWs, are 66399.
• Afternoon “tea dances” are prohibited in Stockholm. [Apparently this has been on the table for a while, as no background is given.] The youth of the city is expected to travel to surrounding municipalities for their Sunday entertainment. The signature Geman professes himself to be a ”swingpjatt” and verbally sketches the dancing youths with their funny nicknames. That they never consume anything stronger than lemonade is made clear.
• Dr Befrits runs a private maternity clinic and refuses to close it, even though so ordered by the National Board of Health. The association of practising physicians supports Dr Befrits.
• The Sunday (1943-02-28) was the warmest in a hundred years. The warm weather caused difficulties for the charity bandy match between Sweden and Finland in Helsinki and it ended 0–0. Back in Sweden Hammarby qualified for playing in Division 1.
• There is always money for gambling, so horse races at Solvalla brought in 400000 SEK, and that’s in 1943 money.
• Football was played in the UK, England beating Wales 5–3.
• Tons of dead herring have been scooped out of the sea on the west coast. A mine explosion is the likely culprit.
• All horse-owners have to report their horses and carriages (rubber wheels to be reported separately) to the authorities yearly, for the planning needs of the defence forces. The lack of rubber is also an important point in the main leader. Indigenous synthetic rubber is being developed, but Sweden is still dependent on imported German Buna rubber.
• New rationing cards for additional rations of fat to children and teenagers.
• Colonel Gyllenkrook has written a book on partisan warfare, guerilla warfare being well suited to the Swedish national character.
• Herbert Tingsten suggests the Nordic countries should eventuelly join in a union. Atos Virtanen [sic] has argued for the same in a lecture in Gothenburg. [Wirtanen was betrothed to Tove Jansson for a period and is the basis for the character of Snufkin.]
• Martin Allwood and others are elected to the board of the Peace University Foundation and plan for the future.
• Reader’s Digest has recently started publishing a Swedish edition, which is felt to be rather too American. In particular an article on miracle treatment of polio is compared to a debunking of said treatment by Swedish experts in the magazine Nu.
• John Wall exhibit “Technology in Miniature”. What might that be?
• Poppens närande Buljong praise vegetable soup instead of surrogate coffee.
• Konsum opens a new shop in Helenelund.
• March is Danish book month; Swedes are exhorted to buy Danish books.
• Namn och Nytt was a full two-page spread and at this time concerned with debating a proposed co-Nordic spelling reform. putt (pissed off) is revealed to have been only dialectally used in southern Sweden at this time. The Royal Academy of Sciences wants a prohibition against the import of calendars as it cuts into their income. As a result they cannot afford to publish scientific articles in Swedish scientific journals and they therefore have to be published abroad, which is a Bad Thing. [The mind boggles.]
På Stan on the other hand is just a single column, which today is about women’s magazines from different countries and their tips on how to repair and reuse clothes, and how to get the most out of available foodstuffs. Mazetti introduces a new egg surrogate.
• A number of new films open: In Which we Serve, The Reluctant Dragon, Le dernier des six, In This Our Life and Суворов.
• On the comics page we find Nancy, then still under the title “Fritzi Ritz”, collecting metal for the war effort, and King of the Royal Mounted, who is not visible in person in this strip, even though some nasty-looking bandits are.
• There is one radio channel, broadcasting from 07:20 to 22:15. A TAKA-572 wireless set cost 320 SEK.