World of Swedish History

August 10, 1628 the Crown ship Vasa sunk during her maiden voyage. 333 years later, in 1961, it was salvaged and put into a museum in Stockholm which is now world famous. It is the best preserved war ship of its time, fully decorated since it was the ship that had the name of Vasa, the Swedish king's last name. It gives a unique glimpse into what daily life was for a a sailor in the 1600's. Why was the ship built and how come it sunk so quickly? What is the meaning of all the decorations at the stern, the back of the ship and how was it to be a sailor during the 30 years war in the 17:th century. And what did the sailors look at while going to the ship toilet? Historian Anna Maria Forssberg at the Vasa ship museum in Stockholm knows the answers.

This is world of Swedish Historia. My name is Johan Romin and I am a Swedish journalist based in Stockholm. Just couple of days ago I ran across a news paper article from 1986 - it was in the research of a coming program about the murder of Olof Palme - and I looked thru all Svenska Dagbladet news papers from 1986. And i november of that year I read that the Simon Wiesenthal center in Los Angeles had sent a document to the Swedish embassy in Washington, it was a list of Nazi criminals that they said lived in Sweden. These men had been collaborators to the Nazi regime in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia during world war 2, and they had lived in Sweden from the 1940s or 50s and they had never been investigated or prosecuted even though they had killing Jews during the Holocaust. In 1986 the government of Sweden had made the list confidential but I contacted our ministry of foreign affairs in order to get the list. And I am still waiting for their answer. And then I called Efraim Zuroff at the Simon Wiesenthal center, who is living in Jerusalem to get the background on how the Swedish government reacted when they got the list.

Episode 4 - During the Viking era and before that the Swedish custom was to bury the top warriors in boat graves. What started that tradition and how come the Vikings were so brutal in their attacks and raiding throughout Europe. What are the findings from the Vendel period that was before the Viking age. World of Swedish History meets historian John Ljungkvist at Uppsala university

Episode 3 - For the first time I talk to my relative in Los Angeles, USA. We have the same great grandfather, Birger Lundahl who emigrated to the USA from Sweden in 1903. I just recently found out from a DNA-test that he was my actual great grandfather since my grandfather was adopted. 116 years later the great grandsons of Birger Lundahl are talking to each other for the first time ever. Hear the conversation in the podcast World of Swedish history

Episode 2 - We hear historian Paul Levine talk about the Swedish Ad Hoc diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who helped and saved Jews during the Holocaust during World War II. How many did he save? Whe did he have business contacts with the Nazis at the same time as he was saving Jews? Why did Sweden have a diplomatic effort to save people during the War? World of Swedish History is a podcast about Swedish history in English. In the podcast I interview historians about different historical eras of the Swedish history. The goal is to spread knowledgde about Sweden and the rich history of this country.