Stockholm has a long history of illuminated signs and ads, for obvious reasons, we have long dark nights in the autumn/winter.

It is interesting to see a picture like this from Stockholm the year WWII ended, it is not what you would expect from a European capital at the end of a devastating war involving almost all of Europe.

It can be seen in three ways.

1. Artistically, it is a beautiful photo, the neon, the mist and the still not completely darkened sky, it all makes the photo quite beautiful.
2. It shows that the Swedish government had the skill to avoid being drawn into the conflict.
3. It makes one question about how the Swedish government actually managed it, and that my friends is a much darker story than most people want to hear about....

So let's talk about the big dark reason why we were spared, what made us special.

Nazi trade and cooperation.

It is no secret that we were far from neutral during WWII, we collaborated with both sides as the war developed.

We sold iron to the Nazis, we sold a lot of iron to the Nazis, the Nazis bought so much iron from Sweden that the UK made plans to seize the port of Narvik in Norway through which most iron was exported.

We were paid in gold, and the wealth we were paid made it possible to ride out the war in relative comfort.

The truly bad shit we did was however, was to let the Nazis send troop replacements on our railways, we alsoffacilitated Hitler's sending troops for leave and new fresh troops were sent up through Sweden to the the front.

Thai photo is in the public domain