Abstract
This chapter concentrates on newsreels screened in Sweden at the beginning and the end of the Second World War. During the war years, the dominant film company in Sweden, Svensk Filmindustri (SF), frequently imported entire newsreels and newsreel extracts. This study will expose some of the strategies at work behind the Swedish alterations and modifications of foreign newsreels in 1939 and in 1945. The approach is twofold: on the one hand, in-depth analyses will consider if, and if so how, the Swedish soundtrack and intertitles transformed foreign news imagery into cinematic information suitable for the domestic public sphere. These analyses will specifically try to ascertain if the rhetoric, tone, address and argumentation of the Swedish versions provided the foreign footage with the neutral aura officially required. On the other hand, contextual analyses will define the role and function of the coalition government and the national film censorship as well as exemplifying how the domesticated foreign newsreels were discussed and reviewed in the Swedish press.
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Notes
- 1.
Biografägaren (1939), 13 (15), p. 11. For more about similar reactions in other countries, see the special issue on newsreels: Vande Winkel, R. (ed.) (2004), Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 24 (1); all quotations originally in Swedish are translated by Bergström and Jönsson.
- 2.
Riksarkivet (The National Archive, RA), Statens Informationsstyrelse (The National Board of Information, SIS) (1940), 28 February, 107, p. 2.
- 3.
For more information about SIS and Sweden’s media relations to Nazi Germany, see Jönsson, M. (2010) Neutral Nazism? Swedish–German Film Relations 1941–1945, pp. 47–79, in Hedling, E. & M. Jönsson (eds.), Scandia: Tidskrift för historisk forskning, 76 (2).
- 4.
Berggren, H. (2012) När kriget kom hit, Dagens Nyheter, 3 September; http://www.dn.se/dnbok/nar-kriget-kom-hit/ (accessed 22 September 2016).
- 5.
For instance, Dramaten (The Royal Dramatic Theatre) premiered the British comedy The Golden Wedding by Dodie Smith. Ibid.
- 6.
Indeed, according to one censor sheet at Statens biografbyrå (The National Board of Film Censors, SBB), the last German newsreel to be handled in Sweden was censored as late as 7 May 1945—that is, on the very day of Germany’s unconditional surrender.
- 7.
One day after the first screening, 5 September, yet another version of this SF newsreel passed the Swedish film censors unedited. It was 280 metres long and only made in one print.
- 8.
This section had been formed in 1932, and from then on it was responsible for all of SF’s newsreels. Already in 1912, one of the parent companies of SF had formed a separate film archive , which would later constitute the backbone of the company’s newsreel and short-film output. For more information, see Jönsson, M. (2016), ‘Non-Fiction Film Culture in Sweden circa 1920–1960: Pragmatic Governance and Consensual Solidarity in a Welfare State’, pp. 125–147 in Hjort, M. and U. Lindqvist (eds.), A Companion to Nordic Cinema. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
- 9.
This might suggest that SF bought this footage from or traded it with Fox prior to their inspection. Naturally, these images were of German origin and since they constituted the first real battle footage from the war they were immediately sold on to interested film companies around the world, regardless of their nationality or ideological belonging.
- 10.
During the initial phase of the war, Fox-Movietone , British Paramount , and German UFA regularly exported newsreels to Sweden with Swedish commentaries. Yet it only took six weeks until the Swedish government decided to launch a new law forbidding Swedish text or Swedish speech in all imported films. The law was approved on 15 October 1939, and the first paragraph reads: ‘Cinematographic film recording images of recent events (so-called newsreel), and which either has Swedish text or a soundtrack transmitting Swedish speech, may not be imported into the realm.’ Quotation taken from Svensson, A. (1976) Den politiska saxen, En studie i Statens biografbyrås tillämpning av den utrikespolitiska censurnormen sedan 1914, Stockholm: Stockholms universitet, pp. 75–76. Before its approval, the potential legislation had been extensively discussed in the domestic film trade press. The editorial in the 1939 October issue of the trade periodical Biografbladet suggested that Sweden’s national film censorship had seen ‘a strong tendency during the war to use film as a propaganda tool in the service of the fighting nations’, concluding that this was the main reason for approving the new law. See: Editorial (1939) Tiderna förändras och vi med dem, p. 1, Biografbladet , 20 (10).The subsequent two pages were dedicated to a detailed report based on appropriation requests put to the government by the head of the Swedish film censors , Dr Bjurman . See: Unsigned article (1939), Mot utlandspropaganda på film, pp. 2–3, Biografbladet , 20 (10). A year later, the law was sharpened even further, encompassing all kinds of speech in newsreel, which thus went back to being silent again, although music and diegetic sound from the sites of recording remained intact. In connection to this latter alteration, Dr Bjurman was once again cited in another branch periodical. Somewhat strangely, he remarked that ‘there is nothing standing in the way of reediting and making a Swedish-speaking soundtrack on these films here at home’, which indirectly opened up a space for foreign nations to produce and dub their newsreels on Swedish soil. See: Unsigned article (1940) All utländsk journalfilm blir stum, p. 2, Biografägaren 15 (13). Sure enough, some of the largest foreign film companies inaugurated new subsidiary offices in Stockholm. For more information, see: Jönsson, M. (2010), pp. 47–79, in Hedling E. & M. Jönsson (eds.).
- 11.
The most remarkable part of this short comment is, of course, the statement that the Poles occupied Westerplatte, while they were, in fact, defending it from an aggressive attack. The second thing to notice is that the Poles did not give up after a few days, but held on for an entire week.
- 12.
We have not found any censor sheet of this film at SBB , indicating that this newsreel sequence never was screened in Sweden.
- 13.
Two plans for the intervention of Swedish military forces in Norway and Denmark were prepared if the Third Reich refused to surrender or if civil chaos should occur. Neither operation ever became necessary ‘[…] partly because of the injury either could do to Sweden’s continuing assertion of neutrality and its unwillingness to be drawn into the war even in its last days.’ Nevertheless, Sweden maintained its diplomatic relations with the Third Reich throughout the war. Not until 7 May 1945, the German minister in Stockholm ‘was officially informed by the Swedish foreign minister that diplomatic relations between the two countries had ceased to exist’. See, Packard, J.M. (1992) Neither Friend Nor Foe: The European Neutrals in World War II. New York: Scribner, pp. 313–315.
- 14.
Victory in Europe Day, also known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day, was celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender. This means that V Day took place during the second week of May 1945. Consequently, the newsreel recordings and screenings of peace celebrations commenced during the second week of May 1945. Hence, the first week of May is not relevant for our study and therefore excluded.
- 15.
See, for example: SF2771 (1945); SF2773 (1945); SF2774 (1945); SF2777 (1945); SF2778 (1945).
- 16.
Caused by Nazi Germay’s invasion of Russia in May 1941, the Swedish coalition government and Sweden confronted the so-called ‘Midsummer Crises’ during which the ‘transit transportations’ (referring to the controversial German transports of soldiers through neutral Sweden from July 1940 to August 1943) were debated heavily. See, for example: Zetterberg, K. (1986), Den tyska transiteringstrafiken genom Sverige 1940–1943, pp. 97–118 in Ekman, S. (ed.) Stormaktstryck och småstatspolitik: Aspekter på svensk politik under andra världskriget. Stockholm: Liber Förlag.
- 17.
This is something that still needs to be confirmed.
- 18.
Our italics.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
See, for example: Einhorn, L. (1999) Handelsresande i liv: Om vilja och vankelmod i krigets skugga. Stockholm: Prisma; Lomfors, I. (2005) Blind fläck: Minne och glömska kring svenska Röda Korsets hjälpinsats i Nazityskland 1945. Stockholm: Atlantis.
- 21.
See, for example: Aftonbladet (1945) 8 May; Göteborgs-Posten (1945) 9 May; Göteborgs-Posten (1945) 22 May; Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten (1945) 22 May.
- 22.
See, for example: Göteborgs-Posten (1945) 22 May; Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten (1945) 22 May.
- 23.
See, for example: Aftonbladet (1945) 16 May; Göteborgs-Posten (1945) 16 May; Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten (1945) 16 May; See, also: RA, SBB censorship sheet 68566.
- 24.
See, for example: Aftonbladet (1945) 16 May; Göteborgs-Posten (1945) 16 May; Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten (1945) 16 May.
- 25.
Plantinga, C. R. (1997) Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 106.
- 26.
Movie. [Pseudonym] (1944) Vad händer på filmfronten? Biografbladet, November.
- 27.
Pronay, N. (1972) British Newsreels in the 1930s: Their Policies and Impact, p. 65, History: The Journal of the Historical Association, 57 (189).
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Bergström, Å., Jönsson, M. (2018). Screening War and Peace: Newsreel Pragmatism in Neutral Sweden, September 1939 and May 1945. In: Chambers, C., Jönsson, M., Vande Winkel, R. (eds) Researching Newsreels. Global Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91920-1_9
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