Latvian refugees crossing the Baltic sea with the boat Zvejnieks, "Fisherman". The boat arrived in Gotland 25 November 1944. Foto: Fricis Forstmanis

Displacement of people in the Nordic and Baltic countries in the 1940’s

In the early 1930’s the first German refugees started arriving in Nordic countries. But many were turned away and shamefully refused asylum. By the beginning of the 1940’s there were about 5,900 German refugees, many of them Jews, in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. During World War II as many as 70,000 children were evacuated from Finland to Sweden for safety and some 44,000 Norwegians and 18,000 Danes received refuge in Sweden. When the War was over 45,000 refugees from concentration camps in Germany were also received by Sweden. At that time there were in Denmark about 240,000 German refugees in camps who gradually returned to their country.

In the autumn of 1944 more than 80,000 people fled from Estonia, and about 30,000 of them settled in Sweden. The first refugees from Latvia crossed the Baltic Sea in 1943. More than 200,000 Latvians fled their native country and at the end of the War there were about 5,000 Latvian refugees in Sweden. About 75,000 people fled from Lithuania to the Western countries and a minor group of 500 Lithuanian refugees settled in Sweden.

The Karelians represent the largest displacement of people in the modern history of the Nordic countries. At the end of the War, when Karelia came under Soviet rule, a total of 440,000 Karelians left for Finland. The Finnish Government decided not to set up camps for the Karelians, but to accommodate the displaced people in private homes and after the war they were given land.