Elof Eriksson
| Elof Eriksson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1883 , Sweden |
| Died | 1965 |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Occupation | Farm manager |
| Years active | 1914-1965 |
| Notable work |
Semi-Gotha (1941) Världskulturer(1962) |
| Political party | Sveriges Fascistiska Folkparti |
| Movement | Nationella Samlingsrörelsen |
| Parent(s) |
|
Elof Eriksson (1883–1965) was a Swedish anti-Semitic political writer. He was recognised as the main exponent of anti-Semitism in inter-war Sweden along with Einar Åberg.
Born in , his father Jakob Eriksson was a well-known plant pathologist. Raised on a large farm at Hyllie, Eriksson studied horticulture and agriculture before becoming farm manager of the family plot.
Eriksson began his political career in 1914 in the agrarian movements connected to the Jordbrukarnas Riksförbund (Farmers National Federation), leading a highly reactionary faction that was suspicious of democracy and was supportive of eugenics. He wrote a series for articles for Nya Dagligt Allehanda condemning liberalism and the Swedish party system, which he blamed for the problems facing Swedish agriculture and took part in the Farmers' March, a mass rally held on 6 February 1914. A meeting with Mauritz Rydgren in 1914 helped to instill in Eriksson a strong belief in anti-Semitism and Swedish racial purity although initially these were privately held beliefs that did not manifest in his political activities. He left active politics when the group as a whole merged with the Centre Party and became a writer and publisher, taking over the editing of the highly conservative Södertälje Tidning in 1923. It was whilst writing for this paper that he began to demonstrate his anti-Semitic opinions.
Eriksson was fired in 1925 for his extremist views and set up his own paper, the Nationen, which became the main outlet for his increasingly hard-line beliefs. The paper, which ran into the 1940s, averaged around 3000 in circulation and reached 10,000 at its peak, a high number for an extremist paper in Sweden at the time. Within the Nationen Eriksson was soon promoting both anti-Semitism and his strong support for Italian fascism. In 1926 he set up his own political movement, the National Unity Movement (Nationella Samlingsrörelsen), which espoused a strong state and anti-communism, but it proved short-lived.Nationen was eventually banned as extremist in 1935.
For a time he was a member of the Sveriges Fascistiska Folkparti although he clashed with other leaders such as Konrad Hallgren, Sven Hedengren and Sven Olov Lindholm due to their support for Nazism as well as personality issues. Despite his anti-Semitism, Eriksson rejected Nazism in part because he felt that it was revolutionary and he much preferred a highly reactionary approach to politics. Nonetheless he was in contact with individual Nazis, notably Erich Ludendorff and later Julius Streicher, with whom he shared a pathological hatred of the Jews. The links became stronger during the Second World War when he was involved in disseminating Nazi German propaganda in Sweden.
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