Replies

Until the day he died my uncle hated Sweden.
He was in the German Army & fought on the Eastern front for 3 years.
His unit was surrounded by the soviet army in Latvia at the end of the war. By some miracle, on the day when all German units were to lay down their arms to the Russians, two German torpedo boats snuck into a nearby harbor and picked up about 50 German soldiers, my uncle, among them.
The boats headed to Denmark, hoping to surrender to the western allies, but on the way a Swedish warship stopped them because they had violated Swedish waters.
After several hours the captains of the German boats had little choice & allowed themselves to be towed to a nearby Swedish island. The Germans were promised they could refuel & continue on to Denmark the next day.
Long story short, the Swedes impounded the boats, the Germans were disarmed and interned.
A few months later Sweden turned over all interned Germans to the Russians.
My uncle eventually emigrated to this country but only after spending five years in a Russian gulag.