Foreign News and Analysis Since April 2005 -- Formerly China Confidential -- For America and Israel and Their Friends Abroad
Image: Forbes Kamprad had already admitted some elements of his Nazi past in 1988, admitting he was a close friend of the Swedish fascist activist Per Engdahl, and a member of his fascist New Swedish Movement between 1942 and 1945. However new details allege that not only was an active recruiter for the fascist Sweden's Socialist Union (SSS), he maintained close ties to the far right after the end of the War. The allegations have come to light in a book by journalist Swedish journalist Elisabeth Åsbrink, who found files from the Swedish intelligence unit that concluded that Kamprad must have "some sort of official position within" the SSS, reports The Telegraph, and that he was recruiting new members. Åsbrink says that Kamprad has been hiding these ties: "He said in 1998 that he would get everything up on the table and that there would be nothing hidden. Why then didn't he tell us that he was a member of the worst Nazi party, and that the police found it serious enough to create a file on him? She also says that Kamprad's links to Engdahl remained strong after the war -- he invited the fascist to his wedding in 1950, writing he was proud that the two belonged to the same circle. Even in 2010, when interviewed by Åsbrink, Kamprad refused to denounce the far right leader. "Per Engdahl is a great man, and I will maintain that as long as I live," he said. Kamprad had previously called his links to the Far Right "stupidity", and the "greatest mistake" of his life. However, if the new allegations were true, its becomes harder to argue that Kamprad was not a full part of the Nazi movement. Kamprad began creating the Ikea empire when he was just 16. Last year his wealth was estimated at $23 billion. 5:56PM BST 24 Aug 2011 The 1943 file, revealed in a book published on Wednesday by Swedishjournalist Elisabeth Åsbrink, will revive the long-standing controversy over the far right sympathies of the 85-year-old businessman. It proves for the first time that Mr Kamprad was an active member of Svensk Socialistisk Samling – the successor to the Swedish Nationalist Socialist Workers Party – even detailing his membership number, 4013. It quotes letters intercepted from Mr Kamprad, then 17, in which he enthuses about recruiting new members and says that he "misses no opportunity to work for the movement". The secret service concluded that, as Mr Kamprad received the party's youth newspaper, he must have held "some sort of official position within the organisation". Ms Åsbrink accused Mr Kamprad of failing to come clean about the full extent of his Nazi past. "He said in 1998 that he would get everything up on the table and that there would be nothing hidden. Why then didn't he tell us that he was a member of the worst Nazi party, and that the police found it serious enough to create a file on him?" she said. Mr Kamprad has long fought to escape the stain of his involvement with the far right New Swedish Movement, revelations of which first surfaced with the publication of the letters of the group's leader, Per Engdahl, in 1994. Those letters showed that Mr Kamprad gave money and recruited members, and that Mr Engdahl had been one of a select few invited to Mr Kamprad's wedding. Ms Åsbrink said Mr Kamprad's feelings about Mr Engdahl remained mixed even today. "Per Engdahl was a great man, this I will maintain for as long as I live," he told her last year in a two-hour interview recorded for her book. In 1998, Mr Kamprad said he could not remember whether he had been a member of Nordic Youth, Sweden's equivalent of the Hitler Youth, when faced by further revelations. But he has never admitted to membership of the more radical Svensk Socialistisk Samling, which was so close to the German Nazi party that it had dropped the Swastika symbol only a few years before Mr Kamprad joined. Ms Åsbrink's book, And in Wienerwald the trees remain, details Mr Kamprad's long friendship with a young Jewish refugee who came to work on his family farm and then played a key role in the team that launched IKEA. "He came from a background where it was normal to speak badly about Jews, but when he met Otto, they became the closest friends," she said. A spokesman for Mr Kamprad downplayed the revelations as "old news". "Ingvar Kamprad gave a detailed account back in 1994 about what he describes as his 'youthful sins' and the 'biggest mistake of his life', apologising and asking for forgiveness from all parties involved. The IKEA he created is based on democratic principles and embraces a multicultural society."Foreign Confidential ™
Sunday, August 28, 2011
'Why I Loathe the Arab Spring'
Sure Enough, AQ-Linked Islamists in Tripoli
Ikea Founder Was Nazi During and After War
A new book makes a convincing case that Ikea's billionaire founder supported the Nazis during and after WWII. Click here for the story.Ikea Founder Allegedly Recruited For The Swedish Nazis
Ingvar Kamprad, the billionaire founder of Swedish homeware company Ikea, is facing new allegations about his role in Nazi past due to a new book, reports the BBC.
See Also:
IKEA founder 'was Nazi recruiter'
IKEA's billionaire founder Ingvar Kamprad was a member of the Swedish Nazi party and was such a concern to secret service they opened a file on him, according to a new book.
Sunday, 28 August 2011
The moment has come to admit that I loathe the Arab Spring and almost everything about it.
It looks to me pretty much like a football crowd armed with AK-47s and bazookas, with the added ingredient of Islamic militancy. Why am I expected to like it?
For we are all supposed to approve of it. Every media outlet, every politician, every church pulpit, treats it as an unmixed Good Thing.
Not me. I look at these wild characters in baseball caps and tracksuit bottoms blasting ammunition into the sky (often killing or injuring innocents far away, but they don’t care) and I am mainly thankful that they are a long way off.
Read more here.
No surprise: Al Qaeda-connected Islamists are controlling the Tripoli strongholds of Libya's ousted dictator. Clickhere for the report.
The 85-year-old Swede still controls Ikea from his home in Switzerland, as reported here.
Given his staggering wealth, it would be interesting to know if he has been a financial backer of neo-Nazi, neo-fascist--and Islamist--organizations.
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