As the Red Army advanced across the Baltic states in autumn 1944, about 27,000 Estonians, 4,000 Latvians, and 500 Lithuanians escaped in small boats across the sea to Sweden. (About 40,000 Estonians also fled to Germany and 7,000 to Sweden via Finland.) Many of the refugees landed in Sweden with only the clothes on their backs. They were placed in relocation camps, given jobs, and were generally well treated by their Swedish hosts. Gradually, they integrated into Swedish society. 

Sweden was a neutral country during World War II, but in 1940 it recognized the illegal Soviet annexation of the Baltic states. When the Soviet Union reoccupied the region following the collapse of Nazi German rule (1941-44), Soviet officials regarded anyone who had escaped after 1940 to be its citizens and wanted them back. 

The Swedish government allowed Estonians working for the Soviet embassy to enter the camps and lead active repatriation campaigns. They distributed pamphlets with titles like, Uuesti kodumaal (Home Again) and Tõde kodumaalt (Truth from the Homeland). These were filled with glowing propaganda about life in Soviet Estonia. Returnees were promised housing, employment, and amnesty if they had worked for the Germans. But following the trauma of Soviet rule during the 1940-41 year of terror, when about 20,000 Estonians were murdered, imprisoned, and deported to Siberia, few people believed the propaganda and returned. 

The refugees’ fears deepened when on May 20, 1945, Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest daily, published the following notice about repatriating “Soviet citizens:”

“The Embassy of the Soviet Union in Sweden announces that it has started to organize the return of all Soviet citizens from Sweden. 

In connection with this, all citizens of the Soviet Union need to appear at the following collection points: Lisma (near Stuvsta railway station), Hagaström (6 kilometers from the city of Gävle), or at the address of the Soviet consulate: Birger Jarlsgatan 110 III, Stockholm. Reception is held daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Individuals unable to appear in person may report in writing to the consulate when they will be able to travel to their home country, providing their address.

Considering the inquiries of many citizens of the Soviet Union, especially from those who had previously lived in the Baltic states, about where they will be sent upon returning to the USSR, the embassy reports that according to the decision of the USSR government, all will be sent directly to their republics (to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).”

Afterwards, the Swedish State Commission for Foreigners (also State Alien Commission) began sending letters endorsed by the King of Sweden, encouraging the refugees to return. When Maia Andre, a refugee from Käsmu, received the following message in Estonian, she decided to escape on the Erma:

State Alien Commission Stockholm, July 1945

Miss Maia Andre
Birger Jarlsgatan 94, 1

Stockholm

His Majesty the King has instructed the State Alien Commission to announce that every Baltic refugee can return to his home country without cost, as publicly described by the Soviet Russian authorities. Each refugee is to be sent home to his place of origin. Refugees desiring to be sent home may give notice to that effect at the nearest police station or to the chief of the respective refugee’s camp, so that they may be informed about the procedure they will have to follow. 

The commission has also been instructed to explain to the refugees that although no pressure is to be exerted, it is Sweden’s wish that the refugees return to their homeland. 

His Majesty has also directed the Alien Commission to emphasize, through the camp chiefs, the previously issued instructions regarding personnel employed in the camps and other persons dealing with refugees, that attempts to influence the refugees not to return to their homeland will not be permitted under any circumstances. It is further emphasized that Baltic refugees who are not under the care of the camps are reminded that political propaganda activities by them in Sweden are not permitted.

State Alien Commission
Carl Chr. Schmid
Ernst Bexelius

A tragic development followed, prompting more refugees to question their safety in Sweden. On January 26, 1946, despite vigorous public protests, the Swedish government handed over to the Soviets 146 Baltic soldiers wearing German army uniforms. The conscripts fled from Latvia to neutral Sweden at the end of war, where they were interned. The Soviets regarded the 130 Latvians, nine Lithuanians, and seven Estonians as traitors. Six of the Estonians were 16- and 17-year-old boys who had been mobilized on August 20, 1944, into the auxiliary providing ground support to the Deutsche Luftwaffe (German Air Force).

Knowing what awaited them, the conscripts went on hunger strikes, maimed themselves, and even committed suicide. Those forced to board the Beloostrov from Trelleborg, Sweden, to Latvia were later executed, imprisoned, or sent to labor battalions.*

The Swedish Communist newspaper Ny Dag had also called for the deportation of all refugees, whom it labeled “Baltic fascists.” Against this backdrop, many understood they needed to get as far away as possible from the Soviet Union—Sweden was too close. For them, it was better to risk their lives crossing the oceans in search of freedom than to live in fear of being sent back to their occupied homelands. 

*On June 20, 1994, 40 of the 44 surviving soldiers—35 Latvians, four Estonians, and one Lithuanian, accepted an invitation to visit Sweden where King Carl Gustaf received them. The Swedish foreign minister, Margaretha af Ugglas, said she regretted the injustice of what had happened but did not apologize. On August 15, 2011, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt officially apologized to the Baltic prime ministers in Stockholm, referring to the extradition of the conscripts as a “dark moment” in Swedish history.