Elof Eriksson

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.

Early years

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 suspcious of democracy and was supportive of eugenics.^[1] 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.^[1]

Fascist politics

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.^[1] Within the Nationen Eriksson was soon promoting both anti-Semitism and his strong support for Italian fascism.^[2] 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.^[2] 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.^[1]

Ideology

A critic of modernity since his earliest years, Eriksson began to develop ideas that blamed a Jewish conspiracy on the modern world and this became the centre of his world view in later years.^[1] He predicted the rise of a new form of Nordic Christianity that would rid the faith of the influence of Judaism but argued that for this to happen a spritiual rebirth of the Nordic countries|Nordic people was necessary. Therefore for Eriksson racial consciousness, the struggle against the Jews and anti-Semitism itself were all ordained by God.^[1] His final written work, the 1962 book Världskulturer, provided a full discussion of his religio-philosophical approach to anti-Semitism.^[1]

References