A stromy ve Vídeňském lese stále stojí – Asbrink Elisabeth (2021)

Why read another book about the Holocaust? Because it tells a story about the present. About how we like to believe in illusions. About parental love. About loneliness and the struggle with feelings of injustice. This report should not be missing from your library – especially since you probably bought that library at IKEA. When information about Ingvar Kamprad's past, the founder of IKEA, regarding his connections and support for Swedish fascists came to light a few years ago, he publicly asked for forgiveness, wrote a letter to his employees, and repeated his plea in many interviews. Elisabeth Asbrink's historical report And the Trees Still Stand in the Vienna Woods caused a scandal even before its publication. "Everyone loves myths about their history. We are most affected when someone brings forgotten stories related to the Holocaust and antisemitism into the light of day," wrote Wojciech Orliński. 524 letters that Jewish parents send to their son from Vienna to Sweden, where they sent him to save him – the only one from the family to survive, but even in this Nordic country, he had to deal with antisemitism. The book is a bitter attempt by the author to come to terms with the myth of Sweden in the 1930s – the myth of a country of equality, solidarity, and progress. Yet for her, several...