Fredrik Strage: I am making a historical bargain, and are reminded that freedom cannot be taken for granted

I stand at the recycling station and are thinking of if I dare to throw away my old toothbrush. According to a sign, it is forbidden to throw eltandborstar and brushes. Does it mean that ordinary toothbrushes can be recycled? Or should I understand that there is no difference between the plastic in toothbrushes and brushes? I would like to do the right and avoid contributing to the climate warming, which threatens to cause huge waves of refugees, the fascist seizures of power by and new world wars.

Suddenly I notice a bag that someone dumped next to the paper collection. In the picture there is a number of the Swedish women's magazine from 1935. The cover is decorated with the belgian princess Josephine-Charlotte (”back in Brussels after sommarferierna”).

a hyllningsartikel to the ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie (”For a fair beskådare, it seems a tad ridiculous when Mussolini, perhaps a härskarämne, but without a doubt, an upstart, talking big words about their duty to spread Italian culture across the Country”) and a chronicle of women's förvildning: ”the other day bet a drunk in stockholm's his poor man in the nose in the open street. It is to totally ignore the female dignity and finesse.”

the Number is at the top of a thick stack of Swedish women's magazine from the thirty and forties. I get so excited that I accidentally put the toothbrush in glasåtervinningen. Then kånkar I home the papers and begins to read.

the Swedish women's magazine writes not about politics but the war popping constantly up between the cookie recipes, royal portraits and kärleksnoveller. For the swedes, who escaped the occupation, means the conflict less acute problems than bombräder. Each week will be published ”ransoneringskalendern” so that readers will know which food it is a lack of and which may be sold freely. ”Decayed eggs get henceforth be replaced, when the victim of the otrevligheten even hard-earned egg is not fresh,” reports the man in 1943. ”The change must not, however, företagas until after the scrutiny, which is what Stockholm is concerned, businesses in the hälsovårdsnämndens kontrollbyrå, Östra Järnvägsgatan 8.”

went there was sour over the fact that it was cumbersome to switch the eggs, or grateful to live in a country where there was something to eat.

the Same journal contains a survey where young women in the different professions answer questions about work, love and the world situation. ”The outbreak of the war seemed almost crippling me,” says the author Ebba Richert. ”For although it didn't come unprepared, I heard to those who optimistically believed that the s k-lit kulturfolk could resolve their disputes without bloodshed. /.../ [The war] has kind of taken from me my faith in the good in man.”

It is wise to remember the second world war, when the elections to the european Parliament approaching. The main objective of the EU is to ensure peace in our continent. We have avoided war for so many years that we like to imagine that we are an enlightened kulturfolk. But it is not required much to the aggressive nationalism must turn its claws into us. And we abandon without further the for EU citizens fundamental right to move across borders without a passport.

happy when The sweden democrats for the EUROPEAN elections kicks off an advertising campaign that it ”is not the first time that sossarna help Germany to take over Europe”. The claim is, of course, misleading (Sweden was ruled by a coalition government during the war) but every time SD mentions the Third reich, we are reminded about their nazi origin. And every time the second world war, shows up in the election debate, we are reminded to not take our freedom for granted.