IKEA founder's Nazi past revealed in new book

Ingvar Kamprad was identified as a Nazi by Swedish intelligence during WWII and retained loyalty to Swedish far-right after war, book says.

The founder of the Sweden-based worldwide chain of furniture stores, IKEA, was identified as a Nazi by the Swedish Security Service in 1943 during WWII, a new book reveals, according to the Stockholm News website.

Och i Wienerwald står träden kvar (And in Wienerwald the Trees Remain) by the author Elisabeth Åsbrink tells of how Ingvar Kamprad, a global business leader and one of the richest men in the world, had a personal file set up with Swedish intelligence when he was 17-years-old in the Swedish province of Småland.
According to Kamprad's file with Swedish intelligence, he devoted much time and energy into recruiting new members to the Nazi party.

Kamprad, whose Nazi sympathies became know to the public in the 1990s, had previously written off the troubling period of his life as a passing instance of "teenage confusion." He stated that he had been more of a fascist than a Nazi, attracted by the ideology's social element.

However, the book describes how Kamprad's contacts with the far-right New Swedish Movement and their leader Per Engdahl continued long after the conclusion of WWII, even when the full extent of the Holocaust became known to the world.

Enghdal wrote in 1944 that Adolf Hitler was "Europe's saviour." The Stolkhom News also quotes the New Swedish Movement leader as saying "the Jews are an alien element in the Western public body" and that "an anti-communist movement can never reach its goal if it’s not also anti-Semitic".

Engdahl was a guest at Kamprad’s wedding in 1950 and Kamprad wrote in a letter to Engdahl about his pride in being "part of the New Swedish circle."

As recently as last year, the IKEA founder described Engdahl as "a great man," in an interview with the book's author.