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The Swedish Connection is a 2026 period drama film streaming on Netflix, straight from Sweden. The plot takes us back to a tumultuous time in history, when the Nazi government had just started rounding up Jews and sending them to concentration camps, without the world having any idea about it. At such a time, a Swedish man named Gosta Engzell stood up to help the Jews in whatever way possible, obviously with the help of his associates. While The Swedish Connection takes a comedic approach to the otherwise grave historical drama, it still makes for an entertaining and moving watch.
Spoiler Alert
What is the film about?
The Swedish Connection begins on the 15th of July, 1942, at a small village in coastal Sweden, where two fishermen notice a ship headed towards the harbor and are immediately scared out of their wits upon seeing a Nazi flag flying on the mast. They quickly inform the authorities, and word soon reaches the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. The end is near, it seems, for the ship’s arrival at the harbor is considered to be the beginning of the Nazi invasion of Sweden, the country that had managed to avoid such a fate till now. The Cabinet Secretary, Soderstrom, is informed of the development, and he gets in touch with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gunther. It is Gunther who calls up the German Embassy asking for clarification as to why Sweden is suddenly being attacked, despite the friendly relations between the two countries, and it is only then that the matter is reported to be a false alarm. The ship with the Nazi flag seemingly was not carrying German soldiers, and so this is not an invasion of Sweden.
Despite all of its surrounding countries having been taken over by the Nazis by this time, Sweden continues to stand only because of its diplomatic relations and arrangements. Although claiming to be neutral on paper and therefore refusing to take sides in the war in Europe, the Swedish government agreed to all of Hitler’s demands in reality. The only reason the Nazis did not invade Sweden was because they never needed to do so, with the German army given easy passage through the country, and the Swedes even regularly providing iron ore and ball bearings for the army’s engineering needs. At the time, the ostracization of Jews had already started, but nobody outside Germany had any idea about it, and none of the Allied powers were much interested in finding out either, with all of them caught up in the war.
Around such a time, the Swedish authorities start receiving requests from Jewish people who want to take advantage of their Swedish roots and return to the country, which is a safe space in Europe. But the authorities, including the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, are too nervous about letting any Jews into the country because of strict instructions by the Germans to not allow any such movements. Hitler had already made arrangements with the Swedish authorities that ensured that any person of the Jewish faith entering the country would have their passports marked with the letter ‘J’ to demarcate them from the rest of the citizens. Therefore, none of them care about these requests and simply send them to the much-ignored Legal Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The head of this department, Gosta Engzell, is a docile and meek man, but The Swedish Connection narrates how this very man would go on to be a hero in the months to come.
Why does Engzell face opposition from his superiors?
At first, Gosta Engzell also keeps ignoring the requests, as he considers it too big a task to convince his superiors to grant Jewish people of Swedish descent visas. He even has a few Jewish men come to meet him at his office to convince him to look into the cases of their relatives, but Engzell turns everyone away because he is too meek to do otherwise. There are already reports coming in from Norway about Jewish people being rounded up by the Nazis and being taken away from their homes, but the Swedish ministry decides to do nothing about it in order to keep their German friends happy. Instead of taking action against, or even investigating, the reported atrocities in the neighboring country, they focus on ensuring that the reports are not printed in Swedish newspapers, just as Hitler wants.
Eventually, the office receives a letter from a low-level employee of the Swedish authorities, who had recently met a German SS officer on a train traveling between Germany and Poland and had heard something harrowing from him. The SS officer had apparently told the employee about a policy being adopted by the Nazi government, which they were calling the ‘Final Solution,’ according to which Jews were being rounded up and sent to concentration camps where they were being killed using poisonous gas. But just like before, the authorities do not believe the claims, with Gunther still being open to the possibility, but Soderstrom vehemently refusing to even consider such matters. Gosta Engzell also falls into a similar category of scared and confused government employee until he realizes that saving Jews might actually be possible.
Engzell gets a call from the Swedish embassy in Oslo, and is informed how a Jewish man had been arrested by the Nazis in Norway who can very easily be saved from persecution using a note verbale. A note verbale is an official notice that was sent by one nation to another at the time to request that their citizen not be harmed or persecuted. Although Engzell refuses to get caught up in diplomatic problems and therefore does not write the note verbale in this instance, the officer at the Swedish embassy in Oslo submits one by himself, and the Swedish national is indeed released by the German authorities. This is when Engzell realizes that there is still a chance to do something about the Jewish situation, and he is further convinced by the young assistant at his office, Rut Vogl. However, there is no shortage of naysayers who oppose his plan and try to stop him in every possible manner.
The first obstacle he has to face are two of his subordinates in the Legal Department, Svante and Magnus, who are more concerned about the horrific conditions of their office, which is neglected by the other departments of the foreign ministry. Then, when Engzell becomes aware of the loophole of using Swedish ancestry to grant visas to Jewish refugees, the immigration officer, Robert Paulson, refuses to grant entry to immigrants so easily. The Foreign Minister, Gunther, is obviously extremely cautious, as he fears upsetting the Germans. But the biggest obstacle for Engzell throughout the entire time is presented by Cabinet Secretary Soderstrom, who creates problems till the very end. It is unlikely that either of these men have wrong intentions or are cruelly prejudiced against Jews, but they all fear causing trouble with the Germans because of the fierce and ruthless nature of the Nazis, who would surely invade Sweden at the drop of a hat.
Are the Bondy twins allowed to reunite with their parents?
While looking at all the cases that have reached the Legal Department, Gosta Engzell and Rut Vogl consider the case of the Bondy twins, two young boys who have been living in Czechoslovakia, separated from their parents, who are currently in Denmark. The boys, Lucas and Mateo, are Jewish by birth, and although they are not technically Swedish, since neither of their parents are citizens of the country, the protagonist finds a small loophole. The boys’ mother had remarried a Swedish man, but because she is Jewish, she and her new husband have not been allowed back in Sweden. Meanwhile, the boys have not been allowed to travel to Denmark either, and it is suspected that they have been picked up from Prague by the Nazis and are being kept at some labor camp.
Engzell and Vogl determine that this would be a perfect case to try and solve, as doing so would not only save the lives of two young boys and reunite them with their parents, but also set a legal precedent to solve further cases in the future. The case of the Bondy twins is considered a ‘weak case,’ as their connection to Sweden is very weak and indirect, through their stepfather, with whom they are obviously not biologically related. Therefore, if such a case can be resolved and the Germans can be convinced to let the two children reunite with their parents, then ‘strong cases,’ meaning instances where individuals have more direct connections to Sweden, can be resolved easily in the future.
Thus, Engzell starts looking into the matter, convincing his superiors to take it seriously and send Swedish diplomats to the Nazi headquarters in Berlin so that official pleas and then complaints against the lack of action can be made. After months of effort, the Germans can finally be brought to an understanding, and they agree to release the Bondy twins so that they can travel to Denmark and reunite with their parents. Engzell and Vogl know that this is a great opportunity to set precedent for further cases in the future, and so they travel to Copenhagen on the day when the children are scheduled to be sent back. The boys’ mother and stepfather are also present, and they express their heartfelt gratitude to the duo. However, there is one last cruel twist of fate, as the Bondy boys never reach Copenhagen, for they had seemingly not been released by the Nazis despite them having promised to do so earlier.
How does Engzell bring about a change in the situation?
When the atrocities being carried out by the Nazis finally get noticed all over Europe and America, and also in Sweden, Gosta Engzell gets more supporters, but Soderstrom still stands in his way. To prevent the influx of Jews into the country, Soderstrom invokes a 50-year-old rule in place in Sweden, according to which anyone seeking refuge in the country due to their religious identity must be looked after by the community of that very religion in Sweden. Since the official Jewish community, headed by a rabbi named Ehrenpreis, has almost no money left because of how the religion and the community have been ostracized in the rest of the continent, they cannot support any more refugees. Thus, Soderstrom prevents the granting of visas for some time, but Engzell eventually brings about a change to the situation by adding a new law along similar lines.
He ensures that the Swedish law will allow the national of a foreign country to support immigrant nationals from that country in Sweden, focusing more on national identity instead of religious community. He brings in Dag Hammarskjold, the current Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and also the Chairman of the Central Banks General Council in Sweden, for the implementation of this law. Similarly, a Danish minister named Johan Kruse, who has been living in exile in Sweden, is also very important to the plan. Engzell ensures an arrangement in which Hammarskjold agrees to personally lend money to Kruse so that he can look after the well-being of fellow Danish refugees when they are allowed into Sweden to escape the Nazi persecution in their homeland. Thus, the Swedish government indirectly spends money to help the Danish immigrants, without technically breaking any law at all. Despite this success, Soderstrom storms into the meeting at the last minute and tries to convince the foreign minister to prevent such developments. This is when Gosta Engzell decides to completely take the matter into his own hands, and he secretly calls for a press conference, in which he states that the Swedish government has already decided to help Jewish people from Denmark and has also decided to take strict action against any nation that would oppose Sweden’s latest policies.
Did Rut Vogl finally return to Sweden?
Engzell’s secretary, Rut Vogl, herself had been disallowed from entering Sweden when the two tried to return to Stockholm from Copenhagen. This was because of Vogl being a Jew, and although she had earlier managed to go to Germany and then return to Sweden, she had simply been lucky at the time. Now, the border guards refused to let her in, and she had to stay in Denmark for the time being. However, as Engzell and his aides changed the immigration policy of Sweden, Vogl is finally able to return to the country, which has become her home. She is not the only one who happily moves to Sweden, as the Bondy twins and their parents also immediately move to the country. On the very morning after the press conference conducted by Engzell, thousands of small boats start appearing all over the Swedish coast, as Jews from all over Europe come in search of safety.
The Swedish Connection ends by noting how Gosta Engzell’s brave act had helped save the lives of more than 100,000 Jews. The provisional passport system that he introduced was soon adopted by other countries, which allowed Jewish immigrants to come in, meaning that his work helped save even more lives through inspiration. However, Engzell never publicly spoke about his heroic acts, and the man lived a quiet life until his death in 1997.
Who is the narrator in the film?
The entirety of The Swedish Connection is narrated by a man whom we are introduced to only at the very end of the film, a certain Raoul Wallenberg. Having heard about Gosta Engzell and his team’s extraordinary efforts to change laws and help Jews survive the Nazi persecution, Wallenberg visits the Legal Department at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet the men and women he considers to be heroes. Although the film does not mention it, Raoul Wallenberg would soon go on to become a diplomat and humanitarian dedicated to sheltering Jews from Nazi atrocities by issuing protective passports to them. Thus, Engzell’s actions would further go on to help even more people in need through Raoul Wallenberg, whom he had unknowingly inspired to follow the same path as him.
