During WWII, between 175 and 200 Swedish volunteers, (possibly as many as 315), served in the Waffen-SS, in spite of the fact that Sweden was a neutral country with a strong pro-Allied public opinion. The number of Swedish volunteers in the Waffen-SS might have been 2,000 to 3,000 had the Swedish authorities not set up so many obstacles to reach Germany and had Finland not admitted foreign volunteers into their armed forces, where they spoke the same language as a great part of the population. Thus it was easier to join the Finnish Army than the Waffen-SS. Thus, approximately 75% to 80% of the Swedes in the Waffen-SS had already served in the Finland before volunteering and all of them reached the Waffen-SS by illegally crossing the borders.

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