Can anyone tell me whats with all the Nazi stuff in Dragon tattoo

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Why did the author go so hard on what Nazis in Sweden did in the book and the movie ? I mean the things these people did to the women were unspeakable bordering on fantasy and unrealistic. Is there any truth to that ? I mean, I know that Sweden was sympathetic to Nazis and a lot of Neo-Nazis escaped into Sweden after the war and mingled with general population. But the killings described in the movie were almost bordering on over the top and right out of a Texas chainsaw massacre movie.



Aside from the usual cinematic and literary liberties in the Dragon story, there's long been a small undercrust of nazi or proto-nazi sympathizers, followers and neo's in the Nordic countries in Europe, not to mention the US. Neo-nazi fantasy has it that most of western Europe consists of what might be called Germanic people who all need to unite in some sort of fantasyland of racial and ethnic "purity"...whatever the F*** that means. Whatever the ideological basis is, it's a fantasy, much like Klansmen in the US and has some sort of pseudo-roots in a pre-Roman world of Germanic ancestors, who, of course, lived in peace and harmony, eating Mastodon meat and tree roots, wearing bearskins during the ice age. Official Sweden today doesn't have much sympathy for nazis, but like the US and the Klan, it's an ugly undercrust that won't go away, aggravated by change and immigrants.



I mean, I know that Sweden was sympathetic to Nazis ....
Don’t know what you’re basing this on. Sweden was neutral during WWII & was one of only about 8 countries that maintained their neutrality until the war ended.
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Why did the author go so hard on what Nazis in Sweden did in the book and the movie ? I mean the things these people did to the women were unspeakable bordering on fantasy and unrealistic.
I think that there are two reasons for the Nazi element of the film. (I've seen the 2009 film and have not read the book or seen the 2011 remake).

The first is simply that someone sympathizing with or supporting the Nazi movement is a classic way to establish evil or sociopathy in a character. It also makes a more subtle point that plenty of people who were sympathetic to or in agreement with Nazi ideas were able to just . . . keep on living normal lives post-WW2.

But I think that there's another point to be made by including the Nazi element.

(SPOILERS FOR THIRD ACT PLOT POINTS OF Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

WARNING: spoilers below
I think that people like the father and the son, both of whom are sadists, rapists, and murderers, are not made that way by an ideology. I think that for the vast majority of people like this, an ideology gives them *something* to hook their evil impulses to. So if you already have a desire to hurt, debase, and kill women, then if an ideology comes along that says "Hey, there's this group of people who are lesser", then it becomes an excuse. (I do think that hateful propaganda can lead to violence, but I think that it takes a lot of work to turn a peaceful person into someone who would torture or kill someone else).

It's a very important detail, in my mind, that the father and the son both also abused the daughter. If their actions are all about antisemitism, then why would they ever go after her? I think that the answer is that the impulse to hurt came first (partly a learned behavior in the son) and the excuse (antisemitism) came after as a convenient justification. And since people who abuse others this way often comes from feeling superior, the Nazi philosophy in particular is appealing.


Now, beyond that, I think that it's also important to remember that the actions of serial killers in movies/books are often pretty extreme, bordering on fantastical. In books/movies serial killers do all kinds of over the top things (posing bodies like mannequins, making skin suits, leaving artfully staged crime scenes with taunting messages for the police).



Don’t know what you’re basing this on. Sweden was neutral during WWII & was one of only about 8 countries that maintained their neutrality until the war ended.
Being neutral was part of the problem. They really could not round up the nazis during the war or they would not have been neutral, as a result, after the war there were bad guys there, as in other parts of Europe where they fled and disguised their former identities, living as though nothing had happened. Many also ended up in Switzerland too. Working creepy nazis into the plot was a decent way to add a layer of evil to them, being sure you know just how bad they were.



Neutral was the word. Neutral meant not arresting them for being nazis, something that some nefarious characters took advantage of. Some of them just wanted to get away from it all, but some had a post-war agenda that went on for decades, not just in Sweden but in other places.

When I was in college long ago, I had a history professor who did something like that. He just wanted to get out before The End, flew a plane to UK, made his way to the US and became a Euro history professor in a small town college. Characters like that are good fodder for creepy intrigues, although he really DID just want to get away and start a different life after having been indoctrinated in the Hitler Youth. His insider perspective was truly fascinating and had a lot in common with the story in Jo Jo Rabbit.