The great lie, “Sanitation of central Stockholm”

Roughly 70 years ago, the center of Stockholm was bulldozed to the ground. At some points the entire centre of the city was a big hole (literally) a big hole. 16 and 17 century buildings were knocked down. Whole old neighbourhoods were destroyed and the people living there forced out to the suburbs. The destruction is unimaginable and despite the heavy bombing that London had, nothing comparable happened there.

To understand how bad it was you have to imagine Soho and Covent Garden and the whole area down to the Thames river bulldozed and replaced with parking houses and highways. Thousands of people had to be removed, shops closed and a way of life that had sustained Stockholm for hundreds of years gone in an instant. These were the houses where famous writers, politicians and artists had lived. These were the areas where Sweden had been formed. The loss of culture and the most vibrant part of the city is a crime against future generations that will never be forgiven.

So how does a nation do this to itself without uprising? How come after all these years there is so little spoken about this. How could generations accept this massive destruction of their heritage.

They did what all nations did, they told a lie, a version of a story. The phrases used are dangerously reminiscent of horrible events in history. They “sanitised the area”.

This phrase is the official name of the project, “The city sanitation”. As I have spoken to any relative above the age of 40 they have all made the exact same excuse “but it was so run down.. There was nothing else to do”, or “ It was such a poor area with no facilities”, “It had to be sanitised”. It’s become the official explanation, the official excuse and huge parts of the Swedish population have bought it straight up. What does it say about the people living there, their whole lives had to be “sanitised”. As always when it comes to big decisions like these the locals were poor with no political power.

In reality the social democrats had a vision of starting over, year zero. Erasing the feudalist past where most people lived in abject…