Loko’s Domain You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

Jessica Alba correcting Bill O’Reilly and many others on World War II history is not what you would expect from the lass. Her comment to be Sweden about her light tussle with O’Reilly made headlines with everyone claiming that she was wrong without any research. It’s because she played a character that was a stripper in Sin City, right? What type casting.

If they would have performed a simple Google search, they would have known that Sweden was, indeed, one of the great neutral countries in Europe during WWII. In the early 40s, they saved thousands and thousands of Jews from certain death and torture and gave home to somewhere around 50,000 Norwegians. Their efforts seem to have been forgotten by most of history. The humanitarianism aside, why would anyone assume that Sweden was not neutral during WWII?

Sweden traded millions of tons of iron ore and also ball bearings to Germany. Even during the war. Sweden had dealings with Germany that actually could have turned the tide of war, or even stop Germany altogether, if they would have discontinued exporting mass amounts of ore. Because of their neutrality policy, they could not have interfered. Sweden also feared an economic collapse if they stopped trading and an attack from Germany as a result.

There were several other neutral countries, but many only decided to declare neutrality late in the war. While the United States did not immediately declare war on Germany, and there is speculation if the US would have if Hitler did not declare it first, we did declare war on Japan first because of Pearl Harbor. Several days later, Hitler declared war on the US. That is when we entered a German First policy with the British. The US was no longer neutral in 1940 because of the Lend-Lease Act, but did not enter the war until over a year later.

There are stories about the US denying asylum to immigrant Jews are true, but most of these stories were from when the US did not want to break their neutrality and stay out of the war for as long as possible. It wasn’t just the US, of course, as many countries either took as many Jews as they could handle or refused to take any at all. There were little moral justifications in doing so aside from getting involved in a long and bloody war.

Sweden did accomplish rescue efforts that saved thousands, but the question will always remain of what would have happened if Sweden cut off Germany completely when a second world war became more than a rising fear. Even in the year 1944, the Swedes continued to trade with Germany. Sweden relied on compensation for their concessions and Germany relied heavily on the raw materials to create weapons and vehicles. Even with the loss of 1,500 Swedish sailors and attacked shipments from the British, the trade continued.

While Jessica Alba corrected a man I hope plants a bullet in his brain as a consequence of his hateful ignorance, it only shows that the media is quick to label a person without any knowledge or research beforehand. Everyone that had any negative criticism towards her comment should be fired or at least severely reprimanded on the sole basis of stupidity. May the typist responsibly for the ignorant slander receive severe carpal tunnel syndrome.