Statens Utlänningskommission
- Utlänningskommissionen
- SUK
- State Foreigners Commission
Extent and Medium
Approx. 3500 linear meters of mainly textual records.
Biographical History
The State Foreigners Commission (Statens Utlänningskommission) commenced its operations on July 1, 1944. The Riksdag decided to establish the commission by merging the Ministry for Foreign Affairs' Expedition for Foreign Passport Issues (Utrikesdepartementets expedition för utländska passärenden) with two divisions of the National Board of Welfare, the Foreigners Bureau (Utlänningsbyrån) and the Department for Aliens Accommodations (Avdelningen för utlänningsförläggningar). The Ministry for Foreign Affairs records, from 1917 and onwards, about individual visa cases was also transferred to the commission.
The new central authority was organized as a commission consisting of a chairman, a director, and a maximum of eight members.
Initially, the commission comprised three bureaus - the Passport Office (Passbyrån), the Control Office (Kontrollbyrån), and the Social Office (Sociala byrån), and an Administration Office. The Social Office was dissolved on July 1, 1947.
The Foreigners Commission ceased to exist on July 1, 1969, when an independent central administrative agency, the State Immigration Agency (Statens invandrarverk), was formed.
The Passport Office handled issues concerning foreigners' rights to enter, reside, and work in Sweden. Additionally, the office dealt with issues concerning the expulsion of foreigners in connection with denied residence permit applications.
The Control Office managed individual foreigners' issues and was also responsible for surveilling foreigners from a law and order perspective. A special office section handled residence and work permit issues for certain groups of foreigners as well as expulsion and enforcement matters. This section also managed the detention of foreign citizens. Another special division within the office was responsible for so-called technical control, i.e., monitoring that foreigners complied with applicable regulations and did not reside or take up work in the country without the required permits. The Control Office encompassed a large number of registers and expeditionary organs.
The Control Office also established a special tracing department (Kontrollbyråns efterforskningsavdelning) in October 1945. The task was to collaborate with other national tracing bureaus and the International Red Cross to assist refugees and displaced persons in contacting their relatives and friends.
The Social Office succeeded the National Board of Welfare's Department for Foreigners Accommodations (Socialstyrelsens avdelning för utlänningsförläggningar). It was tasked with managing relief efforts for refugees, including the organization of refugee camps, as well as managing so-called internment camps for certain groups of foreigners. The bureau was dissolved on July 1, 1947, as the accommodation activities ceased and relief efforts were transferred to other agencies.
The office department dealt with personnel matters and administrative and accounting affairs. The statistics department fell under the purview of this department.
Scope and Content
The archive contains records with information about virtually all foreigners who resided in Sweden during the period of Nazi Germany's persecution and the Holocaust, as well as about survivors from the Holocaust who arrived in Sweden towards the end of the war and after the war. These documents are held in the National Archives (in Marieberg in central Stockholm) if the individual acquired Swedish citizenship, died in Sweden before 1971, or left Sweden before 1972 without becoming a Swedish citizen. If the individual remained in Sweden as a non-Swedish citizen in 1971/72, their files are held by the Swedish Migration Agency in Norrköping.
Appraisal
Although SUK's preserved archive is extensive, it has been subject to several accruals and disposals. The disposals included, among other things, a large number of permit decisions and an extensive series of individual documents. Decisions of accrual and disposal have been made by the government, the National Archives, and SUK and Statens invandrarverk.
The commission's archive has been delivered to the National Archives from Statens Invandrarverk in several batches. The major part of the archive was handed over in the mid-1970s ahead of the relocation of the Immigration Board to Norrköping, while the Secret Archive was delivered during the 1980s.
Conditions Governing Access
The National Archive considers confidentiality issues before granting access to documents from the archive. Some documents in the archive may still be classified to protect the personal integrity of individuals.
Finding Aids
The archive has been indexed by the Swedish National Archives. The index can be found in a binder at the archive as well as in the archive’s on-line database NAD (Nationell Arkivdatabas): https://sok.riksarkivet.se/arkiv/waENeBUQrH6d0002H087k3
The National Archives has also published two archival guidebooks that provide some information about documents providing details about immigration and Jewish history, respectively, in the archive:
Hallberg, Lars. Källor till invandringens historia i statliga myndigheters arkiv 1840–1990. Stockholm: Riksarkivet, 2001.
Carlsson, Carl Henrik. Källor till judarnas historia i Sverige: arkivguide. Täby: Riksarkivet, 2022.
Sources
The National Archives Database (NAD)
Yerusha.eu
Carlsson, Carl Henrik. Källor till judarnas historia i Sverige: arkivguide. Skrifter utgivna av Riksarkivet 44. Täby: Riksarkivet, 2022.
Hallberg, Lars. Källor till invandringens historia i statliga myndigheters arkiv 1840–1990. Skrifter utgivna av Riksarkivet 17. Stockholm: Riksarkivet, 2001.
Yerusha.eu
Rules and Conventions
EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0