Author says Swedish police kept file on Ingvar Kamprad, claiming that his flirtation with Nazism went deeper than 'youthful confusion'

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

A new book claims Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad's youth ties with Nazi groups extended beyond what he has previously admitted, saying Sweden's intelligence agency even set up a special file on him.

Swedish author and journalist Elisabeth Asbrink says Kamprad joined the Swedish Nazi party in 1943 when 17, prompting the security police to start a file on him the same year.

Asbrink also claims in her book, And in Wienerwald the Trees Remain, that the founder of the Swedish furniture chain was in contact with Nazi sympathisers until at least 1950 – two years longer than he had previously acknowledged.

She writes that Kamprad's letters were secretly opened by Swedish security police and their contents, including information about his effort to recruit members, were noted on his file, in which the police wrote "Nazi".

"They were steamed open, copied and closed again," Asbrink states.

The intelligence agency is also said to have noted that Kamprad "had some sort of functionary position" in a youth Nazi organisation that sent him newsletters.

Per Heggenes, a spokesman for Kamprad, told the Associated Press that the Ikea founder had never been aware of the file's existence until now.

He reiterated that Kamprad sees his Nazi involvement as the "biggest mistake" of his life. "There are no Nazi-sympathising thoughts in Ingvar's head whatsoever," Heggenes said.

The Swedish intelligence service refused to comment on the book's content and referred callers to the national archives. Calls to the national archives went unanswered.

The book is based on a dozen interviews, official documents and more than 500 letters. It recounts the true story of one of Kamprad's best friends, Otto Ullmann, an Austrian Jew sent to Sweden as a young boy just before the outbreak of war.

While Ullmann worked for the Kamprad family in 1944, his parents were killed by Nazis in Germany. He learned about their deaths two years later.

The book also mentions a wedding invitation Kamprad sent in 1950 to a renowned fascist, Per Engdahl, in which he emphasised how proud he was that the two belonged to the same circle.

In 1999, Kamprad admitted his past involvement with Nazism in a book about his life and asked for forgiveness for his "stupidity."

He also admitted to Swedish media that he had attended meetings of Nazi groups between 1945 and 1948.

Kamprad has attributed his early sympathies to Nazism to his upbringing, saying he was greatly influenced by his grandmother, a native of the current Czech Republic region of Bohemia, who introduced him to Nazi propaganda magazines at an early age.

In a statement, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants demanded that an inquiry be opened into Kamprad's past.

"Holocaust survivors are shocked at the reports of the depths of Kamprad's Nazi involvement, which he previously had dismissed as mere 'teenage confusion'," it said.

"It is time for Kamprad to come clean. Swedish intelligence files describe his recruitment of others to the fascist movement and his involvement with it well after World War II. This can hardly be characterised as youthful confusion."