Swedish royal family hit by fresh Nazi allegations

BERLIN - Sweden's royal family has been rocked by a new scandal which has exposed the hidden Nazi past of the Queen's father, only weeks after its reputation was shattered by lurid disclosures about the King's secret sex life.

The latest revelations concern Walther Sommerlath, the late father of Sweden's German-born Queen Silvia.

He has been unmasked by an investigative television documentary as a Nazi party member who grew rich during World War II running an armaments factory that had been stolen from its Jewish owners.

The disturbing revelations, made by Sweden's Kalla fakta (Cold facts) programme, contradict 67-year-old Queen Silvia's claims this year that her father was not "politically active" and that the factory he ran produced toy trains, hairdriers and parts for civilian gas masks.

She also denied he had taken over the factory from its Jewish owners.

But documents show Walther Sommerlath joined the Nazi party in Brazil in 1934 - only a year after Hitler took power.

He returned to Germany shortly before World War II broke out in 1939 and took over a previously Jewish-owned Berlin factory that had been "Aryanised" by the Nazis.

Under Sommerlath's ownership, the plant produced tank parts, anti-aircraft guns and other items vital to the Nazi war effort.

When Silvia Sommerlath married Sweden's King Carl Gustav in 1976, Walther Sommerlath denied he had ever been a Nazi party member.

A Swedish newspaper first revealed the fact in 2003, but the Queen flatly refused to respond to the disclosure.

She spoke for the first time about the subject in July this year, saying although he joined the Nazi party, her father was neither politically active nor a soldier.

She has so far refused to answer questions on the latest disclosures about her father.

Her brother Ralf Sommerlath told Sweden's Expressen newspaper that the Queen was "terribly upset" by the documentary, which he dismissed as "lies and slander".

A statement released by Sweden's royal palace said: "The Queen has no reason to comment on the content of the programme," adding, "Of course, the Queen is sorry about her father becoming a member of the Nazi party. She first knew about his membership in adulthood. She never had the opportunity to discuss this with her father."

Last month the royal family's reputation as a model of respectability suffered a devastating blow after the book The Reluctant Monarch exposed Queen Silvia's husband, 64-year-old King Carl XVI Gustav, as a philanderer who attended wild sex parties abroad and in underworld Stockholm clubs while the secret police kept guard.

- Independent