Slakt, bedövning och antisemitism : Skäktningsdebatten i Sveriges riksdag under 1920-talet

• Main Author: Eklund, Magne
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Jönköping University, HLK, Ämnesforskning 2021
• Subjects: antisemitism; skäktning; slakt; Sveriges riksdag; 1920-talet; History; Historia
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-52197

The historical study of Swedish antisemitism in the first decades of the twentieth century, initially became a focal point in the 1990s. Since then, research has, for example, been done on the organized political antisemitism and on antisemitic attitudes that prevailed unreflected in the public discourse. 1937 the Swedish parliament passed a bill that mandated mandatory stunning before slaughter, which in turn outlawed the Jewish slaughter method shechita. If and how, the debate was informed or based upon antisemitic believes has been disputed in previous research. The purpose of this essay is therefore, to investigate how the debate preceding the law of mandatory stunning can be understood. The essays theoretical approach is based on Kenneth L. Marcus further development of Helein Feins definition of antisemitism and on Artur Sandauers notion of allosemitism. The philosopher Slavoj Žižek’s theoretical edifice of the Real, is used as an overarching metatheory in the essay. The essay’s findings are that the different opinions on the issue cannot be placed according to ideological- or party lines. Biased opinions were put forth in the debate that pointed out the jews as strange and inferior vis-à-vis the Swedes, which I understand as allosemitic. Shechita inhabited a central role in the debate and was put under more scrutiny than the other questioned slaughter methods. Based upon Lars M. Andersson I suggest that the distinguishing of shechita from “Swedish” slaughter methods was an integral part in the creation of the modern national identity. The obliged stunning before slaughter became part of the Swedish animal friendliness, which in turn was seen as evidence of Sweden’s high-ranking cultural level. A relationship that still today is represented, in the nationalistic discourse.