White Aryan Resistance (Sweden)
Encyclopedia
White Aryan Resistance also known as VAM, was a militant neo-nazi group active in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 between 1991 and 1993. The name of the group was derived from the US White supremacist organisation WAR
White Aryan Resistance
White Aryan Resistance is a neo-Nazi white separatist organization founded and led by former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger. Part of the American far right, it is based in Warsaw, Indiana and is incorporated as a business....

 however the point of the acronym is lost in the translation. According to Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson
Karl Stig-Erland Larsson , who wrote professionally as Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He is best known for writing the "Millennium series" of crime novels, which were published posthumously...

, a researcher of white supremacist organizations, the group was instead  styled on the then already defunct US White supremacist group The Order
The Order (group)
The Order, also known as the Brüder Schweigen or Silent Brotherhood, was an organization active in the United States between 1983 and 1984...

, led by Robert Matthews. VAM was founded by Klas Lund
Klas Lund
Klas Lund is a leading member of the Swedish neonazi group Svenska motståndsrörelsen...

, other leading members were Torulf Magnusson and Peter Melander, editor of the group's magazine Storm
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...

. The organisation's symbol was the "Wolfsangel
Wolfsangel
The Wolfsangel is a symbol. It is also known as the Wolf's Hook or Doppelhaken. The upright variant is also known as "thunderbolt" and the horizontal variant as "werewolf"....

". VAM has been implicated in many serious crimes in Sweden, including the infamous Police-murders in Malexander
Malexander
Malexander is a minor village in Boxholm Municipality, Sweden. The village is known for the "Malexander murders" which occurred in 1999, when two Swedish police officers were killed by bank robbers.- Malexander murders :...

, car bombings of political journalists and murders of perceived opponents. According to a report prepared and jointly published in November 1999 by Sweden's four largest daily newspapers, Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet is a Swedish tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian media group Schibsted, and its editorial page...

, Expressen
Expressen
Expressen is one of two nationwide evening tabloid newspapers in Sweden, the other being Aftonbladet. Expressen was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and slogans "it stings" or "Expressen to your rescue", always on the reader's side....

, Dagens Nyheter
Dagens Nyheter
is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It has the largest circulation of Swedish morning newspapers, followed by Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet, and is the only morning newspaper that is distributed to subscribers across the whole country. In 2009 DN had a circulation of 316,000, reaching 881...

and Svenska Dagbladet
Svenska Dagbladet
Svenska Dagbladet is a daily newspaper in Sweden. The first issue appeared on 18 December 1884. Svenska Dagbladet is published in Stockholm and provides coverage of national and international news as well as local coverage of the Greater Stockholm region...

, many former members of this violent organisation are now members of present-day neo-Nazi organisations.

After VAM, Klas Lund organised The Swedish Resistance Movement (Swedish: Svenska Motståndsrörelsen). Another VAM off-shoot is the National Socialist Front (Swedish: Nationalsocialistisk Front, NSF) which was formed in 1994 by VAM sympathisers in Karlskrona
Karlskrona
Karlskrona is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 35,212 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Sweden's only remaining naval base and the headquarters of the...

.
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