”Sjömansprästen var den ende närvarande svensken.”

Om begravningen i Ute och Hemmas dödsnotiser under andra världskriget

Abstract

During WWII, thousands of Swedish merchant sailors perished at sea, while others passed away abroad and whose remnants could not be returned to Sweden. In these instances, the sailors required burial outside of Swedish soil, and their loved ones back at home were not able to attend the funeral. Through narrative analysis this article discusses the descriptions of Swedish funerals given in notices of death published in Ute och Hemma between 1940 and 1945. In these texts wreaths, language, and the Swedish soil appear as meaningful aspects of the ceremony, and furthermore, presence plays a central part in the ritual. Crews from other vessels attended the funerals of fellow sailors and became a surrogate for the deceased sailor’s family in Sweden as well as a representative of the sailor community. This article argues that the notice of death enabled the family to experience the funeral when they couldn’t be there themselves, during uncertain times of war.