This is an extract from a larger article at the link. I invite our resident Icelandic expert, ismolinn, a direct descendant of Freyja, to further instruct us on the subject. Specifically, how did they come to control the banking industry there?T.J.B.
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http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-vilhjalmur-f04.htm
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"A Pure Nordic Country, Free of Jews"

In the late 1930s, the Hilfsverein der Juden in Deutschland (the Aid Association of German Jews) monitored the situation in Iceland just as in other countries. With most European countries now in the process of totally closing their doors to Jewish refugees, the aim was to find what refuge was available. In a circular sent by the Hilfsverein in February 1939 to the Auswanderberater in Reich (the Emigration Consultant of the German Reich), there is a report on the situation for Jews in Iceland. The Hilfsverein concluded that a large emigration of Jews to Iceland was impossible. The information on the situation there came from Hans Mann, a young Jew from Berlin who had fled to Iceland with his mother. Hans Mann wrote:

Hereby I notify the Hilfsverein that Hans R. [Hans Rottberger, his brother-in-law],who, who came here last year in June has received a rejection of his request for a residence permit, and has been expelled from Iceland. I am still here with my mother. We have no residence permit....We really want to get away from this unfriendly and inhospitable polar county, if only we could.

The officials create all kinds of difficulties to prevent further immigration of foreigners. A foreigner only receives a residence permit if he has gained a recommendation from an Icelander as a semiskilled worker, whose skills are not already available in the country. Unemployment and poverty in the country force the authorities to take these measures.

I support myself and my mother as a farmhand, but I cannot recommend for anyone to work with farming here. The way of living and the hardship in the countryside is in the long run unbearable for European people. The main food intake consists of fish and salted meat; vegetables are completely lacking. The frightful polar storms make that impossible. I am ill from my last occupation and have arrived in Reykjavík, where my mother is staying in a small room. I am blind in one of my eyes (detached retina) and have a rash all over my body (metabolic disorder). I aim at going to a more friendly country. This isolation from all Jewish life is nearly unbearable. I know only two Jews here. Both have married Icelanders in order not to get expelled.19

The reality was even worse than what Hans Mann described. In November 1937, his brother-in-law Hans Rottberger contacted the Danish legation in Reykjavík and asked for assistance because he and his family were threatened with expulsion. He had been reported to the police by an Icelander who claimed that Rottberger was robbing him of his market for leather goods. The first secretary of the Danish legation in Reykjavík, C.A.C. Brun, who on other occasions had helped Jews in Iceland, tried to do what he could. He wrote in his diary: "Although the Jewish policy of the Nazis might be necessary in principle, one is shocked when one is confronted with real cases, and Nordic countries should not be inhumane." The minister of the legation gave C.A.C. Brun permission to plead the case of the Jewish family to the Icelandic prime minister, Hermann Jónasson. Brun wrote in his diary about his discussion with the prime minister at a dinner in the Danish legation:

After dinner I approached the prime minister. He showed extraordinary understanding for my arguments and authorizes me to announce to the little Jew that he definitely has to leave - it is a principle in Iceland; Iceland has always been a pure Nordic country, free of Jews, and those who have entered in the last years must leave - but: Rottberger can get a respite until spring to complete his affairs. Fair enough!20

Before the Rottberger family was expelled to Denmark in May 1938, the largest Icelandic newspaper wrote in its lead article: "It must be welcomed that the authorities have shown firmness in dealing with these vagabonds....Hopefully the authorities will ensure...that foreigners, who are still here without a residence permit will be sent out of the country immediately."21

A young Jew from Leipzig was also poorly treated in Iceland. Alfred Kempner came to Iceland already in 1935, after having stayed in Copenhagen, where he had moved in the hope of getting a job in his uncle's firm. But restrictions on Jewish refugees in Denmark made that impossible. In Iceland he quickly found a job on a farm, but the wages were meager. By January 1938, he was unemployed. He tried to earn a little by giving private German lessons, but the income was insufficient to cover the rent at the small guesthouse where he was staying in Reykjavík. The owner of the guesthouse eventually contacted the police, who apprehended Alfred Kempner for being without means. He was sent on the first boat to Bergen in Norway. There the Norwegian authorities refused to admit him and sent him back. Back in Reykjavík, Kempner explained that he had family in Copenhagen.

Alfred Kempner sat in a Reykjavík prison while the police authorities decided what to do with him. In May 1938 he was expelled and sent to Copenhagen, with instructions written by the director of the Division of Immigration of the Chief of Police in Reykjavík, and an attached translation in German. These documents state:

A German citizen, Mr. Alfred Kempner, is being sent to Copenhagen on board the steamship Brúarfoss. Mr. Kempner has been expelled from Iceland because he was without means. In accordance with specific wishes he is being transferred to Copenhagen, as he has declared that he plans to apply for a residence permit there. I take the liberty to ask the police authorities to take care of his further transfer to Germany in case he does not get a residence permit in Denmark. All expenses related to that will of course be covered by Icelandic authorities. Attached you will find his passport, the report of the police authorities in Bergen, as well as a German translation of a report that the police authorities here have written on his case.22

Thus the Icelandic authorities were willing to cover all expenses related to expelling Alfred Kempner to Germany in case Denmark was not willing to accept him. Upon his arrival in Copenhagen, the message from the Icelandic authorities was delivered to the Immigration Department of the Danish State Police. The police officer who wrote the report on the case was clearly somewhat resentful of the Icelandic procedure. In a note to the Justice Ministry he wrote: "It should result in a reprimand that the Icelandic authorities execute expulsions in such a manner without any approval from Danish authorities." A young official in the Justice Ministry, Erik Hastrup, who actively participated in expelling stateless Jews from Denmark to Germany during WW II, wrote the following, which alludes to the Rottberger family, who had been expelled to Denmark somewhat earlier than Kempner: "Isn't it possible now for the police to establish with the Icelanders that they must send their Germans directly off to their native country, because we are not interested in them?"23 Alfred Kempner was, however, just barely, allowed to stay in Denmark, while several other Jews who were expelled or rejected by the Icelandic authorities had to return to Germany and Austria and were murdered in extermination camps.

Only a small number of Icelanders pleaded the case of the Jewish refugees in Iceland. They include the doctors Katrín Thoroddsen and Jónas Sveinsson, the author Hendrik Ottósson, the publisher and Manufacturer Ragnar Jónsson, as well as the afore-mentioned secretary of the Danish legation in Reykjavík, C.A.C. Brun. Generally, however, Icelandic spiritual leaders, ministers, bishops, academics, and authors did not lend support to the refugees. Icelandic authors who did not espouse romantic nationalism, or even National Socialism, were often acolytes of Stalin and the Soviet empire.
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