"Bäst ni gör som jag säger annars skall vi återigen visa vår makt" : En studie av statiska och flytande tillstånd på interneringslägret i Rengsjö

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this work is to explore how the interns and those who worked in the Swedishinternment camp in Rengsjö viewed their time there and if their behavior and thoughtschanged during it. It compares this to the theory of historian Michael Fuccault regardingphysical and mental punishments on people. It is also compared with the work of author andholocaust survivor Primo Levi who was a jewish man who survived Auscwich and wrote inhis books how the prisoners and guards were in a constant psychological battle where thegoal was to dehumanize the people to make the workers feel less guilt while putting theprisoners through horrible punishment. This in combination with Michael Foucault's theorythat punishments of the soul were more profitable in terms of the prisoners' debt to the state,will provide a good foundation to the main theory regarding this work: static and floatingstatuses for the human involved in the situation.Within the internment camp in Rengsjö the main objective of the camp was to detain andstore away people that the Swedish government saw as dangerous for Sweden’s situationduring world war 2. They had access to some benefits such as getting paid for their work sothat the interns could purchase items of comfort like cigarettes and coffee. If the internsmisbehaved they would get punished with various punishments such as withheld rights tomoney or furlough. But it was not just the interns that had their daily life within the camp butalso the director and guards. In this work, four individuals are analyzed based on theirposition within the camp: two interns, one guard and the last director of the camp. Thesewere chosen based on their appearances in the many official documents from the campwhich the national archives in Stockholm provided.In this work it is shown that the interns and the people working within the camp were in aconstant struggle regarding what counted as “normal” in the daily life and if it was disturbedsituations escalated to either violence or psychological stress It is also shown that eachintern followed a pattern which lead to them being unruly and even the guard analyzednoticed this and so did the director of the camp. The prisoner came to the camp, started towrite letters that got censored, they stopped to write letters, they were allowed a temporaryleave to go somewhere and when the intern returned that violent and depressed state tookhold of them. Most likely due to the intern wanting to return to freedom and the things theypreviously had during the leave.It has also been shown in this work that Foucault was right regarding his theory ofrehabilitating prisoners with the psychological punishments being more effective in dealingwith prisoners. However; he forgot one crucial part: the dimension of the soul and the “me” ofthe person in question. The prisoners in this internment camp had no issues with doingphysical labor but when their everyday life and the small golden nuggets of their day gotremoved they reacted more violently and depressed. Especially when the prisoners felt likethey were treated like something sub-human. Such is clear when you look at the variousincidents and the new rules and regulations the last director ordered to try and combat thisexact thing during the time he was present.