Hugo Valentin reported on the Holocaust – his archive is now held by Uppsala University Library
Hugo Valentin’s unique archive – thousands of letters, manuscripts and other documents – is now available at the University Library. The material offers new opportunities to study one of Sweden’s most committed voices during the Second World War.
A substantial archive
The collection comprises more than 5,200 letters to and from Hugo Valentin together with manuscripts, lecture notes, speeches and other papers, illuminating his life, scholarship and public engagement, particularly during and after the war.
A family donation
Between 2020 and 2025 Valentin’s children and grandchildren donated the papers to the Library. The gift arrived in several instalments and has now been arranged for research and study.
Zoom imageEn dansk jude beskriver sin flykt till Sverige i ett brev till Hugo Valentin 1943.
Cataloguing the archive
Processing the archive was a major task: the papers were categorised, ordered and described to create a clear structure. The finding aid is published in Alvin – platform for digital collections and digitized cultural heritage, where researchers can request items for consultation in the Special Collections Reading Room at Carolina Rediviva. All letters have also been recorded in the Library’s digital letter database, which can also be studied at Carolina Rediviva.
High research interest
Even before cataloguing was complete, scholars were consulting the papers in the Reading Room. Staff report that it is one of the most requested twentieth-century personal archives, thanks to its relevance for studies of antisemitism, refugee work and resistance to Nazism.
Lunchtime lecture – 28 May
On 28 May archivist Johan Sjöberg will give an online lecture about the Valentin archive as part of the Library Lunchtime Learning series. The lecture is held in Swedish.
About Hugo Valentin
Hugo Valentin (1888–1963) was a historian and docent at Uppsala University; he was granted the title of professor in 1948.
Best known for his work on Sweden’s Age of Liberty, he also wrote on antisemitism, the history of Jews in Sweden and historiography. During the Second World War he reported on the Nazi genocide and was deeply involved in refugee issues and Zionism.
