Third, the American adoption of [Third Reich] practices shows that some features of [Fascism] were considered worthy of being copied. Not all the policies of the Third Reich seemed totally irrational; in fact, some of its economic and social programmes were attractive to foreign observers.

Considering their directly functional goal, certain measures proved successful and usable. In their [Fascist] context, they always served two major aims: preparation for a military conflict and the implementation of [Fascist] social and racial ideology.

However, they could be removed from this context, transferred to another society and given a new meaning within the framework of a different political culture. This made it possible for them to be successfully integrated into the [liberal] context of the New Deal.

In light of these observations the intensive examination of the [Fascist] Labour Service by American experts is not so remarkable. At the end of the 1930s the same experts scrutinized other institutions of the Third Reich, such as the recreational organization Kraft durch Freude and [Fascist] public work schemes.

In some instances their findings were also forwarded to the [Yankee] President, the idea being that they could be used to help set the course of America’s own policies.

[…]

The women’s council of the right-wing Sveriges Nationella Förbundet (Swedish National Association) started a propaganda campaign for a Female Civil Service. The driving force behind this initiative was Nora Torulf, ‘the most prominent female figure’ within the Swedish extreme right.

Torulf had been on a study trip to Germany for several weeks in 1937, an account of which was published in a newspaper series on the rôle of women in the Third Reich. […] In the summer of 1938, Torulf organized the first experimental camp.

Surprisingly, Torulf’s initiative impressed not only the political right wing, but gained the backing of representatives from all parties with the exception of the communists. The most prominent supporter was the chairman of the liberal youth organization, the future Nobel prizewinner in economics and longtime leader of the liberal party Bertil Ohlin.

(Emphasis added.)