ABBA Legend’s Torment Over Nazi Past and Enduring Grief

It’s been more than 50 years since the Eurovision Song Contest catapulted them to global stardom and just three years after their multi-million-dollar virtual extravaganza Voyage opened in London.

But as breathless rumors swirl that a Mamma Mia 3 is in the works, ABBA are almost as relevant now as they were in the band’s 1970s heyday.

Fans are even casting saucy pop poppet Sabrina Carpenter as Amanda Seyfried’s onscreen daughter in the unconfirmed but eagerly anticipated movie franchise update.

Now, a new book about the band – featuring exclusive interviews and over a decade of deep research – reveals not just the secrets to ABBA’s success, but the astonishing darkness they hid behind their faultless harmonies and clean, Swedish smiles.

Those stories include the curse of alcoholism, a string of tragedies and the Nazi father whom singer Frida was forced to keep a secret.

In an exclusive excerpt from The Story of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover, music journalist Jan Gradvall uncovers the heartache of growing up as ‘Nazi spawn’ – a result of Hitler’s vile plans to breed an Aryan master race.

There was a secret darkness behind ABBA’s faultless harmonies and Eurovision smiles (Frida, second from right, pictured with her bandmates)

Breathless rumors swirl that a Mamma Mia 3 is in the works. Pictured: Meryl Streep (front left) with Amanda Seyfried (front right) in Mamma Mia!

Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad was born on Nov. 15, 1945, in Ballangen, Norway, when the country was still occupied by Hitler.

Her mother was 19-year-old Norwegian girl Synni Lyngstad. Her father, seven years older, was Alfred Haase, a sergeant in the German Nazi army.

Frida was a lovechild, but there is also a political dimension: during the war, German soldiers were encouraged to have children with Norwegian women. But by the time Frida was born, the war was over and so-called ‘German babies’ were targets for acts of retribution.

In 1935 the SS chief Heinrich Himmler created the breeding program, called Lebensborn, as a way of securing German world domination. The occupied Nordic nations were considered perfect for ‘breeding.’

Alfred – who, in photos, had a mustache and wore his hair styled like Clark Gable – wooed the teenage Synni, though he neglected to mention that he already had a wife, Anna, and a newborn daughter, Karin, back home in Germany.

Synni spoke German fairly well and was smitten by the dashing soldier. But when she told her family about the romance, they were appalled and tried to get her to change her mind.

But she could not be swayed – and as the couple took long walks in the countryside, they made plans for where they would go after the war, when they could travel again.

In 1944, however, the fortunes of war had changed. Alfred’s platoon was ordered to prepare for evacuation and, on his last evening in Norway, he finally told Synni about his wife and child.

By this stage, however, Synni was already pregnant and, no longer able to conceal her growing belly, she was a target for abuse in the town. Everyone knew what had happened and who the father was, and they hurled insults and spat at her in the streets.

Women who had been in romantic relationships with German soldiers were labeled ‘horizontal collaborators.’ Many were harassed, had their hair forcibly shaved and some had swastikas painted onto their faces.

Accused of being collaborators, pregnant Synni and her mother, Anni, were forced to clean buildings in which the Germans had lived.

Teenage Synni (right) was smitten by the dashing Nazi soldier Alfred Haase (left)

Women who had been in romantic relationships with German soldiers were labelled ‘horizontal collaborators,’ and many had their hair forcibly shaved in public

Jan Gradvall (left) spent a decade researching the band and interviewing each of the members for his new book

After Frida was born, an ever-hopeful Synni was still convinced everything would work out. She waited hopefully for Alfred to return. But as she walked around with her stroller and experienced continued harassment directed at her child, who was called ‘Nazi spawn,’ grandma Anni realized the situation was untenable.

They decided that Anni and baby Frida would go to neighboring Sweden. Synni had found work at a hotel in southern Norway where nobody knew about her past. The plan was for Synni to make money then join them in Sweden.

But any hopes that the three generations of women would eventually be reunited were not to be.

On Sept. 28, 1947, Synni died from kidney failure – before Frida had even turned 2.

Now with the double burden of caring for a young child while working multiple jobs, Frida’s grandmother shouldered a heavy responsibility.

Displays of physical affection for her grandchild did not come easily – there were no hugs or kisses. And when Frida saw her classmates get picked up by their parents, she realized for the first time how different her own situation was. 

‘We were two lonely people together,’ she said.

When Frida asked about her father, she was told that he was probably dead.

It was only much later, in early 1977, when Frida was more than 30 years old and ABBA was one of the biggest bands in the world, that her father suddenly got in touch.

Her family had always assumed that Alfred Haase, who had never contacted Synni during or after her pregnancy, had died at the end of the war.

But a German girl, the daughter of Frida’s half-brother, happened to read an interview with Frida and suspected that the unknown German father might be her grandfather. That hunch turned out to be correct.

A meeting was arranged in West Germany.

It was only much later, when ABBA was one of the biggest bands in the world, that Frida’s father got in touch

‘It still mostly felt strange to me,’ says Frida (right) of meeting with her estranged father (center). Her second husband and bandmate Benny Andersson is seen left

Frida, pictured left with her third husband, Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen, right, who died suddenly from cancer aged just 49

Frida’s daughter Ann Lise-Lotte (center), died in a car crash in the US in 1998, shortly before her 31st birthday

‘I thought he was a nice man,’ she said later, ‘but it still mostly felt strange to me. I was 32 years old and had a family and children of my own.

‘Besides, I spoke no German at the time, though I got help from my aunt who had met Alfred during the occupation.

‘Obviously we didn’t develop the kind of connection we might have if we had known each other my entire life.’

There was, unfortunately, more tragedy to strike. 

Frida’s daughter Ann Lise-Lotte, died in a car crash in the US in 1998, shortly before her 31st birthday.

The year after her daughter passed away, her third husband, Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen – whom she married in 1992 – died suddenly from cancer at just 49 years old.

Then in the autumn of 2023, her beloved grandson Jonathan also died of cancer.

Frida says that it was hard to find her way back to joy. 

‘It took a very long time,’ she says. ‘It took many years of incomprehensible grief.’

The Story of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover by Jan Gradvall is published by St Martin’s Press