Language:
English
Year of publication:
2009
Titel der Quelle:
Yad Vashem Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
37,2 (2009) 67-92
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
Emphasizes the effect of the pervasive postwar Soviet influence on Finnish attitudes toward the wartime Finnish-German alliance and Holocaust historiography. Until the late 1980s local historians tended to downplay Finland's relationship to Nazism for fear of lending credence to those wishing to brand Finland as "fascist" or "anti-Soviet". This fear was most clearly evident in the lack of scholarly discussion about the Finnish relationship to the Holocaust. In the late 1970s-early 1980s three books were published on the 1942 deportation of eight Jewish refugees, who were handed over to the Germans. Of the researchers, only Hannu Raukallio, a vocal advocate of Finland as a "unique exception to the Holocaust", tried to be comprehensive. The collapse of the USSR liberated Finnish memory policy, but brought about an atmosphere of national vindication; Finland's complicity in German war crimes was denied. Elina Sana reopened the question in 2003, arguing that 3,000 civilians and POWs, among them Jews, were delivered to the Germans. A recently concluded government-funded research project on Finland, Soviet POWs, and extraditions between 1939-55 found that Finnish forces took some 70,000 Soviet POWs, among them 478 Jews. 93 died in captivity. The mortality rate among the Jews was ten percent lower than the overall mortality rate in Finnish camps. At least 47 Jews, deemed active communists, were among POWs handed over to the SIPO. Emphasizes that Jews were more easily suspected as communists than others. The project researchers discovered four foreign Jewish civilians handed over to the Germans, in addition to the eight already mentioned. Argues that antisemitism clearly affected the security police's decision to deport Jews from Finland. Concludes that Finland's part in the Holocaust requires further research, and advocates the creation of a Holocaust research center.
Note:
English and Hebrew.
URL:
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