Finland is one of the unusual cases of the Second World War. The country was a German co-belligerent rather than a German ally; it was at war with the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, and it received German military assistance, but it was not formally part of the Axis. The Finnish Jewish population of around 2,000 lived through the war essentially unharmed. Finnish Jewish men served in the Finnish army, fought against the Soviet Union, and in some cases received German Iron Crosses for their service, awards that they generally refused to wear. Eight Jewish refugees of foreign citizenship were handed to the Germans by the Finnish government in 1942 and were murdered. The Finnish protection of its native Jewish population was otherwise complete.
The community
The Finnish Jewish community of around 2,000 people was small and concentrated in Helsinki, Turku and Tampere. It had been there since the nineteenth century, with most families having arrived from the Russian Empire under Russian rule. Jews had been granted full Finnish citizenship in 1917, the same year Finland gained independence from Russia. The community was secular, urban and integrated. Antisemitism was a marginal phenomenon in pre-war Finnish politics.
The Continuation War
Finland fought two wars against the Soviet Union in the 1939 to 1944 period. The Winter War of 1939 to 1940 ended with Finland ceding territory but retaining independence. The Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 was launched alongside the German invasion of the Soviet Union, with Finland aiming to recover the lost territory and more. German forces operated in northern Finland in coordination with Finnish forces against the Soviet Union. The relationship was tactical rather than ideological: the Finnish government made clear that it was not adopting Nazi racial doctrine and was not at war with the Western Allies.
The position on the Jews
The German foreign ministry pressed the Finnish government on the Jewish question on several occasions during 1942. The Finnish Prime Minister, J. W. Rangell, gave the famous answer that Finland was a decent country and that the Finnish Jews were Finnish citizens. The Finnish parliament, when the question was raised, refused to consider any restriction on Jewish citizenship rights. Marshal Mannerheim, the head of the Finnish armed forces, attended a service at the Helsinki synagogue on Holocaust Memorial Day in 1944, in a public gesture of solidarity that was widely reported.
Some 300 Jewish men served in the Finnish army during the Continuation War. They fought in regular Finnish units alongside non-Jewish Finnish soldiers, including in some cases alongside the German army units operating in northern Finland. Several were decorated for bravery. A small number were offered Iron Crosses by the German command and refused to accept them. A field synagogue was established in the Finnish front line in eastern Karelia for the use of Jewish Finnish soldiers.
The eight refugees
The exception to the Finnish record concerns eight Jewish refugees of foreign citizenship, mostly Austrian and German Jews who had reached Finland through neutral Sweden. The Finnish State Police, on its own initiative and with apparent authorisation from the Interior Minister Toivo Horelli, handed the eight to the Germans for transport to Tallinn in November 1942. From there they were sent to Auschwitz. Seven were murdered. One survived. The handover was kept secret at the time. When it became public knowledge, the Finnish public reacted with anger. The State Police halted any further such transfers. The handover stands as the single Finnish failure in an otherwise creditable record.
The end of the war
Finland made a separate peace with the Soviet Union in September 1944 and turned its forces against the German army units still in northern Finland, in what became known as the Lapland War. The Finnish Jewish community emerged from the war essentially intact. The community has remained small but stable, around 1,500 to 2,000 people today, the same size as before the war. The Helsinki synagogue still serves it.
What it tells us
Finland is sometimes cited as proof that pragmatic alliance with Germany did not require participation in the Holocaust, and that a country could fight alongside the German army while declining to deport its Jews. The Finnish case is real and it is exceptional. The Finnish refusal cost the country nothing in its relationship with Germany, because the German foreign ministry did not push the issue beyond formal representation, and the Finnish geographical position made it impractical for the Germans to impose what the Finnish government would not authorise. The case shows what was possible. It also shows the conditions that made it possible: a small Jewish population well integrated into national life, a national leadership willing to speak plainly, and a strategic situation that gave the country room to refuse.
See also
Sources
- Hannu Rautkallio, Finland and the Holocaust: The Rescue of Finland’s Jews, Holocaust Library, 1987
- Oula Silvennoinen, Salaiset aseveljet, Otava, 2008
- USHMM: Finland