Einsatzkommando Finland

[mario33]

After the news/wikipedia:

Einsatzkommando Finnland is according to recent research allegedly a German paramilitary organization active in northern Finland and northern Norway during World War II, while Finland was fighting against the Soviet Union as an ally of Nazi Germany.

The alleged Einsatzkommando, until now unknown, is revealed in a doctoral dissertation by Oula Silvennoinen—whose title translates as The Secret Brothers in Arms—to be presented at the University of Helsinki on September 26, 2008. The organization is said to have been subordinated to Reichssicherheitshauptamt, and Finnish security police Valpo as well as a Finnish military intelligence organization are said to have collaborated with it.

Silvennoinen is a researcher at the Finnish National Archives, and his dissertation forms a part of ongoing research on Finnish-German relations during the war.

The thesis' Secret Weapons brothers "- presented at the University of Helsinki on Friday - revealing the hitherto unknown organization Einsatzkommando Finnland, whose task was the mass murder of Jews and communists on the North Eastern Front. Einsatzkommando Finnland was a collaboration between the Finnish security services Valpo and the Nazi German Reichssicherheitshauptamt. "Post-war investigations on war crimes encountered persistent obstacles because both suspects and evidence usually disappeared," writes historian Oula Silvennoinen, who is behind the new data.

"This is really a shattering results. We had no idea that there was something called Einsatzkommando Finnland," comments Markku Jokisipilä, a historian at the University of Turku and expert on relations between Nazi Germany and Finland during World War II.

Earlier, it has been called to Finland, although fought with Germany 1941-44, but that it put itself completely opposed to Nazism, and especially the Holocaust. But the ongoing new research at the Finnish National Archives - the thesis "Secret Weapons brothers" are related to this project - suggesting again that Finland must rewrite its history. As late as Wednesday's Dagens Nyheter published my essay "Finnish habitat", which raised questions about how far the joint Finnish-German view the goods actually went in 1941, when the Nazi superpower and the small Nordic democracy Finland joined together in an "annihilation war" against The Soviet Union. "Research must go on," I wrote then. It was fast. Now, more and more difficult issues to be confronted.

If the measure does Silvennoinen thesis probably the death knell of the cherished idea that Finland was immune to Nazi ideological influence in 1941. Impossible for a small country such as allying themselves with the admired and feared the Third Reich. The news Einsatzkommando Finnland will spread far outside the Nordic region's borders.

[jmatchlock]

mario33 - do not take this the wrong way - But the key word is -" Alleged "- no facts to back it up! Remember Finland hade "Jewish" soliders that received the "Iron Cross" !

[Pirkka]

This seems very unlikely. Finland had a tiny Jewish population, about 2000 people, nearly all in Helsinki and Turku, all of whom were still around at the end of the war. Einsatzgruppe were only used in areas where there was a large Jewish population, ie Latvia, Eastern Poland and Ukraine. It would have been a most un-Nazi waste of resources to use one on of these resources on a country where it would outnumber the Jewish population. On top of which, ther were Jewish artists, poets and authors active during 1941-44, and even, as Jay pointed out, Salomon Klass, a Finnish Battalion commander who was offered but declined the Iron Cross. To have these two strands running in parallel seems a little too schizophrenic for real life.

It has to be remembered this is work for a doctoral thesis. The normal technique with these is to take a small number of facts, hopefully as opposed to current understanding as possible, and stretch them over 100,000 words, hoping all the while that they don't snap. Some notable bollocks has been put forward for a PhD as well as some ground-breaking research. I would tend to place this toward the first category.

[Franz repper]

Marrio 33 good and dear sir this has a tiny amount of truth to it but I mean tiny , SS nord had some of their wounded worked on by some jewish doctors this has more twists and turns in it than a US TV drama

[jmatchlock]

The Finnish SS -where not charged with any War Crimes !

[Franz repper]

The Finnish SS -where not charged with any War Crimes !

Not shure what you are trying to say Jay ?
I was not on about Finnish SS (Nordland ) but SS Gebrigsjäger Div Nord that was up here in north Finland

[jmatchlock]

The Finnish SS soldiers were not charged with WAR CRIMES

[Pirkka]

Whoa, steady, lads, steady. No one is accusing the Finns in any uniform of committing war crimes, instead some long term student is trying to make a name for himself with atrocity stories.
Finland did actually commit one war crime, exchanging Soviet POW Commissars with the Germans for POWS of Finnish stock from the Red Army. It was apparently discussed to the far end of one, about five years ago, and the then Finnish Prime Minister issued an apology for it.

No country came out of WW2 with its hands completely clean.

[alpino]

About ten years ago some "professor" said the US and Brits let hundreds of thousands of German POWs starve to death after WW2. I asked six uncles who remained in Germany from six months to five years if they saw any indication of this, including two who married German girls and were acceptedtotally, and heard it all, good and bad. They told me they saw none of this, althought they did see DPs and ex-POWs sent back to the Soviet Union, and that was really ugly/tragic. I have since talked to fellow historians in Germany and they tell me "that fool" or "some say the Shoah is exagerated, or did not happen."

I think we have all heard these things. This seems another fabrication more viable as Holocaust and WW2 veterans die off. Imagine what it will be like in a few years. No doubt the Finns killed POWs. Imagine being stuck between Nazi German and Soviet Russian barbarity. I think their retaining humanity is indeed near legend, as much as their fighting abilities.

WW2 was "the extinction of morality." No one is without blood on their hands. But as I tell my students, and will relate to you- weight the crimes, and you will find out GB, the USA, or Finland come out much much higher than the hideous record of Japan or Germany. As far as the Soviet Union goes.... in the infantry we say "payback is a M-F"

[Franz repper]

The Finnish SS soldiers were not charged with WAR CRIMES

Jay what are you on about this has nothing to do with the Finnish SS ,as they never served in Finland on active service here in Finland . The only SS unit here in Finland was SS Nord

[jmatchlock]

Franz -only say - No Finnish soliders were charged with war crimes - Like there German Counter Parts ! Finnish Not BAD People !http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quart ... /index.htm