Finland’s Jewish Soldiers

Denmark is often lauded for their actions during World War II, saving most Danish Jews from the Holocaust. The wartime Jewish population of Denmark was 7,800, of which 102 lost their lives to the Nazis during the Holocaust.

However, Denmark was the only Nordic country that saved its majority of Jewish citizens. Finland had a small Jewish population of approximately 2,300 people. German command mentioned Finnish Jews at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, wishing to transport them to the Majdanek Concentration Camp in Poland. SS leader Heinrich Himmler also raised the topic of Finnish Jews during his visit to Finland in the summer of 1942; Finnish Prime Minister Jukka Rangell replied that Finland did not have a Jewish question. In November 1942, the Finnish Minister of the Interior, Toivo Horelli, and the chief of the Finnish State Police, Arno Anthoni, secretly deported eight Jewish refugees to the Gestapo, raising protests among Finnish Social Democrat Party ministers. Only one of the deportees survived. After the incident, the Finnish government refused to transfer any more Jews to German detainment.

What is even more remarkable, approximately 300 Finnish Jews fought alongside the Wehrmacht in German uniforms. While Finland did not sign the Tripartite Pact and become part of the Axis Powers or an affiliate state—it had a common enemy—the Soviet Union, which made it an ally or co-belligerent of Nazi Germany. The Nazis needed help from the Finns in their determined effort to drive into Soviet Russia through the Baltic.

Therefore all Finnish soldiers were significant to the German effort. They accepted the Jewish soldiers and even took care of them specially. The Germans let the Jewish soldiers build a field synagogue for worship, a mere 2-kilometres from the German troops.

With the hopes of regaining territory lost in the Winter War, the Finnish government chose to join forces with Germany. Soon after, it declared war on the Soviet Union on 25 June 1941, three days after Germany started Operation Barbarossa.

Now Jewish soldiers understood that, by serving in an army fighting the USSR, they were also helping Hitler. Throughout the Continuation War, they had to collaborate with the Germans. Some who were fluent in German served in the Intelligence Service and, through constant liaison with German Intelligence, acquired information about the extermination of European Jewry. On the other hand, Jewish soldiers remembered the words of Marshal Mannerheim when Himmler tried to persuade Finnish leaders to deport the Jews to concentration camps, “While Jews serve in my army, I will not allow their deportation.” By serving in the Finnish Army, Jewish soldiers hoped to prevent the community from being persecuted.

There are known cases of Jewish officers of the Finnish Army awarded the German Iron Cross, which they declined. Captain Solomon Klass for heroism, but it is unclear whether he ever wore his Iron. Cross. Major Leo Skurnick and Dina Polijakoff were also awarded the Iron Cross for saving 600 German patients and the care they received, but they refused the award.) Side note: German soldiers were allowed to be treated by Jewish medical officers—who sometimes saved their lives.

For the Jews of Finland, it was more a case of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” They allied with the Germans to fight a common enemy, the Soviet Union.

Hitler with Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in 1942

After the Soviet strategic Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive in southern Finland from June to July and a change in Finnish leadership in August 1944, Finland negotiated a separate peace agreement with the USSR, formalized by the signing of the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. One of the conditions of this agreement was the expulsion or disarming of German troops in Finnish territory, leading to the Lapland War between Finland and Germany.

On 6 December (Independence Day) 1944, President Mannerheim visited the Helsinki synagogue joining in a commemorative service for the Jewish soldiers who had died in the Winter and Continuation Wars and presented the Jewish community with a medal.

sources

https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/fascinating-history-of-finnish-jews-during-ww2/

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