The Plan to Rescue Finnish Jews in Simo Muir Simo Muir. University of Leeds. Muir leeds. Oxford Academic. Google Scholar. Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Abstract Finnish memory politics has long been invested in an exceptionalism that presents World War II Finland as a safe haven for Jewish refugees and for Finnish Jews themselves.
Issue Section:. You do not currently have access to this article. Download all slides. Sign in Don't already have an Oxford Academic account? You could not be signed in. After this, there were three different groups of Jews in war-time Finland. The Finnish Jews, those either holding Finnish citizenship or being equal to citizens on the basis of an already lengthy residence, were in the most secure position.
For the civilian Jewish refugees, things seemed already much dimmer. The only way to leave Finland after June was via Sweden, the only alternative being to remain in Finland, in the worst case without permission, documents, or livelihood.
Non-citizens were subject to deportation should they attract the negative attention of the Security Police, and a deportation to German-controlled areas most likely ended in death. In , the Security Police deported a total of 12 Jewish refugees into the hands of German authorities. The third group of Jews consisted of Soviet Jewish prisoners-of-war. Their total number in Finnish custody was recorded to be , but it is likely to have been higher due to the fact that many Jewish prisoners undoubtedly sought to hide their ethnic identity.
The Finnish military authorities adopted the German practice of separating the prisoners suspected of political activity, commissars and politruks into a separate camp, from which they funneled the most troublesome into the hands of the Einsatzkommando Finnland in the north.
A total of Soviet prisoners-of-war are known to have been handed over this way, among them 49 prisoners registered as Jews. Successful war operations provided the rationale and the cover under which it was possible for the Finnish authorities to participate in the ideological and racial war of the mighty German ally.
The high-water mark of Finnish-German cooperation was reached in The ebb began with the waning German fortunes of war. The German attempt to deport the Danish Jews in late caused even such highly visible friends of Germany as the philosopher Eino Kaila to publicly denounce Nazi Jewish policy in the major daily of the Finnish political Right. Finland was looking for a way out of the war, and there was less and less reason to remain politely silent about such matters.
The window of opportunity when Germany could have presented Finland with an official request to deport either all, or the foreign Jews in Finland, had by closed. While all the Jews in Finland had been earmarked for destruction in due time, Finland was never put to the ultimate test. As was fitting for a small country, throughout the war Finland had sought to maintain relations to the Western Allies. Even the British declaration of war in did not frustrate this policy of insuring oneself for all eventualities.
It was also important that Sweden remained a relatively free enclave, where the politicians, press and public both followed, and were keen to comment on, Finnish affairs. The SS leadership did not forget the Jews in Finland, but there were strong arguments for Finland not emulating German Jewish policy, at least until a decisive German victory would have been secured.
The war on the European continent was still going on in full force, and the destruction of its Jewish population continued in the extermination camps. The old marshal was a shrewd politician who throughout his career successfully avoided compromising himself directly, even while he at times entertained the conspiratorial schemes of the radical Right.
The visit to the synagogue was another clever move, with which Mannerheim sought to secure the potentially valuable loyalty of the Jewish community. That he felt it advisable to do so is an indication of the growing need to distance oneself from the still in-progress Holocaust in order to maintain political credibility. There were two ways to try to avoid accusations of culpability to Nazi atrocities and the accompanying political discredit: by resigning from responsibility, or by speaking out.
Mannerheim, and virtually the whole Finnish political elite, chose the first course by acting as if they had nothing to explain. The reasons for their choice are to be found in the post-war position of Finland, which came to be very different from the rest of the defeated and occupied Eastern Europe.
The choice was crucial in determining the shape of post-war Finnish discussion regarding the Holocaust.
Finland was never occupied, and while the Communists immediately returned to the political scene after the Finnish-Soviet armistice in September , they failed to gain control of the key state institutions.
The majority of the parliament, the civil service, courts and the military remained in the hands of non-Communists. Status quo ante bellum prevailed, and most members of the pre-war political elite and civil service were able to continue their business as usual also after the war.
In Finland had been taken to war by a broad based coalition government including the Social Democrats, and had been governed during the war in an atmosphere of Burgfrieden.
After the war, the Social Democrats emerged as perhaps the most active anti-Communists in the battle to limit the growth of the Far Left influence.
While the Communists and their allies sought to change the status quo also through accusations of Fascism and war crimes, their efforts were eventually frustrated by the fact that the vast majority of Finnish politicians had little interest in burrowing into the embarrassing details of the very recent past. Immediate post-war political necessities have continued to shape the discourse on Holocaust in Finland, to this day.
Suggestions of connections between war-time Finland and the Holocaust still tend to bring forward defensive reactions, consisting of comments seeking to relativize or belittle Finnish responsibility. The number of Jews victimized through direct acts of Finnish authorities is quickly declared so low as not to warrant any further discussion.
Or, it is said to be preposterous to pay so much attention to the victims, when there were so many Jews who on the contrary found refuge in Finland, and whom Finland can be said to have protected. They simply have nothing to do with each other, runs the creed of Finnish exceptionalism.
Defensiveness is a symptom of underlying guilt, sustained by decades of circling around but never really engaging the real issue. Finnish exceptionalism has rested on the convenient myth of the separate war, which has allowed the Finns also not confront the memory of the Holocaust. Within the exceptionalist framework, Finland is not really perceived as part of a larger whole, of Europe, or Nordic countries.
In the same narrative vein, Finland finally emerges into the post-war period with a peculiar, but actually a shrewd and very independent-minded arrangement with the Soviet Union only the unenlightened could disparage as Finnlandisierung. The national memory culture and historiography have both displayed a strong tendency towards isolationism. Finnish exceptionalism regarding the Holocaust and the whole German alliance period was born out of the post-war political necessities, produced by the uncomfortably close distance to the Soviet Union.
The public awareness is slowly digesting the fact that Finland in participated in a general European conflict where it simply could not pick and choose which of its dimensions it got involved with.
There were forces and people in Finland quite ready to cooperate with the Nazi regime in realizing even its most extreme ideological and racial projects, and it is time to face these unwelcome facts. Silvennoinen, Oula. New York: Humanity in Action Press, Details Contributors. Scroll Modal Navigation Down. Largely integrated into Finnish society, Jews in Finland enjoy a sense of stability and are prominent in a number of high offices of state.
The history of Jews in Finland is a relatively recent development, as Jews were initially prohibited from settling in Finland, part of the Swedish Kingdom until , under Swedish law.
When Finland became a grand duchy of the Russian Empire, the prohibition of Jewish settlement as well as the Swedish constitution and legal system prevailed and there continued to be no Jews in the country. An official decree in confirmed this policy. The Jewish community continued to grow throughout the nineteenth century, and with the increase in population, came an increase in questions regarding the status of Jews in Finland.
However, it was not until Finland achieved independence in that Jews in that country were granted full civil rights. This included full citizenship, and as a result of such a change in status, and the arrival of Jewish immigrants from Soviet Russia, the Jewish population reached its highest level ever — around 2, people — during the interwar period. After the end of World War II, almost all Finnish Jews were integrated into Finnish society and there was a general acceptance of the Jewish community.
The War of Independence for the State of Israel in saw Finnish Jewish volunteers participate at a rate proportionally greater than any other Diaspora community. Emigration — mainly to Israel — contributed to a decline in the Finnish Jewish community that continued throughout the latter half of the twentieth century.
Today, the Finnish Jewish community is well integrated into general Finnish society and are able to freely and openly practice their religion without issue. Antisemitism has not been a large issue in Finland and Ben Zyskowicz, the first Finnish Jew elected to Parliament, has served since During the course of World War II, Finnish Jews continued to enjoy full civil rights without any doubt as to their status as Finnish citizens. Finnish Jews fought beside their non-Jewish fellow countrymen in the Winter War, the invasion of Finland by the Soviets in , and later, in strange twist of history, fought alongside German soldiers in the Continuation War of to as co-belligerents.
Jews in Finland were spared the horrors of the Holocaust due to the unwavering position that the Finnish government took against pressures from the Nazis. There was strong protest and criticism of this action at the time, and recently, Finland has officially apologized for doing so. The Finnish Jewish community estimates that there are around 1, Jews in the country out of a total population of 5,,
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