iI received this email. I stand corrected Rally by Christian Evangelicals. They stand alone in Finland It is always nice to hear from you. I have not come across the expression "We don't have a Jewish problem!”. The pro-Israel demonstration photos are by Finnish Lutheran-Evangelical believers in the Holy Land and their Messianic movement to save mankind by converting Jews to Christianity. The situation in Finland was a lot more complex. Jewish men served in the Finnish Army in the war against the Soviets alongside the German troops stationed in parts of Finland {South East and North East}. Marshall Carl Mannerheim a white Russian cavalry general was the Commander in Chief of the Finnish Army and as a Russian he hated the Germans with passion and thus objected to any German request in principle but not because of any feeling of pity for the Jews. Mannerheim, for example, stopped the Finnish Army from approaching the Murmansk-to-Leningrad railway line for critical Allied supplies to save the Russians from defeat because crossing these red lines would have never been forgiven to Finland. In general the sentiment towards the Jews in Finland before and during the World War II was quite hostile. Jews interned from Austria in Finland were handed over to Germany and were sent to Auschwitz but not the Jews that had Finnish citizenship. Towards 1944 there were plans to arrest and court martial Mannerheim with subsequent deportation of all Jews to Auschwitz next to certain. Three interesting incidents that throw light to the Finnish situation which has a lot of ambiguity: 1) Mannerheim in 1919-1920 as the caretaker for the new Republic of Finland was forced by the Allies {Britain and USA} to grant Jews citizenship or be refused grain shipments that were so crucial to Finland after a long and brutal civil war between Whites and Reds causing widespread hunger. So Finland became the last state in Europe to grant its Jews citizenship; 2) Late 1920s white farmers “black shirts” sympathetic to Hitler started a march towards Helsinki as part of a coup de tat. President Svihuvud {Swine Head literarily} although extreme far right as an ex Judge would not tolerate any illegality and went to the Finnish Radio to request “everybody to go home” and everybody went home because everybody knew that Svinhuvud would have slaughtered all of them had they disobeyed his order; 3) Early 1944 Mannerheim was warned by a Finnish Jewish Community leader Benjamin Stiller that the Finnish Government was preparing to intern all Jews to be deported to Germany. Mannerheim sent Adjutant General Airo as his liaison to the Government to inquire and was told by the Government not to interfere in civilian matters after which Mannerheim sent Airo a second time to remind the Government that he is speaking in the name of the military might. Around the same times preparations were under way to arrest Mannerheim who earlier on had humiliated Adolf Hitler that had flown to Finland to congratulate Mannerheim on his 75th birthday. There is the famous photo where Mannerheim a very tall man in utter disgust extends his hand to Hitler as if Hitler was a cripple with leprosy. The Germans and many in the Finnish Government never forgave Mannerheim for humiliating Adolf Hitler. All in all the Finns were never pro Jewish but rather pro German and anti-Semitic. It was just the good fortune of the Finnish-Soviet war ending mid 1944 that saved the Finnish Jews from deportation to Auschwitz.
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
Saturday, 24 July 2010
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