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Pacific Historian
The Jewish Quarterly
Rachel Bayvel reveals the extraordinary story of the Finnish Jewish soldiers who fought alongside the Germans in the Second World War
Rachel Bayvel | Summer 2006 - Number 202
Despite sixty years' intensive research and thousands of publications, certain aspects of the Second World War are still little known or remain to be discovered. It is only now, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, for example, that we can reconstruct the full story of Finland's participation in the war.
Consider the paradoxes. Finland fought on the German side (although it always refused to call itself an ally and insisted that it was only a co-belligerent). Yet it refused to deport, persecute or even discriminate against its Jewish population. And the country even behaved humanely towards Jewish prisoners of war.
Even stranger, Jewish soldiers fought in the Finnish ranks as equals – thereby, inevitably, helping the Germans achieve some of their war aims. Yet in doing so, I will argue, they also served Jewish interests. This article explains the background to these startling anomalies.
There was no Jewish population in Finland before 1809, when it became part of the Russian Empire. In 1827 Tsar Nicholas I issued an edict requiring Jewish boys from the age of 12 – who became known as cantonists - to undertake 25 years of compulsory military service. The main aim of this edict, abolished only in 1856, was to assimilate and eventually convert Jews to Christianity. Yet the soldiers who completed their military service were allowed to live anywhere in the Russian Empire, and many remained in the last place where they had been stationed. Hence some Jewish soldiers settled in Finland and, since there were no Jewish brides there, asked matchmakers from the Pale of Settlement to help them find wives. In the absence of railways unmarried girls and widows were transported by horse-driven cart. (When former cantonists were asked 'How did you meet your wife?' they would reply 'I got her from a cart.') This was the beginning of the Finnish Jewish community.
After the 1917 Revolution some more Jews emigrated from Russia and settled in Finland, increasing the numbers to 2,000 (Finland became independent in 1918). A further influx arrived after the Anschluss of 1938, when the leaders of the Finnish Jewish community asked the government to provide entry visas for Austrian Jews - whom they offered to provide for without requiring any public funds. Altogether, 300 Jewish refugees from Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia came to Finland.
In December 1939, the Soviet Union started a war with Finland in order to gain territory. In the initial stages of the conflict (known in Finland as the Winter War) the Finnish army under Marshal Mannerheim successfully repelled the numerically superior Red Army. Then, in February 1940, Soviet troops managed to break the main defensive line (the so-called Mannerheim Line), although they continued to suffer heavy losses due to fierce resistance. The peace treaty of March 1940 forced Finland to cede parts of its territory.
From the Jewish point of view, this war was highly significant. It was the first time since the First World War that Jewish soldiers had fought on both sides of a front line. Many Jews served with distinction in the Finnish army, where they were treated as equals; 15 were killed in battle. But many also fought in the ranks of the Red Army. Lieutenant Leonid Buber, for example, was awarded the highest honour of Hero of the Soviet Union for his part in breaking the Mannerheim Line. In charge of a rifle company, he was wounded three times but did not leave the battlefield. He was later appointed a member of Jewish Antifascist Committee and was one of the few who miraculously survived after most were exterminated on Stalin's orders in 1952.
In 1940 two Scandinavian countries - Denmark and Norway - were occupied by the Germans. Finland faced a stark choice: also being occupied or becoming another Soviet Republic like Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Occupation was a very real danger since the German army could easily enter Finland from Norway, with a view to using its long frontier as a springboard for attacking the Soviet Union. Its substantial nickel deposits were also needed for military purposes.
In the event, the Finnish government chose to join forces with Germany in the hope of regaining the territory it had lost in the Winter War and so declared war on the Soviet Union on 25 June 1941, three days after Germany attacked the USSR. (This was the start of what is known in Finland as the Continuation War.) The German army was permitted to deploy in Lapland, in the north of the country, so to attack the Soviet Union from there. All this led Great Britain to declare war on Finland.
By August 1941 the Finnish troops under the command of Marshal Mannerheim had managed to regain the lost territories and almost reached the pre—Winter War border, securing positions on the shores of Lake Ladoga, on the Karelian Isthmus and on the Svir river. It was here the front stabilized until the summer of 1944 – something which allowed Finnish troops to play a crucial role in the further course of fighting between the Germans and Russians.
Despite the presence of German troops in Finland and the German command and Gestapo in Helsinki, Finland rejected Hitler's demands to introduce anti—Jewish laws. Neither in Finland nor in the occupied parts of the USSR were Jews persecuted. Himmler twice came to Finland and tried in vain to persuade the Finnish authorities to deport the Jewish population. Only in a single case, near the start of the war, did the head of the Finnish police agree to extradite eight Jews without Finnish citizenship, seven of whom were immediately murdered. When the Finnish media reported on this, a huge scandal broke out and ministers resigned in protest. (In spring 1944, 160 Jewish refugees who did not have Finnish citizenship were transported to neutral Sweden to save their lives - on the orders of the Marshal Mannerheim, commander of the Finnish army.)
During the war, the lives of the Finnish Jews continued as before: synagogues and communal institutions functioned and the Jewish newspaper was published. Three hundred Jewish officers and soldiers served in the Finnish army during the Continuation War (eight were killed in battle).
Yet they faced an agonizing dilemma. Those who took part in the Winter War knew that they were fighting against an aggressor. 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 so, throughout 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.
The maintenance of Jewish religious tradition was of paramount importance to soldiers fighting on the Finnish—Soviet front. A field synagogue was established a mere 2 kilometres from the German troops. This was the only field synagogue on the German side of the 2,000-mile front line which in 1942 stretched all the way from the North Cape in Norway to El Alamein in Egypt. The Finnish High Command granted leave to Jewish soldiers on Saturdays and Jewish holidays. Worshippers came to pray from near and far, some on skis, some on horseback, most on foot. The Germans were astonished and frustrated to see Jewish soldiers holding religious services in an army tent. It is also interesting to note that the most popular Finnish singer, the 'soldier's sweetheart' (or Finnish Vera Lynn), was Jewish. Yet she entertained only Finnish soldiers and refused to do the same for the Germans.
Three Jews serving in the Finnish army were awarded Iron Crosses by the German command for their bravery (Hannu Rautkallio, 'Cast into the Lion's Den', Journal of Contemporary History 29, 1994). Major Leo Skurnik was a descendant of one of the oldest cantonist Jewish families. He served as a doctor, organized the evacuation of a German field hospital and thereby saved the lives of more than 600 German officers and soldiers. He refused to accept the decoration on the grounds of being a Jew. Captain Solomon Klass saved a German company that had been surrounded by Soviet forces. Two days later, German officers came to offer him the Iron Cross. He refused to stand up and told them contemptuously that he was Jewish and did not want their medal. The officers repeated their 'Heil Hitler' salute and left. A third Jew, a nurse, also refused the Iron Cross.
