Oula Silvennoinen, a PHd. student in the Helsinki University, has released his PHd. thesis on the cooperation of the Finnish and German security police during WW II.
Allying with the Nazi Germany in WW II is a particularly delicate subject in Finnish history. The political consensus in the country is that Finland was forced to strike a deal with Germany, because there were no other allies out there when Soviet Union attacked Finland. The Finns have always taken solace in believing the alliance was out of necessity and that we didn’t participate in the monstrosities of genocide with Nazi Germany.
According to Oula Silvennoinen’s thesis that, however, seems to be pure fantasy. He’s claiming that the Finnish Valtiollinen Poliisi (VALPO) – roughly equivalent to FBI – together with their German counterpart formed a special unit called Einsatzkommando Finnland. The unit’s mission was to destroy perceived ideological and racial enemies on the northernmost part of the German Eastern Front.
The northernmost part of German Eastern Front means Northern Finland (Lappland) and ideological and racial enemies means jewish and soviet people.
Mr. Silvennoinen’s thesis claims that Finnish police forces took active part in mass murder of jewish and soviet people during the lifetime of the police unit.
So much for being the unwilling partner in crime. This is truly the most shameful moment in Finnish history. It’s even more shameful because this information is just now coming to public. None of the murderers were, to anyone’s knowledge, ever convicted of their crimes. It is, of course, too late now since all potential war criminals would have passed away by now.
-TPP
