Re: March 16th [Was: Re: Why did Latvia "blink"...](additonal)

In article <202Sf.58$me6.29@clgrps13>, "captain."
<spammersmustdie@xxxxxxx> wrote:

<deletions>

-i really admire finland's mentality during the war(s). first of all with
the winter war they showed that they were unwilling to yield to what on
paper seemed like overwelming force. this demonstrates the toughness of the
finnish character.

then, during the siege of leningrad, instead of being bitter and vengeful,
they held back in the winter of '41 even though they could have possibly
inflicted heavy damage on leningrad's civilian population. this demonstates
the compassion of the finnish character.

Heavy damage *was* inflicted on Leningrad's civilian population, but it
could have been even heavier, even total annihilation. The Finns used
restraint to the extent that it was possible because they understood that
no matter how the war ended, Leningrad, or whatever was left of it, even
if only charred ruins and a pit, was always going to be there in the
immediate
neighborhood.

perhaps mr. andersson can comment on this but i almost get the sense from
reading about the conflict that finland suspected very early on that the
soviets (and allies) would win the war and through their actions wanted to
make sure that they would not be judged too harshly after the war was over
(which is exactly what happened). if true, this would demonstrate the
forsight of the finnish character.

There is some truth to this, but Finland did not really relish the
prospect of fighting as an ally, as they demirely put it "cobelligerent",
of Nazi Germany, but there were no other options open. Germany had taken
the initiative and attacked the USSR. Leningrad, the second largest Soviet
city and the key to access to all of north-western Russia, was going
to be an object of attack. If the Finns had not hurridly made the decision
to join up with the Germans for the limited objective of regaining
territory which it regarded as having been stolen from it consequent to the
Winter War, only one realistic alternative remained: declare neutrality
and use the army, still weakened from the losses of the Winter War the
year before, to fend off a German invasion from the west and north for the
purposes of caturing Murmansk and Leningrad, as well as a pre-emptive
Soviet attack from the north and south-east, to prevent the Germans from
attacking Murmansk and Leningrad through Finland. Spliting the already
weakened army in this manner would have merely resulted in Finland
becoming a major battlefield between the German and Soviet armies.

The strength of the Finnish character is demonstrated by the fact that
Finnish society was not nazified to any significant extent, and German
pressure on Finland to hand over its Jews for "special treatment" was
ignored. The record is not, however, so unblemished when it comes to
German pressure to hand over foreign Jews who had been given refuge in
Finland, but even here the Finns went to a considerable effort to keep the
Jewish refugees that had been granted asylum in Finland out of harm's way.
Jewish POWs, on the other hand, did not fare so well and recent research
indicates that as many as a few thousand Soviet POWs who also happened to
be Jews wound up being handed over by the Finns to the Gestapo, not, of
course, because they were Jews, but rather because they were Soviet POWs.
The fact that the Finns knew what their fate was likely to be if they fell
into the hands of the Gestapo, but handed them over anyway on the grounds
that the Finns did not discriminate on the basis of race or religion, has
been regarded as of questionable morality by certain Finnish historians.
Otherwise, Finnish Jews fought alongside their German comrades in arms,
and were highly regarded enough by them for four to be awarded the Iron
Cross:

Source: http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~aphamala/pe/issue2/al-tartu.htm

<quote>
Among the most dramatic potential loyalty conflicts were the encounters
between Finnish Jewish officers and Nazi Germans, who were allied with
Finland from 1941 to 1944. When a German Colonel Pilgrim had been rescued
by a Finnish captain, then still Lieutenant Salomon Klass, the German
offered his rescuer his thanks and the Iron Cross, which Klass however
declined to accept. When the German heard that his rescuer was a Jew, he
nevertheless shook the latter¹s hand and said: "I personally have nothing
against you as a Jew. Heil Hitler!" (Hannu Rautkallio: "Suomen
juutalaisten aseveljeys", Jyväskylä 1989, p. 157-158) ["Finnish Jews as
Germany¹s Waffenbrüder"].
</quote>

Regards,
Eugene Holman
.

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