Around 1,400 Finnish men served in the German Waffen-SS.
But why?
I mean, the Finnish Army fought on side of the Germans as a so-called co-belligerent, so why where there Finnish men recruited for the Waffen-SS?
What about this? And where did they fight?
Did they commit any war crimes? That and more, in this video you're gonna learn
about the Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers. Keep watching.
Good to have you back on the channel.
If you're new to this channel
I'm Stefan, history teacher, making history videos for you.
If you find that interesting consider subscribing, also hit the notification bell.
For Finland WW2 started when the Soviets invaded the country in November 1939.
The Hitler Stalin Pact (Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) signed in August gave the USSR a free
hand in Finland. Despite the valliant resistance of the Finnish soldiers against the Soviet
onslaught the Finns agreed with the March 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty ceding several areas
to the USSR.
Afraid that the Soviets would attack again, because of ongoing Soviet pressure, the Finnish
saw co-operation with Germany as the only way to secure their independence.
As the Finnish prime minister (and later president) Risto Ryti stated:
‘Whatever opinion you might have about the current system in Germany, it is a thousand
times better than to be under Soviet rule, which would mean our death.'
In an earlier video I covered how the Finns joined Germany as a co-billegerent and you can find the video in the top right corner.
The Finno-German military alliance began to take shape in the spring of 1941.
When 1,400 Finns were recruited in the German Waffen-SS.
Later the Finnish Army would mobilize and take part in the Continuation War.
Thát is something for a later episode.
In this video we're going to look at the Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers.
So why did the Germans want to recruit Finns in their own ranks while later the Finnish Army
would fight on their side?
Reason for Finland was to secure German co-operation against future Soviet aggression.
The initiative came from the SS.
The Nazis wanted to set up international SS formations in their common struggle against
the enemy: bolshevism.
In March 1941 an understanding was reached between the German and Finnish governments.
“The Finnish SS-volunteers can be characterised as a national, Finnish representative troop
in German service – not dissimilar, for instance, to the Corps Expéditionnaire Russe
en France in 1916–18.
Finnish bodies carried out the recruitment and the volunteers entered SS service in accordance
with the active support of the Finnish Government.”
Because this did violate Finnish neutrality it had to be done in secret.
Propaganda was kept at mute level.
In particular, the Foreign Ministry under Minister Rolf Witting was involved.
Commander-in-Chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim wrote in his memoirs that he was successful
in limiting the recruitment of Finnish SS-volunteers to men not drafted into the forces.
The Finnish leaders also wanted to limit the the number of ultra-right-wing candidates
securing access to military training and possibly garnering a stronger position in the Finnish
politics.
Anti-Russian and anti-Soviet attitudes certainly had deep roots in Finnish society.
And because of the Winter War these attitudes were only deepened.
In May the volunteers were brought to Germany for training.
The Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers served in the Wiking Division.
Wiking was comprised of three regiments (or Standarte): Westland (with mostly Dutch volunteers),
Nordland (with mostly Danish and Norwegian volunteers) and Germania (mostly Germans).
By the Summer of 1941 the Wiking Division (20,000 men) mostly consisted of Germans:
“In June 1941, the Division numbered 19,337 men, of whom 631 were Dutch, 421 Finns, 294
Norwegians, and 216 Danish.
At that juncture, just one Swedish subject had joined the Division.”
In the summer and autumn of 1941, the Finnish volunteers took part in operations of Army
Group South with the Wiking division.
On July 1, Wiking entered Lemberg (in Polish known as: Lwów, now: Lviv).
Later they captured Tarnopol (now: Ternopil).
In both cities they found prisons filled with dead prisoners.
Political prisoners that were executed by the Soviet secret service
(the NKVD) before they retreated.
Wiking went via Proskurow to Uman where they fought in the encircling battle against the
Red Army at the end of July.
After this they went to Kiev.
When Wehrmacht units relieved them there, they crossed the Dnieper and Dnipropetrovsk
fell in German hands mid-September.
In October the Wiking Division took part in the battle of Rostov and Mariupol was captured
mid-October.
Yet, in November Rostov fell back in Soviet hands and the Germans had to retreat.
Winter was now upon them.
Insufficient linguistic skills, lack of training with Germans weapons and unfamiliarity with
German leadership principles, caused problems.
Also Finnish officers and NCO's didn't have positions according to their military ranks
which also caused additional problems.
By the end of 1941 63 Finnish division men had died, 180 WIA and 11 MIA.
Early 1942, with additional recruits the cassualty number increased.
From mid-July till August 8, 1942 the Finnish volunteers received additional training and could therefore
not fully participate in the 1942 Summer Offensive (Fall Blau).
In the previous month a second round of recruiting in Finland took place.
A replacement company of around 200 men arrived in November on the Caucasus Front.
The fighting remained brutal.
As volunteer Arvo Vidberg wrote:
“There were no (front) lines after the retreat from the Caucasus.
Sometimes the Russians were ahead of us, although later they were encircled.
The villages were full of them.
No prisoners were taken (…) We lived as if the last day is coming.
The prisoners were shot, regardless of how they raised their hands.
I did not do it.
Those doing it were others.”
To what extent were the Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers responsible for atrocities committed on the Eastern Front?
There has been research by Lars Westerlund named: The Finnish SS-Volunteers and Atrocities
against Jews, Civilians and Prisoners of War in Ukraine and the Caucasus Region 1941–1943.
He did extensive archival research which can be summarized as the following:
“It is apparent that the Finnish SS volunteers very probably participated in the killings
and brutalities committed by different units of the SS Division Wiking against Jews, civilians
and POWs in 1941 and 1942.
However, it should be stated that the available source material does not offer sufficiently
detailed information in order to assess individual events in detail.”
Memoirs have been studied also.
Volunteer Olavi (Veikko) Liesinen recalled the following:
“In the villages where the locals participated in the defence, severe punishment was meted
out.
The resistance of one or two men could cause the death of 20–30 villagers, owing to the
state of mind of the Germans in command.
And all this because the orders of Hitler were stressed and followed.
We Finns did not accept this sort of treatment, although we were not able to prevent it.
[...] All that we saw horrified us.
The Germans viewed us with indifference and let it be understood that we were granted
an equal status only as a consequence of Hitler’s permission.”
I do have to emphasize that memoirs (documents written áfter the war) are not the most
reliable source. Definitely not when comparing it to diaries, but diaries have been studied in great length by historian Westerlund
who did extensive archival research to the Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers. You can download his research for free. See link below the video.
In January 1943 the volunteers were withdrawn from the Caucasus Front and directed towards Stalingrad. There they had to relieve the trapped
Sixth Army in Stalingrad. However this attempt failed. The Finnish volunteers made it 275 km from the city at best.
The Finnish SS battalion was able to retreat west of the Don River early February and participated
in battles on the Ukrainian front until April. Then they were withdrawn from the front.
The Finnish Volunteers returned via Tallinn to Hanko where a parade was held on 1 June,
1943.
The men then enjoyed a one month leave period.
The Germans wanted to continue the unit and a small group of volunteers also wanted to
continue but Mannerheim proposed the battalion should be discontinued.
Hitler agreed with Mannerheim's proposal.
And thus the unit came to an end in the summer of 1943.
Some of the men went for officer training in Finland.
The others continue to serve on the Finnish Front till the end of the war.
One person I do like to mention is Lauri Törni who first served in the Finnish Army, then
in the Waffen-SS and later in the American Army in the Vietnam War.
There is plenty on him on YouTube, so look him up!