Strangers in a Stranger Land: Finland's Jewish Soldiers in WWII 

Yes a jewish Finn is still a Finn no matter what we dont give up our people to monsters.

That film was taken in summer 1940 during the traditional annual Finland-Sweden Athletics Championships, which in that year included Germany too. So the flags were flown to celebrate the one time only three country "mini-Olympics".

He intentionally showed that picture out of context to make a point about how Finland's role in WW2 may look like if you've seen only a couple pictures or know what side the country was on. After setting up the premise, the guy went on and later explained what the flags were about but it's a good thing to clear that up in the comments too as not all people watch the whole thing.

@@TheSuspectOnFoot Everything about this is damn wish-wash compared to the big picture. At the infamous Wannsee Conference it was one big 'Scandinavian question', i.e. "they are not willingly giving up their Jews". That was put aside and to be solved later mainly because so few people compared to Eastern Europe's millions was involved in the first place.

+1, great point , Finns are love the own flags

It's not nazi flag. It's German flag with a nazi party symbol

main reason why the France and British plan-Operation Avon Head-to send troops to Finland never materialized was that Norway would not allow them to use their ports and territory for troops transfer in order to preserve a policy of neutrality.

@@Barkinsson "Norway would not allow" Technically you're right. Norway was already oocupied by the German forces and it's hard to imagine how Britts or any other allied forces could have use ports that are part of Germany that time.

@@XtreeM_FaiL no, occupation of Norway only began on the 9th of april 1940. Winter war ended on the 13th of March 1940

@@Barkinsson And that time Germany was allied with USSR.

@@XtreeM_FaiL umm yeah but that has nothing to do with the great britain and france helping finland in the winter war.

@Rasmus Vohlakari Finnish jews - they are.

@Rasmus Vohlakari What if a Finn converted into a Jew? Would he be considered a Finn?

@Rasmus Vohlakari Except ; Jewish Finns are just that. 👀❕

@Rasmus Vohlakari Well, if you take the ethnonationalist view, but everyone's ancestors migrated from somewhere at some time.

psykoosit tulilla

And one of my pet peeves is that Finland is not Scandinavian. While it's true that Finland has no mountain-tops in the Scandinavian mountain-range, the northern part of Finland (where another Finnougrian language Saame is spoken) is a part of the Scandinavian peninsula.

@@ilesalmo7724 Finland is a nordic country. I did not say scandinavia. Scandinavian countries are Sweden,Norway and Denmark by the way Denmark is a very flat country. Nordic countries are Sweden ,Finland,Norway,Denmark and Iceland.

The word Scandinavia can be quite complicated to define, even for scholars. Originally it referred only to the former Danish, now Swedish, region of Scani. Nowadays Scandinavia refers to Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Some sources also argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland. Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden for over 600 years, thus to much of the world associating Finland with all of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia also sometimes refers to the Scandinavian Peninsula, or to the broader region including Finland and Iceland, which is known locally as the Nordic countries. To make definition more complicated, the Scandinavian Peninsula comprises the mainland of Sweden, the mainland of Norway (Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are not in Scandinavia) AND the northwestern area of Finland, no Denmark. Various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries promote market and tourism interests all around the world using the word Scandinavia in their names, that name covering also Finland and Iceland. (for example The American-Scandinavian Foundation, The Scandinavian Tourist Board, etc.). All the 5 Nordic countries have common history, the economies of the countries are similar and amongst the highest in the world, they have same values, they have a similar generous welfare system, the languages are almost the same except Finnish (but Swedish is the second official language of Finland). All in all the word Scandinavia can, and have been defined many ways depending on the time of history and context. So it's not a terrible mistake in general speech to call Finland, or Iceland, part of Scandinavia.

@@jorluo It is offical the nordic countries are Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden,.Finland. Scandinavian countries are a differemt issue. Omg

@@diamondsarenotforever8542 That's what I said. Those countries, plus their associated territories (Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands) are called the Nordic countries today and Denmark, Norway and Sweden are called the Scandinavian countries today. In my writing I was trying to explain some of the different reasons why people around the world can be confused about the word Scandinavia and about the areas it covers. Didn't you read it all?

Don't live there (west coast instead), but that lit a light bulb for mee too.

John Simon has lived in Finland for almost 40 years, so I wouldn't call him a foreigner.

@@vmahonen well, Wikipedia says he is an American. That qualifies for a foreigner in Finland.

Narikkatori =)

@@kallekonttinen1738 What? You use wikipedia as evidence lol I would say anyone who has lived here more than like 7-10 years is not a foreigner anymore

I don't buy that the resistance to Russia was about "survival" or "existential" as he claims. Many reds survived losing the Finnish Civil War, and if the reds had won, many whites would have survived, at least as many as survived in Russia. If either that happened or Finland had not strongly resisted in the Winter War, like Estonia, Then Finnish history would be like that of Estonia, with a status today like that of Estonia. Estonia and most Estonians survived and the same would have been true of Finland.

@@alan6832 LOL @ your ignorance! Tell that to the Finnish Reds who were killed by Stalin in the 1930s, practically all members of the Finnish Communist Party in the USSR were executed or died in Gulag or in a prison somewhere. Or maybe to the Ingrian Finns whose deportations started in 1929, continued throughout the 1930s, whole villages were ethnically cleansed out of Finns and replaced by Russians, and thousands were executed. Maybe you don't think that losing maybe hundreds of thousands of your people (out of a population of one million, like in Estonia) is a big deal but I am pretty sure Estonians would disagree with you. Not to mention the destruction that half a century of brutal occupation does to your people and your economy. Finland helped Estonia a LOT in the early 1990s, who knows what would have happened to them if there were no one to help them. Without Finnish help they probably wouldn't have been able to secure a loan to buy oil to warm their buildings and winter was coming.

@@tyttiMK I know that Estonia survived, and did so while killing far fewer Russians than Finland, which killed peasants, not Stalin.

@@alan6832 What? Obviously you know nothing but still keep repeating the Kremlin lies.

@@tyttiMK Because All Estonians are really dead?

But was Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty of 1939 mentioned at all?

There are no gods.

@@timoterava7108 The concept of deities and divinity is man-made!

Its complicated, what do you mean by god?

@@denizalgazi yes, this is why we majority of Finns don't believe in deities. And i believe Timo doesn't either.

Gods are the shortcut to identify people as belonging to your group or not, when the religion that promotes a certain god gets too big it begins to branch into different schools of thought and assigns different powers and properties to the same god(s). Unfortunately humans rarely stop at one division and like to come up with new ones as time goes on.

Also the previous summer the Soviets had shot down a Finnish civilian passenger plane that was coming from Estonia killing everyone on board, including an American diplomat. Not to mention Stalin had been using all kinds of pressuring and bullying tactics since the end of the Winter War, so it was pretty clear that another invasion would be coming, sooner or later.

@@tyttiMK Indeed, great points to bring up in the pre-Continuation War period, otherwise known as the "interim peace" period between the Winter War and the Continuation War.

@Fred Jansen Yeah. That’s the short version. Finns doesn’t have anything against Russia as a nation and culture. Back in those days, it was more against the communist party and for Finland to keep their independence from all suppressors. Even the Nazi’s was kicked out of Finland, when the war was over. Finns was never really on any side, but saving Finland.

@@kotikunnas1291 It's not quite all. The Soviet Union did allow people to stay and become Soviet citizens. However, only a couple of hundred people took that option, mostly old people who wanted to spend their last years in their home regions.

Though here he's talking about "Narinkka", not "narikka" (though these words do come from the same origin).

Russia has conquered most of our lands, from the Baltic sea to Siberia touching Kazakhstan. There are still traces in Russian town names from our languages and we can even be related to the mongolian language(we share similarities). Russia has destroyed so much of the history so its really hard to know the real paths of our peoples. Estonian and Saami are related to us but yes I can't fluently communicate with either of em without getting used to their words first(also Hungarians even if thats something I am ashamed of atm). I can follow what an Estonian says even if I don't understand em(have heard too much Saami on TV to be able to make a conclusion and Hungarian sounds just odd). Sad thing is that Russia has been erasing our history to promote their lies among the people so its a guessing game. Lots of theories like one even tells a story that we would have been the first ones in Europe another tellls a story that we came at the same time but from the east. What I do know is that we are not from the same line as the other Europeans and all genetic similarities with Russia is enslaved finnic tribes(or our siblings). Of course we have mixed with the other Europeans but there are still tribes in the Urals that can speak a fin language we can easily understand(I have heard that it was a fake thing created by Russia to invoke confidence in Finns that they are taking good care of our people so can't say when seeing today's world if it was just for show or true. Even if it was true 2018 they changed laws in Russia that will delete the cultures).

@@dimapez well corrected :)

I love the Kalevala. In Hungary they have almost the same stories written down by monks called " On satanic spectre ".

@@lynnpayne9519 interesting! if you see a english version of it anywhere, feel free to post me a link or something :) i tried googling but couldn't find it

@@Chokwik contact Powell's Books in Portland Oregon. They have everything. I got my copy at Barns and Noble special order years ago for around $8 US.

@@lynnpayne9519 alright, i sent them email. thanks for the thought!

There is a recorded conversation when Hitler visited Mannerheim. They did talk a lot and if you read between the lines, you can see that Hitler knew then that Germany is can't win USSR.

@Rasmus Vohlakari No... Just originally the Baltic people lived between us - he Russians and their Slavic cousins lived south of them. Finns Still lived as tribes, tehre was no national identity. Carelians had contacts with Savonians, Tavastians, Bothnians and Sámi + whoever were the old Finno-Ugrians north of Uppsala, Uppland - as well as with Byarmians (Permians) east of them. Every tribe knew their neighbours, and a bit beyond. It wasn't like there were Finns some place, and it stopped somewhere. Actually, the real Fiins were just the tribe around Turku, Rauma etc. - that's where the country got its name, now it's called Finland Proper, clumsily. But likewise Sweden got its name from the Swea tribe, Germany (Deutschland) from Teutons, and England from the Angles. Yet later it wasn't always that tribe who became the dominant. In Russia it was about the same, before a Viking chieftain called Rus and his Viking warriors were invited to Kiev, and they started the first dynasty. It ended before Peter the Great. Long time there was no direct contact, until the Russians reached Ilmajärvi, east of Estonia a bit. They established a city there called Novgorod, with some Vepsians. and some other Finno-Ugrians lived close by. Nestor's Chronicles from about 900 mention some Finno-Ugric chieftains amonst the northern allies who came to Kiev (the capital before Mongols) The Russians and their Slavic cousins lived south of them.

@Rasmus Vohlakari NAh, it's about as long. Polish are about the pure east Europeans, genetically, and the Slavic goes far back to the time of the Indo-Europeans coming to Europe. They were just about a unified branch, as much as mobile cultures have ever been. Then the Indo-Europeans branched to tehir subgroups. Culture is funny creature: it's always chnging, yet thousands of years old with any people who were not violently rooted from their homeland, and even then something remaisn, like with the Ameruícan blacks they can Still trace West african cuktural and even linguistic backgrounds. So cultures are all 1000s of years old, they just change a biyt every generation. So no reason to diss the russians or sklavs for culture or genes: nothern Russians are about half Finno.Ugric genetically, so you'd be dissing your distnat cousins. What we can criticise evry culture for, is how they treat each other, their neighbours, this planet etc. Never mind what our forfathers did, except we sgould what they did right, and ehat they did wromg - and then jkeep the good. plus invent better alternatuves to what they did wrong. And help the neighbours do the same. Our own life gets easier that way too. Opening old woulds just keeps the fighting on, then the others jkeep killing your loved ones. So stab our own family in the back by picking fight with others. let's be part of the solution, not of the problem.

Now much later genetics show the Finns came fom the south, not the east. The eastern gene is in only 3 to 4% of the population. Also the rare lack of separate he/she you find in the Hungarian language too. So it's equally possible that those fenno ugrian people in the east moved from the west to the east as in the opposite direction. We will never know.

@@hurri7720 That south is the Baltic lands, the general route of arrival is east, anyway: beyond the Ural mountains - or maybe the river Perm. That could be were the Finno-Ugric language group was born. But as soon as the population from the east came to the European side, they started to mix with the old Europeans. Who were most likely genetically not related to the Indo-Europeans. But the best proof of which direction the cultures moved are the archaeological finds: the bodies of people which have survived (like in swamps), and their clothes, tools etc. The old population in the North-Eastern Europe were the ancestors of the Scandinavians and partly Slavs and Balts. But they were not yet Indo-European speaking, the Scandinavian languages show there was some older language earlier, which have affected to the birth of the Germanic languages. The forefathers of the Finns, who brought the Uralic languages, mixed with these people. And moving west, they mixed more and more with different Europeans. Just the culture remained very indigenous, until the Swedes conquered Finland. So we can know that the Finno-Ugrians came from the east. Namely the language group. But that's different than the genetic background of the Finns. Language can change quickly, like has happened to some Swedish speaking families in the Helsinki area after Finland became independent. Kjell Westö tells about how the Swedish speaking working class became mostly Finnish speaking, because the leaders of the Swedish speakers were too conservative at that time. So this way genetic composition of some population can change quite much in 2-3 generations. And it can repeat many times in the history. There didn't come much new populations from the east to mix with the Finns, but from the west and south there came. And then one day Finns moved to Finland - it probably happened through Estonia in the west, and through the Carelian Isthmus in the east. That's why there's still a difference between the eastern and western dialects. Though they have mixed in the Central Finland (only since about the 16th-17th centuries - earlier they were eastern Tavastians), and Central and Northern Bothnia a bit too- The Scandinavians have this similar background. But the Balto-Finnic people (Finns, Estonians & the smaller nations) have so long lived as their own culture before really mixing with the Scandinavians, that their common genetic background with these had time to genetically develop to a bit different directions. So Finns have a lot of common genes with the Balts and the Scandinavians, which shouldn't be a surprise. Hungarians went a bit different route: they are about the only Finno-Ugric nation that became a nomadic culture, because of contacts with the Turkic nations. But what's similar in their history, that these Finno-Ugrians started to mix with the more western and southern people: Turkic, Persianic and later Caucasian and Slavic people too, and with the Germans since they arrived their current homeland. They are mostly a mix of their European neighbours, genetically, but there's a minor Uralic remnant in them. Yet the Slavic Belarusians who live quite close to Hungarians, have more of the Uralic blood, having mixed with Balts, and some Finno-Ugric people who earlier lived in Norther Russia, before being absorbed to the russians, and a bit to the Belarusians too. This Hungarian gene mix is very similar how the Turkic people look genetically: mostly a mix of the populations on whose lands they came. So it tells of the customs of the nomadic people: they brought their language and culture, but they took people to their nations from all the ethnic groups they met.

@@timomastosalo , well, there is no way to fool genetics and they are directly in the south. Finland was never concured by the Swedes it was just a region of eastern Sweden for hundred of years. Finland become Finland only when a border was created towards Sweden in 1809. The majority of Swedish speaking Finns are those who in order to become something in the state took a Swedish name. Among my relatives in the past Topelius back in time Toppinen from Oulu then Toppelius and later part of that family become Topelius. Also Stenbäck in Stenbäkin katu was originally Lioukko or Liukku from Pohjanmaa. Mannerheim again is a name coined in Sweden like many more. Then we had this "kansallis romanttinen aika" jolloin moni Ruotsinkielinen perhe otti Suomenkielisen nimen. Vaihdan nyt Suomenkieleen koska kukaan Englanninkielien ei tätä lue. Sukuni on täynnä näitä, kuten Kivekäs, Nuorivaara ym. Kaikki ...heimo nimet kuuluvat tähän ryhmään kuten Walliheimo ym. Yli 10.000 venäjän kansalaista päätti jäädä Suomeen, suuri osa otti tietenkin Ruotsinkielen kotikieleksi kuten Grandianoff jost tuli Granden toisaalta oli myös Nelski josta tuli Nelskylä mutta Ruotsinkielisenä kuitenkin, jne. Sukunimet on Suomessa vaidettu moneen kertaan tilanteen mukaan. Aikoinaan Helsingin Yliopistossa tehtiin tutkimus siitä miten "kirjaamato ohje", tullakseen upseeriksi oli suosiseltavaa vaihtaa suknimi Suomenkieliseksi. Tutkimus kiellettiin koska kuolleita oli enemmän ryhmässä joka ei suostunut vaihtaa sukunimensä Suomenkieliseksi. Käytännössä se vain todisti että suhteessa kuolee enemmän aliupseerejä kuin upseerejä. Pää voima Suomen kansallis tunteen luomiseksi oli Ruotsinkielinen kuten muuten Kivi ja useimmat muut kuten Runeberg, Topelius ja Sibelius. Kansallis romanttinen aika toi myös joitakin vähemmän fiksuja piirteitä mukaansa. Kuten täysin turha kieli "riita" ja vimmatttu halu keksiä Suomalainen kuningas, koti ja tarina. Uraali kuuluu näihin yrityksiin. Isäni suvun tiedot päätyvät isoisään koska Suomessa poltettiin Venäjän toimesta monet kirkonkirjat. Jos taas toisaalta oli Rotsin valtion virkamies kuten pappi, tuomari, tullimies, luotsi tai vastaava valtion leivissä niin tiedot ovat säilyneet Tukholmassa. Minua välillä huvittaa kun joku puhuu "vanhasta" suvusta, ja vaikka se titenkin on mielenkiintoista niin tosiasiahan on että kaikki kuulumme yhtä vanhaan sukuun. Äitini puolella pääsen hyvin pitkään ajassa taakse, so what. Jätetään tähän, kaikkea hyvää, Suomi on hyvä maa hyvässä seurassa täällä pohjoisessa. PS. eräs helppo Suomennos oli lisätä i.kirjain perään kutenkun post on posti Suomeksi. Rosti ja Kurri lienee samaa sarjaa. On myäs olemassa kirja Suomen Sukunimet jos kiinnostaa.

Today e.g. in the USA around 70% are circumcised and it is not anything extraordinary in many other countries either.

No, pretty much all Finns understood the reality, both in the political circles and in the military, and even private citizens. After all most men had a military training and everyone knew who the enemy would be. Also both then and now Finns realise that USA would never go to war with the USSR/Russia just for Finland, just like they didn't help Finland during WWII. That's why Finland still has a conscription military because Finns can still only trust themselves when it comes to defending the country.

Officially, or just a guess?

They "came on a cart". They came/were brought from Russia to be married to the men.

We have not blessed Israel, we don't even think about it. We codemn it's actions. There is no god, god has not blessed our land, but workers and families who worked their asses off in the latter part of the 20th century to make Finland to what it is now.

@@lehtokurppa7824 Christians all over in Finland are blessing Israel whether you like it or not. And there are a lot of them in Finland. Bible says when you bless Israel God blesses you. That is one reason why Finland has been ranked the best country 2019 by world forum economic conference in Switzerland Davos.

Other than christians practically wiping the finnish history, old beliefs and alot of the culture from finnish, karelians and Saami people they haven't done much.Its silly to say "god did this when our grandfathers and great grandfathers to our parents generation died and struggeled to make the country what it is today.

@@lehtokurppa7824 I'm afraid you can't help it anymore. A big enough part of Finns has always blessed Israel.

@@Leksuttaja149 Many people have died and struggled to make their country good to live, but not succeeded because they did not take notice of the Lord's words. In spite of the hardships, Finns in overall picture have been blessed by our God.

Well USSR And USA/West was holding Hands..Nobody come to Aid Finland 1939..So only Country to Help Was Germany.

@@mikaseppanen1632 I understand Finnish motives. But between 1939 and 1941 the USSR was not a threat to Finland, otherwise they would have occupied Helsinki in 1939. From Stalin's point of view, he got what the USSR needed and moved on. Joining Germany was an act of opportunism by Fins to regain lost territories. And Stalin proved it in 1945-46 that Finland was not threatened by not taking Finland into the USSR.

Well they tried..Losses to High, end Hitler get a Idea from Winter War,,(Russia army walking with Clay Boots)..So Barbarossa , may been becouse of Winter War. Nobody knows the real..( What wnt in Hitlers Head.)

When did a good luck symbol turned into war god?! Lets not rewrite the facts.

@@TheNismo777Finns have used it in war, whats wrong whit that?

@@anttityykila9384 nothing, it out luck symbol 😉

No it came from Sweden and was used by the Vikings. It came to Finland on the first plane the Finnish Air Force received as a gift from Greve von Rosen. "Von Rosen had painted his personal good luck charm on the Thulin Typ D aircraft. This charm - a blue swastika, the ancient symbol of the sun and good luck, with no political connotation at the time - was adopted as the insignia of the Finnish Air Force.". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Air_Force Also used around the world: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xBpfnqcnrJw.html

Se on oikeasti kyllä yksi Hinduismin, Buddhismin, and Jainismin symboleista ja tarkoitti hyvinvointia. Kannattaa ottaa selvää ennenkuin olettaa. " The word swastika comes from Sanskrit: स्वस्तिक, romanized: svástika, meaning 'conducive to well-being'. In Hinduism, the right-facing symbol (卐) is called swastika, symbolizing surya ('sun'), prosperity and good luck, while the left-facing symbol (卍) is called sauvastika, symbolizing night or tantric aspects of Kali."

This is technically correct, however for example the most significant fascist movement, Lapuan Liike (Lapua Movement), was actually disbanded and banned by court orders. Legally, they were not banned specifically because they were fascist, but rather because they were considered a threat to the republic; in modern terms, they were deemed a national security risk. Actually, the story is kind of interesting, and highly ironic. Lapua Movement originally demanded legislation to be put in place to prevent Communist activities; these were at the time referred to as "Communist Laws". In order to implement these laws, a more comprehensive "Law to Protect the Republic" was set up. This "Protection Law" basically offered to the government the means to restrict some basic rights of the people, in special circumstances. The Communist Laws were in power from 1930 to 1935, after which they expired. However, the Protection Law remained in effect, and it was this exact law that in the end was applied to the fascist (or pseudofascist) Lapuan Liike, after they demonstrated that they were a national security risk. So a law that was originally demanded by the fascists to limit communist activities for being a threat to the Republic of Finland, was applied to limit fascist activities since they were a threat to the Republic of Finland. After WW2, all organizations that were considered "fascist" were indeed banned by the Control Commission, which was mainly influenced by Soviets. This included things such as Lotta Svärd organization, and the White Guard.

It wasn't outlawed in Britain either.

"Fascists were not outlawed in Finland before the war" He meant the Lapua Movement specifically. It was outlawed after the Mäntsälä rebellion.

"Landesverräter" is probably the word you're looking for. (Verräter = traitor / Vertreter = representative)

@@SubCapt Sorry, yes a misspelling, tryckfel ................

Yeah I would still be rather called that than "Lahtari" (butcher) as that is what whites were called. If you want to know why read about Battle of Tampere and other interesting reading would be the prison camps for the red soldiers after the civil war. Still Winter War healed that divided as people from both sides came together and fought Soviet Union, but people thinking that whites were somehow good guys is so false that its not even funny.

@@Wezqu Dear vesku, I have studied our history fot over 60 years, so I would say that I have some knowledge about that. Sounds like you would be a bit one-sided, maybe ? ....... Koeta pärjätä: Rafa ................

@@ralfhaggstrom9862 So me pointing out that the whites were not being nice is somehow one sided when you states red were traitors is somehow not one sided.

Not that far from where indo-europeans came from.

Nobody knows where we come from. Tolkien thing we are elfs. Swede thing we are mongols. But we are what we are and proud of it.

They did not. That's all lies and propagands. I never heart of blond siberians.

@@jukkakopol7355 Well, our dna is different than anywhere in EU, we might be out of this world :D

A PART MAYBE ! ...................

The russians/vewnäläiset gave us autonomy because of our heritage. Suomalaisugrilaisuus. WE ARE NOT SCANDINAVIANS.. We are fennoscandinavians.

complexity upon complexity :D

​@@paavometsaluoma2653Better to say Nordic. Finland 🇫🇮 is a Nordic country with Sweden 🇸🇪 Norway 🇸🇯 Denmark 🇩🇰 and Iceland 🇮🇸 politically, economically, religiously, culturally and geographically. Finland is also a member of the Nordic council.