The Finnish Face of Facism

RT (2024)

Film Review

https://en.rtdoc.tv/films/1580-finnish-face-of-fascism

This film concerns the Word War II invasion of the Soviet Union by Finland’s Nazi government and the concentration camps they established in the eastern part of the USSR. Although the infamous Karelia concentration camp depicted in the Nuremberg photo was run by Finnish Nazis, they, unlike German Nazis, were never prosecuted for war crimes.

Three months after the 1939 declaration of war, the Soviets invaded Finland. After three and a half months, the two countries signed a peace treaty in which Finland ceded 1/10 of its country to the USSR and agreed not to participate in a hostile coalition.

The Finns broke the treaty when they allied with Hitler and invaded the USSR in 1941. Their goal was to extend Finland to the Urals. They occupied nearly all of Karelia, where they took over the schools and beat students for speaking Russian rather than Finnish.

They build more than 100 detention centers in Karelia for Russian, Urkrainian and Belorussian natives who came from as far west as Omega and North Leningrad. This included 14 concentration camps, 34 POW forced labor camps and nine prisons. Instead of building barracks, the Finns seized the homes of Russian farmers and built the camps around them. Rations consisted of seven spoonfuls of rye flour a day, which prisoners boiled or fried and often had worms in it. They also foraged for cover, sorrel, sweet roots and nettles. Kids sneaked under the fence to beg for food and rummage in dumpsters. The Finns took some prisoners, which they referred to as slaves, to Karelia city to work.

Russian survivors talk about being tortured, beaten and forced to walk naked in the snow. There were many deaths from disease (mainly typhus), exposure and lack of access to medical care.

The Finnish occupation lasted four years. In 1944 the Soviets retook the region previously occupied by Finland. After Finland became a Soviet ally in 1945, Russian officials discouraged former prisoners from speaking out about their war time experiences.

Survivors and their families have organized and written three times to Finland requesting compensation. In April 2020, the Russian Federation opened a new criminal investigation into war crimes committed at the Finnish concentration camps.