80 years ago: Lest We Forget

[F2d5thCav]

@"Finspiracy" 

I'll give a comment from (one) USA perspective.

Finland was forced into the war by the Soviet Union in 1939.  Yes, that first war concluded, but with significant loss of Finnish territory.

The Continuation War, IMO, was Finland seeing a chance to recover the lost territory.  Note the Finns never tried to advance on Leningrad, much to the consternation of Berlin.  Of course, given the outcome of World War II, this part of Finland's fight was going to be lost no matter how well the Finns fought.

As to the question of guilt.  Most of the questions of guilt in World War II orbit two topics: 1) Aggression against other nations, and 2) crimes against humanity.

I don't think #1 is applicable to Finland.  Yes, they attacked in 1941, but only because the Soviets had already taken land from them in a war 18 months prior to Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union.

You guys from Finland have to answer #2.  My understanding is that Finland did not round up Jews or other people and hand them over to the Germans.  But I may be wrong about that or there may important nuances of which I am not aware.

In conclusion, the alliance with Nazi Germany seems to have been a vehicle of convenience for Finland to regain lost territory.  Yeah, there were Finns in the Waffen-SS.  A bunch of European nations had people who joined the SS -- not, IMO, representative of the mentality of the nations involved.  So certainly not something that was unique to Finland.

Cheers