09-04-2020, 06:43 PM
(09-04-2020, 04:08 PM)F2d5thCav Wrote: @"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
Yep Finland refused to take part in the siege of Leningrad and in doing so saved Leningrad and in saving the city save the world from Hitler, because if Leningrad had fallen the USSR would of fallen. Stalin remembered this and thats why he never took Finland after the war. Finland drove Germany out of the country as agreed with the USSR and the Germans did horrible thing to Lapland and its people. As far as the Jewish question , yes some were given to the Germans but most of them were protected or helped to get to Sweden.
I remember back in the 80s I was with my Sami girlfriend in the back of nowhere in Lapland, we were talking English as she like to do so when two large Sami men asked if I was German, I said no im Finnish but because I have spent time in England my accent is a bit strange, my Sami friend confirmed this and the men smiled and left. I ask her what was that all about, she answered if you had of been German they would of cut my balls off. I was about to laugh then I saw her face, she was not joking.