Israel Speaks
Jews have lived in Finland for only about 200 years.
An exhibition of their history has been compiled in Tel Aviv's -
Beth Hatefusoth museum.
The exhibition is called -
"A prayer tent in a snowy forest - The Story of the Jews of Finland"
The exhibition offers a compre- hensive information package of the -
history of the Finnish Jews.
Jews came to Finland with the Russian army.
In 1827 Nikolai I passed a law con- cerning the Jews' military service.
In each Jewish community a "kagal" had to give a certain number of soldiers -
to the Russian army.
The soldiers were sent all over the Russian empire.
Some of them came to many of the garrisons in Finland.
For example, shortly after the passing of the law, Jews came to Helsinki.
In the beginning the army system was quite cruel, because if they -
did not have enough adults, they took young men.
First they went to a "cantonist" school.
Here is a picture of a cantonist school in Helsinki.
When they reached adulthood, they went to the army -
where the military service lasted for 25 years.
Some of the young men were just children.
We're talking about 5-year-olds who were taken 1000 km away from home.
They were educated somewhere in Novgorod and when they entered -
the army they were sent to Helsinki, for example.
The cantonist system was abolished by Alexander II and they wanted to -
compensate the Jews for the cruelty.
A law was passed which allowed Jews to settle in the areas where -
they had served in the army.
This is how the Jewish community settled in Finland.
The Jewish community in Helsinki was born in 1858.
In the years that followed rabbis were invited to Helsinki.
Religious communities were built and gradually the community life -
in Finland began stabilizing.
Leo Millner, a Finnish Jew, was born in 1924.
He contributed to the Finnish Jewish community as the leader -
of culture and education in the Jewish congregation in Turku.
He also fought for Finland in the second World War.
Leo moved to Israel in 1971 and settled in Tel Aviv.
In Israel he is the chairman of the Finnish Jewish veterans.
Judaism is not only a national or a political movement, -
but, first and foremost, it is religion and education -
to a certain environment.
The fact that we were able to hold on to our religion and practice it -
in Finland as anywhere else in the world, -
kept our community homogeneous and united -
and kept the Jewish congregation quite strong.
I cannot say that I had any kind of symptoms of anti-Semitism -
throughout my childhood.
We lived at a time when the Nazis where rising to power in Germany.
Looking back, in Finland we had the Patriotic People's movement (IKL) -
which had about 20 representatives at the most in the Finnish parliament.
This, of course, affected the Finnish society, -
but we didn't feel persecuted or that we were in great trouble.
Particularly in academic circles, it was hard to advance as a Jew -
and to get professorates due to certain restrictions.
We were aware of the fact that the situation of the Jews in Europe -
and, particularly in Germany, was not good and there was persecution -
and rumours that the Jews were threatened.
We didn't know the details, but we knew that what happened there -
was a threat to the Jews. It was obvious.
Silja Bar David lives in Yad Hashmona which is a village founded by -
Finnish Christians in 1971 near Jerusalem.
The name Yad Hashmona refers to the memory of the eight Jews -
who were handed over from Finland to the Germans in 1942.
Through her marriage Finnish and Jewish identities are combined in -
Silja Bar David's life. Consequently, the history of the Finnish Jews -
interested her so much that she has studied about their destinies.
In 1938 about 500 Jewish refugees came to Finland from Central Europe.
150 of them stayed in Finland when the wars started.
Some more refugees also came through illegal routes.
We know of an adventurer and a smuggler of illegal alcohol, -
who was called Aldot Niska.
The story tells that he bought by boat or ship through the Gulf of Finland -
an estimated 50-150 Jews to Finland where he provided them with -
forged identity papers.
When the Continuation War began these Jewish refugees maintained by -
the Finnish Jewish community were transported to the countryside -
out of the eyes of the Germans.
A group of some 40 men had to do work duty. First, they were in Lapland -
and then they were moved to Suursaari in the Gulf of Finland.
There was a very tragic event on the 6th of November in 1942.
The Finnish state police deported 27 foreigners from Finland.
Among them were also 8 Jewish refugees.
Heinrich Huppert, travel salesman, Austria, expressed anti-government -
opinions, suspected of actions endangering security.
George Kolman, medical student, Austria, gave misleading information -
of himself, worked without a work permit, did not inform his address.
Hans Korm, technician, Austria, came to the country as a volunteer -
in the Winter War, anti-governmental speeches, considered a communist, -
extension of resident permit rejected.
Elias Kopelovski, lumbersalesman, Latvia, anti-government opinions, -
extension of resident permit rejected.
Elias Kopelovski was a wealthy businessman whose name was not -
mentioned in any of the extradiction lists. This was apparently -
a false delation, and also his pro- perty in Finland has disappeared.
Hans Zybilski, travel salesman, Germany.
Espionage charges are mentioned as the reason for deportation.
According to the records, these 5 men were voluntarily followed by -
George Kolman's wife, Yanka Kolman and 1,5-year-old son Franz Ulof -
as well as Heinrich Huppert's 11-year-old son Kurt.
This deportation was officially executed by the police and by -
the initiative of the Finnish state police.
This was discovered at the final stage and they tried to prevent it.
Nevertheless, it was executed by the order of the Interior Ministry.
The Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, didn't know of this until only -
afterwards, even though the police should have provided prenotice -
of it in this case.
7 out of these 8 who were deported died in the Auschwitz death camp.
When a group of Finnish Christians in 1971 built a settlement called -
Yad Hashmona in Israel, they only knew of the 8 who were given.
Today we now that the police deported at least 10 people.
In addition, Finland gave to the Nazis over 70 Russian Jewish -
war prisoners.
Afterwards we found out more about this.
I can hardly say that we knew all the details.
We didn't know how big of a threat the Finnish Jews faced.
We were very close to being depor- ted and it was discussed concretely.
Himmler was in Finland and he had a list of all the Jews in Finland.
Had the Finnish authorities not opposed these kinds of decisions, -
we would, of course, have been deported from Finland.
For my part I can say that we didn't really believe that it would end well.
We knew that if the Germans had come to power in Finland, -
it would not have been good for us.
I reached the decision that somehow we had to take our destiny -
into our own hands.
I was in the artillery troops in the Eastern side of the country.
I asked my friends to understand that should they decide to take -
the Jews from the army, they would give me 24 hours time -
to disappear.
During that time I could have tried to get out and -
with very good luck I would have tried to cross over to Sweden.
I realized very fast that they didn't understand this at all.
They said: "What are you talking about? We've been here together -
for two years. When would a decision like this be made?!"
They couldn't understand that it would have been possible at all.
Fortunately, eventually it didn't happen, but I was prepared.
What was the reason why Finns were saved from not having -
to hand over the Jews?
The general opinion is that this issue was presented to Mannerheim.
They demanded to take the Jews out of the army and then the situation -
could have been solved the way the Germans wanted.
This suggestion was never accepted. Mannerheim opposed it.
That was the strongest reason why we didn't go so far as to send -
to the Finnish harbours the ships already waiting for us in Estonia.
World War II was morally difficult for the Finnish Jewish soldiers.
They had to fight against Russia side by side with the Nazi Germans.
During World War II some 2000 Jews lived in Finland.
Just as all the other citizens also they fought both on the frontlines -
as well as on the home front.
All in all 23 Jewish soldiers died in the Winter and Continuation Wars.
The situation in the Continuation War was morally very difficult -
for the Finnish Jews, because they had to fight on the same side -
with the Nazi Germans.
They could not avoid contact with the German soldiers.
For example, there was one incident when a group of German soldiers -
was surrounded by the Russians.
Captain Salomon Klas' Finnish troops went to rescue them.
After that a German colonel came to captain Klas' tent to thank them -
and wondered how this Klas knew German so well.
Klas said that he was Jewish and that his mother tongue was Jiddish.
He tells: "Everyone was staring at me. The Colonel stood up, took my -
hand and said, "I personally don't have anything against you as a Jew."
"He lifted his arm, said 'Heil Hitler', and left the tent."
In Finland there were Jewish soldiers on both sides of the front.
At least 300 Russian Jewish soldiers were taken prisoner in Finland.
The Finnish Jewish community tried to help them and send them food, -
but some 100 of them died in the Finnish prisoner-of-war camps.
This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those
I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle
down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Increase in number there;
do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which
I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it
prospers, you too will prosper." Jer. 29:4-7
After the war people questioned how the Jewish soldiers could have -
fought side by side with the Germans and why they didn't resist.
The rest of the Jewish world found this very hard to understand.
The situation in Finland was quite different and unusual.
It was not very easy to explain to the Jews in the rest of the world.
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "I will save my people from the
countries of the east and the west. I will bring them back to live in
Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous
to them as their God.
Just as you, Judah and Israel, have been a curse among the nations, -
so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, -
but let your hands be strong." Zech. 8:7-8
In the beginning of the 20th century Jewish migration to Israel increased.
Zionism emerged also in Helsinki.
Zionist activity in Helsinki began already in the beginning of the -
20th century.
In 1906 a major Russian Zionist conference was held in Helsinki.
It attracted many well-known Zionists to Finland.
For example, Zabotinsky visited Finland.
The Zionist ideology was very strong in the Finnish Jewish community.
In the 1920's the first Finnish Jews settled in Palestine.
We have pictures and documents of them here on display.
They were not so many in number but in relation to the -
Finnish Jewish community, the migration was very significant.
Finnish volunteers also fought in Israel's Independence War -
as well as in the Six Day War.
The Finnish Jewish community even dreamed of a colony of their own.
In the 1930's the Finnish Jews were dreaming of a Kfar Finlandia colony.
The plan went very far and the finances were also covered.
Nevertheless, the great dream was not fulfilled.
For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and
bring you into your own land. You will live in the land that I gave to
your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.
Ez. 36:24,28
Now we had a state that we had waited for 2000 years.
It has been our homeland.
We have never been anything else except Finnish citizens, -
but when the state was born, it was about whether to support the state -
passively from the outside or be part of the building process.
Everyone had to take a stand.
One said yes, another said no.
It was an individual decision for each person.
We decided to participate in the building process.
Many Finns had immigrated here.
We are still in contact with each other -
not only with the Finns but also with all the Scandinavians.
Everyone has relatives or connections to Finland, because -
our roots are there, and that we cannot change.
For me personally, when I came here I had to find my own career -
and a profession in order to provide for myself -
also in the long run.
Gradually I became a wood products representative -
here in Finland.
I had many contacts to Finland, Sweden and elsewhere.
That is how I built a new career for myself.
I can say that the speed and the mentality are different here.
You learn how to cope with it, but probably not completely accept it.
Without the right attitude it's difficult to manage.
You gradually learn to cope with it and manage with these two things.
I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; -
and the cities will be inhabited and the waste places will be rebuilt.
Ez. 36:10
Translation: Sonja Mattayev