Yhteinen vihollinen, yhteinen etu : Sotavankien luovutukset ja vaihdot Suomen ja Saksan välillä jatkosodan aikana

• Main Author: Suolahti, Ida
• Other Authors: Jokisipilä, Markku, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies, Helsingin yliopisto, humanistinen tiedekunta, filosofian, historian, kulttuurin ja taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos, Helsingfors universitet, humanistiska fakulteten, institutionen för filosofi, historia, kultur- och konstforskning, Pulma, Panu, Kujala, Antti
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: Finnish
• Published: Helsingin yliopisto 2016
• Subjects: humanistinen; karelia*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/159331

This study explores the handing-over and exchange of Soviet prisoners of war between Finland and Germany during the Continuation War (1941 – 1944) fought between Finland and the Soviet Union. The Finnish military authorities handed over 2,900 POWs to the German authorities and received around 2,800 prisoners of war. Co-belligerency in a common war against a common enemy resulted in co-operation in prisoner-of-war matters. There were several motives for handing over POWs. First, POWs were handed over to the German troops in Finland as a work force. Second, POWs captured in Finland were exchanged for Finnish prisoners of war captured on the German fronts. They were meant as settlers in occupied Eastern Karelia. Third, ethnic Germans and Baltic POWs were to be resettled in their ethnic areas. Fourth, POWs were handed over for intelligence and counterintelligence reasons. A POW s consent for being handed over was seldom requested, but there were occasions when some of them had the possibility to either apply for being handed over, or for refusing it. It was not automatically assumed that handing over POWs would deteriorate their status or existential conditions. The international treaties did not stipulate the handing over of POWs. According to the Hague Convention, the Finnish authorities were responsible for the prisoners of war captured by the Finns. However, the Finnish surveillance authorities knew that POWs handed over to the German Security Service were being treated like criminals, rather than POWs, according to the German orders. The surveillance unit of the Finnish Headquarters (Päämajan valvontaosasto) handed over several hundred POWs to the special task force (Einsatzkommando Finnland) of the German Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst und SD). Altogether there were 520 POWs handed over for ideological reasons, for which there was no compensation given in return. This fifth category of handing over was a part of the joint ideological war. Jews in this category were handed over as suspected communists. The ...