“War junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on World War II German material culture in the Finnish Lapland
Abstract This paper maps diverse attitudes towards the heritage of the World War II German military presence in Finnish Lapland of northernmost Europe. As part of Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union, German troops had the frontal responsibility in northern Finland in 1941–1944. After a cease-fire be...
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2017
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe201802063150 |
id |
ftunivoulu:oai:oulu.fi:nbnfi-fe201802063150 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivoulu:oai:oulu.fi:nbnfi-fe201802063150 2023-07-30T04:05:49+02:00 “War junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on World War II German material culture in the Finnish Lapland Seitsonen, O. (Oula) Herva, V.-P. (Vesa-Pekka) 2017 application/pdf http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe201802063150 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Copyright © 2017 by the Chacmool Archaeology Association, The University of Calgary. Published in this repository with the kind permission of the publisher. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Archaeology Conflict Resolution Cultural Heritage Peace Violence Warfare info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2017 ftunivoulu 2023-07-08T19:56:15Z Abstract This paper maps diverse attitudes towards the heritage of the World War II German military presence in Finnish Lapland of northernmost Europe. As part of Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union, German troops had the frontal responsibility in northern Finland in 1941–1944. After a cease-fire between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1944, increasing Soviet pressure forced Finland to turn against the Germans, resulting in the “Lapland War” between the former allies. During their retreat to Norway, German troops destroyed their military bases and Lapland’s towns, infrastructure, and private property. The Germans, from a Finnish perspective, were both friends and foes who provided important support in the war against the Soviet Union, but who also “burned down Lapland.” Not surprisingly, World War II Finnish-German relations have been a sensitive subject in Finland. Remains of German military sites are abundant in Lapland, but lack official heritage status and have been often regarded in public in negative terms. Archaeological research, among other forms of engaging with the difficult heritage of the German presence, could put this material heritage into positive uses while helping to reconcile with this troubled episode in recent Finnish past. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Finland Lapland Jultika - University of Oulu repository Norway |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Jultika - University of Oulu repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivoulu |
language |
English |
topic |
Archaeology Conflict Resolution Cultural Heritage Peace Violence Warfare |
spellingShingle |
Archaeology Conflict Resolution Cultural Heritage Peace Violence Warfare Seitsonen, O. (Oula) Herva, V.-P. (Vesa-Pekka) “War junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on World War II German material culture in the Finnish Lapland |
topic_facet |
Archaeology Conflict Resolution Cultural Heritage Peace Violence Warfare |
description |
Abstract This paper maps diverse attitudes towards the heritage of the World War II German military presence in Finnish Lapland of northernmost Europe. As part of Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union, German troops had the frontal responsibility in northern Finland in 1941–1944. After a cease-fire between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1944, increasing Soviet pressure forced Finland to turn against the Germans, resulting in the “Lapland War” between the former allies. During their retreat to Norway, German troops destroyed their military bases and Lapland’s towns, infrastructure, and private property. The Germans, from a Finnish perspective, were both friends and foes who provided important support in the war against the Soviet Union, but who also “burned down Lapland.” Not surprisingly, World War II Finnish-German relations have been a sensitive subject in Finland. Remains of German military sites are abundant in Lapland, but lack official heritage status and have been often regarded in public in negative terms. Archaeological research, among other forms of engaging with the difficult heritage of the German presence, could put this material heritage into positive uses while helping to reconcile with this troubled episode in recent Finnish past. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Seitsonen, O. (Oula) Herva, V.-P. (Vesa-Pekka) |
author_facet |
Seitsonen, O. (Oula) Herva, V.-P. (Vesa-Pekka) |
author_sort |
Seitsonen, O. (Oula) |
title |
“War junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on World War II German material culture in the Finnish Lapland |
title_short |
“War junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on World War II German material culture in the Finnish Lapland |
title_full |
“War junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on World War II German material culture in the Finnish Lapland |
title_fullStr |
“War junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on World War II German material culture in the Finnish Lapland |
title_full_unstemmed |
“War junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on World War II German material culture in the Finnish Lapland |
title_sort |
“war junk” and cultural heritage:viewpoints on world war ii german material culture in the finnish lapland |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe201802063150 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Northern Finland Lapland |
genre_facet |
Northern Finland Lapland |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Copyright © 2017 by the Chacmool Archaeology Association, The University of Calgary. Published in this repository with the kind permission of the publisher. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
_version_ |
1772818029025951744 |