The Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS was a motorized infantry battalion of the German Waffen-SS during World War II. It was formed from Finnish volunteers and fought on the Eastern Front as part of the SS Division Wiking. The unit was disbanded in mid-1943 as the two-year commitment of the volunteers had expired and the Finnish Government was unwilling to allow more men to volunteer. About 1,400 men served in the battalion throughout its existence.
Operational history
The Finnish Government recruited men for service with the Waffen-SS for a two-year term in early 1941, although negotiations over the details lasted until the end of April. This delayed their arrival until May and the roughly 400 men who had military experience in the Winter War were sent to the SS Division Wiking in mid-June where they were dispersed throughout the formation. The inexperienced volunteers were held back for training and were formed into the SS-Volunteer Battalion Northeast on 1 June. By the end of the month, the battalion had about 1,000 men. It was renamed the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS on 13 September and additional volunteers arrived over the next several months to bring its strength up to around 1,180 men. The unit was sent to the front at the beginning of January 1942 where it was attached to the SS-Regiment Nordland of the SS Division Wiking, serving as its third battalion. The battalion participated in the Battle of the Caucasus in mid-1942 and the subsequent Third Battle of Kharkov in early 1943, after the German defeat during the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 forced the Germans to evacuate the Caucasus. The mathematician Rolf Nevanlinna was chairman of the Committee for the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS. 1408 men served in the battalion during its existence. The unit lost 255 men killed in action, 686 wounded and 14 missing during its service.
Allegations of war crimes
Research by Finnish historian Andre Swanström identified at least six Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers who had in Swanström's opinion implicated themselves in crimes, including shooting Jews in Ukraine in 1941. In one letter, an SS private wrote to an officer and military chaplain,, objecting to being on the shooting detail because "for the execution of Jews, less skilled personnel would have sufficed". In 2018, in response to a request from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Finnish authorities announced a committee of inquiry into the activities of the battalion. The committee's work, including by researchers of the National Archives of Finland, conclude at the end of 2018. Swanström's allegations were not new, but such allegations had only been investigated by Finnish State Police in the past, with no evidence of crimes being found. On 2 February 2019 Finnish authorities concluded that "Finnish Waffen SS volunteers did participate in carrying out atrocities against Jews and civilians."
Historiography
In 1968, Finnish historian Mauno Jokipii published a book Panttipataljoona: suomalaisen SS-pataljoonan historia detailing the history of the unit. The work was influenced by the organization of the former Finnish SS men, ; in 2000, the copyright for the book was transferred to the organisation. Among others, historians and showed that, in the light of the archival material that emerged in the 2010s, Jokipii's estimates of nationalist radicals, fascists and National Socialists among its ranks was underestimated. According to Silvennoinen and Tikka, about 46 per cent of volunteers, or more than double the number compared to Jokipii's calculations, would have shown themselves to be adherents of fascist ideology. According to Swanström, 36 percent of the volunteers declared being supporters of the clerical fascistPatriotic People's Movement, while 10 per cent declared being supporters of the various minor Finnish Nazi parties and 7 per cent supporters of traditional right-wing parties. According to Swanström, the ideology of the Finnish SS men was connected to extreme Finnish nationalism and a particular Finnish form of Lutheran revivalism. According to Jokipii, the Finnish SS men did not participate in the brutal executions of Jews by the Germans, but some of them testified as eyewitnesses to murders. However, a Finnish government investigation determined in 2019 that some of the Finns alongside the Germans shot Jews and civilians."
