Over 70,000 Finnish children to overseas of which 15,500 never came back
During World War II some 76,000 Finnish children were separated from their families and evacuated from Finland to Sweden and Denmark and in some cases to Norway. Their age was between 1 and 14. According to Erkki Aho's website 72,000 children were moved to Sweden, 4,200 to Denmark and 100 to Norway. The numbers include some mothers, but most mothers did not follow their children. Sweden received 5,158 sick children of which 182 died there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_war_children
Erkki Aho's link: http://suomenhistoriaa.blogspot.fi/2008/11/sotalapsia-lhes-80-000-suomessa.html (in Finnish)
The initiative came from Sweden. In Finland media propaganda was very strong during the war. Do you know any mother who would hand over her children to an unknown family overseas? But Finnish government and the media pressured Finnish mothers to do so. This hand over was to be temporary, but some of the mothers lost their children permanently, forever.
Many Finnish mothers cried when they had to hand over their children. In many cases only one of family's children moved abroad as a war child as they were called.
Finnish children abroad suffered from rootlessness, lack of self-esteem, inner insecurity and language difficulties. According to the TV program perhaps ten percent of the Finnish children had extremely traumatic experiences, mistreatment and other kind of abuse.
After the war some 15,500 children could not return to Finland. Sweden kept some 15,000 children and Denmark 500 out of 4,000 Finnish children - source Finnish internet site hosted by war children who came back to Finland http://www.sotalapset.fi/ (in Finnish).
In 1944 thousands of Swedish and Danish families wanted to keep Finnish children against the original treaty. And their government supported them and refused to return these 15,500 children to Finland. Swedish and Danish governments knew that Finnish media is controlled by the government and it is owned by those who may be Swedish minded. The press was indifferent and after the war there were hard times and the shortage of almost everything.
Finnish Government Press Office forbade all criticism of this war child operation. Censorship was strict in wartime Finland. Kustaa Vilkuna writes in his Controlled words (in Finnish Sanan valvontaa) books about the transportation of children and censorship of this operation. He writes on page 123: all negative writings on children's transportation to Sweden are forbidden in the newspapers, an order given on January 26, 1942. When some MPs were worried about children overseas in 1942, somebody gave an order to remove all the negative things from speeches of politicians on February 17, 1942.
Mortality among war children was pretty high. According to Pentti Kaven's research (on page 148) 132 healthy Finnish children died in Sweden and 15 during transportation. The numbers do not include sick children. Sweden received 5,158 sick children of which 182 died there. The death toll rises to 329 Finnish children. And perhaps this is not all. Kaven has calculated the numbers from his data of 43,510 children. The rest of 28,000 children could include more mortality cases.
About 8,000 Finnish children were placed in Swedish children's homes.
Sweden and Denmark treated Finland as a colony. They wanted to use the hard times of Finland. This kind of abuse is a serious violation of international laws and human rights.
Both Finnish and Swedish governments were involved in this operation. It was financed from the Swedish state budget. Swedish government gave 200,000 Finnish Markkas for the transportation of children in the 1940s. The TV program asked a comment from Finnish and Swedish ministers, but they all refused to answer. (source TV document about war children on YLE TV1 on November 13, 2012, 21:50-22:20 at local time)
Swedish and Danish governments kept in their countries foreign children against their parents' will. Is this some kind of kidnapping? Keeping children apart from their parents is a human rights violation.
Of course also Finnish politicians are to be blamed. Why they handed over children to another country? Some of them were the puppets of Sweden who did not care of their own citizens.
Over the decades Finnish governments have hidden the fact that thousands of Swedish and Danish families kept Finnish children against their parents' will.
On October 31, 2012 YLE TV News showed a war child who had suffered the most. TV mentioned two Finnish children who had terrible experiences in their Swedish foster family in the 1940s. How many of the war children overseas suffered so much is not known. Of course not all children had such a terrible fate, but probably all missed their family in Finland. YLE TV News did mention those 15,000 Finnish children lost their family permanently, but not the reason. The reason was that many Swedish (and Danish) foster families wanted to keep Finnish children against their parents' will. And their government supported them in this, against the international laws.
An opinion on the internet: "this is a brutal crime against the children and the guilty is Karl August Fagerholm who decided to hand over Finnish children to Sweden and Denmark. He was a Minister for Social Affairs during the war. He was not able to make this big decisions, and did not bear his responsibility. Fagerholm could have prevented this infringement against small children."
Finnish Social Minister Karl August Fagerholm planned to send up to 350,000 Finnish children to Sweden. (source document about war children on YLE TV1 on November 13, 2012) A declining birth rate was a problem in Sweden in the 1930s. Local politicians were worried about this. When they decided to get Finnish children to their country, they had in mind that a part of them will stay in Sweden in any case.
Swedish politicians were behind operation and they aimed at Swedification of the Finnish people.
The operation was senseless and caused much sorrow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_war_children
Erkki Aho's link: http://suomenhistoriaa.blogspot.fi/2008/11/sotalapsia-lhes-80-000-suomessa.html (in Finnish)
The initiative came from Sweden. In Finland media propaganda was very strong during the war. Do you know any mother who would hand over her children to an unknown family overseas? But Finnish government and the media pressured Finnish mothers to do so. This hand over was to be temporary, but some of the mothers lost their children permanently, forever.
Many Finnish mothers cried when they had to hand over their children. In many cases only one of family's children moved abroad as a war child as they were called.
Finnish children abroad suffered from rootlessness, lack of self-esteem, inner insecurity and language difficulties. According to the TV program perhaps ten percent of the Finnish children had extremely traumatic experiences, mistreatment and other kind of abuse.
After the war some 15,500 children could not return to Finland. Sweden kept some 15,000 children and Denmark 500 out of 4,000 Finnish children - source Finnish internet site hosted by war children who came back to Finland http://www.sotalapset.fi/ (in Finnish).
In 1944 thousands of Swedish and Danish families wanted to keep Finnish children against the original treaty. And their government supported them and refused to return these 15,500 children to Finland. Swedish and Danish governments knew that Finnish media is controlled by the government and it is owned by those who may be Swedish minded. The press was indifferent and after the war there were hard times and the shortage of almost everything.
Finnish Government Press Office forbade all criticism of this war child operation. Censorship was strict in wartime Finland. Kustaa Vilkuna writes in his Controlled words (in Finnish Sanan valvontaa) books about the transportation of children and censorship of this operation. He writes on page 123: all negative writings on children's transportation to Sweden are forbidden in the newspapers, an order given on January 26, 1942. When some MPs were worried about children overseas in 1942, somebody gave an order to remove all the negative things from speeches of politicians on February 17, 1942.
Mortality among war children was pretty high. According to Pentti Kaven's research (on page 148) 132 healthy Finnish children died in Sweden and 15 during transportation. The numbers do not include sick children. Sweden received 5,158 sick children of which 182 died there. The death toll rises to 329 Finnish children. And perhaps this is not all. Kaven has calculated the numbers from his data of 43,510 children. The rest of 28,000 children could include more mortality cases.
About 8,000 Finnish children were placed in Swedish children's homes.
Sweden and Denmark treated Finland as a colony. They wanted to use the hard times of Finland. This kind of abuse is a serious violation of international laws and human rights.
Both Finnish and Swedish governments were involved in this operation. It was financed from the Swedish state budget. Swedish government gave 200,000 Finnish Markkas for the transportation of children in the 1940s. The TV program asked a comment from Finnish and Swedish ministers, but they all refused to answer. (source TV document about war children on YLE TV1 on November 13, 2012, 21:50-22:20 at local time)
Swedish and Danish governments kept in their countries foreign children against their parents' will. Is this some kind of kidnapping? Keeping children apart from their parents is a human rights violation.
Of course also Finnish politicians are to be blamed. Why they handed over children to another country? Some of them were the puppets of Sweden who did not care of their own citizens.
Over the decades Finnish governments have hidden the fact that thousands of Swedish and Danish families kept Finnish children against their parents' will.
On October 31, 2012 YLE TV News showed a war child who had suffered the most. TV mentioned two Finnish children who had terrible experiences in their Swedish foster family in the 1940s. How many of the war children overseas suffered so much is not known. Of course not all children had such a terrible fate, but probably all missed their family in Finland. YLE TV News did mention those 15,000 Finnish children lost their family permanently, but not the reason. The reason was that many Swedish (and Danish) foster families wanted to keep Finnish children against their parents' will. And their government supported them in this, against the international laws.
An opinion on the internet: "this is a brutal crime against the children and the guilty is Karl August Fagerholm who decided to hand over Finnish children to Sweden and Denmark. He was a Minister for Social Affairs during the war. He was not able to make this big decisions, and did not bear his responsibility. Fagerholm could have prevented this infringement against small children."
Finnish Social Minister Karl August Fagerholm planned to send up to 350,000 Finnish children to Sweden. (source document about war children on YLE TV1 on November 13, 2012) A declining birth rate was a problem in Sweden in the 1930s. Local politicians were worried about this. When they decided to get Finnish children to their country, they had in mind that a part of them will stay in Sweden in any case.
Swedish politicians were behind operation and they aimed at Swedification of the Finnish people.
The operation was senseless and caused much sorrow.