Illegal Killing of Soviet Prisoners of War by Finns during the Finno-Soviet Continuation War of 1941-44

Abstract

This article examines the illegal killing of Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) in Finland during the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 as reflected in cases considered by the Supreme Court of Finland between 1945 and 1949. Two different types of illegal killings are identified — killing at the front at the moment of capture and killing in POW units behind the front. During the Continuation War, Finnish troops took approximately 65,000 prisoners. The Germans handed over some 2,000 Soviet prisoners to the Finns. Thus the number of Soviet prisoners in Finnish hands amounted to approximately 67,000. (It should be noted that the Finns turned over 2,000 prisoners to the Germans, and Soviet forces took about 3,000 Finnish soldiers prisoner between 1941 and 1944.) Approximately one-third of Soviet POWs in Finland — 22,000 out of 67,000 — died in captivity between 1941 and 1944, mainly of hunger and disease. About 1,200 Soviet prisoners were shot — 5.5 per cent of the 22,000 POWs who perished between 1941 and 1944. Most were shot illegally. Although Finland was a democracy and there was no policy of systematic extermination of POWs led from above, the Finnish death toll resembles more the corresponding figures of the Third Reich and Stalin's Soviet Union than those of Western democracies.