‘Where the F… is Vuotso?’: heritage of Second World War forced movement and destruction in a Sámi reindeer herding community in Finnish Lapland

Oula Seitsonen,Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto

doi:10.1080/13527258.2017.1378903

Oula Seitsonen, Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1378903

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Abstract

In this paper we discuss the heritage of the WWII evacuation and the so-called ‘burning of Lapland’ within a Sámi reindeer herding community, and assess how these wartime experiences have moulded, and continue to mould, the ways people memorialise and engage with the WWII material remains. Our focus is on the village of Vuotso, which is home to the southernmost Sámi community in Finland. The Nazi German troops established a large military base there in 1941, and the Germans and the villagers lived as close neighbours for several years. In 1944 the villagers were evacuated before the outbreak of the Finno-German ‘Lapland War’ of 1944–1945, in which the German troops annihilated their military installations and the civilian infrastructure. Today the ruins of demolished German military installations persist around the village as vivid reminders, and act for the villagers as important active agents in memorising this vital phase in Lapland’s recent past. They also appear to facilitate nostalgia for the more independent days before traditional Sámi lifeways were ruptured by stronger Finnish State intervention in the post-war decades.

Highlights

The question in the paper’s title was recently posed by an acknowledged Indigenous Sámi rock band SomBy (2014) who originate from the village of Vuotso (Sámi: ‘Vuohčču’1), in Finnish Lapland
In 1941, the Nazi German troops, co-operating with Finns against the Soviet Union, established a large military complex at Vuotso, and Germans and villagers lived as close neighbours for nearly four years (Figure 1)
The most overarching theme in the memoirs of the local narratives is the emphasis placed on the time before the Lapland War, with congenial neighbourly relations between the villagers, Germans, and their prisoners, at the same time overshadowed by the constant fear of Soviet air raids and partisans

Summary

Introduction

The question in the paper’s title was recently posed by an acknowledged Indigenous Sámi rock band SomBy (2014) who originate from the village of Vuotso (Sámi: ‘Vuohčču’1), in Finnish Lapland. The Germans established a large military base and airfield at Vuotso, and the Sámi villagers, German troops, multinational PoWs and forced/slave labourers, and Finnish soldiers and workers, lived as close neighbours over three years.

Results

Conclusion