The Jews Who Fought Alongside the Nazis

When I say “the Jews who fought alongside the Nazis,” it really was a case of the enemy of my enemy—is my friend, or rather they had a common enemy. The photograph above is of Finnish Jewish soldiers on leave during Rosh Hashanah in front of the synagogue in Turku, Finland, in 1943.

Finland’s involvement in World War II began during the Winter War, which started on 30 November 1939 and lasted until 13 March 1940, the Soviet Union’s invasion of Finland prior to Operation Barbarossa, Finnish Jews evacuated Finnish Karelia along with other locals. Also, the Jewish Wiborg Synagogue was destroyed by air bombings.

In June 1941, the Nazis breached the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union. The Finns, hoping to regain the formerly annexed land following their degrading concession, chose to collaborate with the Germans. The Finnish army invaded the territory that earlier had been seized by the Soviet Union.

327 Finnish Jews fought for Finland during the war, of which were 242 rank-and-file soldiers, 52 non-commissioned officers, 18 officers and 15 medical officers. Additionally, 21 Jews served in the women’s auxiliary Lotta Svärd.

That is how Finnish Jews who were serving in the army found themselves in a uniquely awkward and even difficult position. On the one hand, loyal Finnish citizens born and grew up in the country set out to fight for their country’s independence. On the other hand, they were compelled to collaborate with a superpower, which, after years of antisemitic legislation, had embarked on the systematic annihilation of the Jews.

Finland was the only European combatant country in which none of its Jewish citizens were sent to concentration or extermination camps.

Despite Germany demanding that Finland introduce anti-Semitic laws like in the rest of Nazi-controlled Europe, the Finns refused, treating their Jewish soldiers with respect. When Heinrich Himmler visited Finland in the summer of 1942, he asked the Finnish Prime Minister, Jukka Rangell, about the “Jewish question.” Jukka’s reply was brief, “We do not have a ‘Jewish Question.’” There was even a field synagogue for the Jewish soldiers, with some Germans visiting the synagogue and showing respect for the Jews who prayed there despite the propaganda they were shown for years.

Author John B Simon describes in his book, Strangers in a Stranger Land—How One Country’s Jews Fought an Unwinnable War alongside Nazi Troops and Survived,  how some Germans were curious to watch the services by peeking in quietly and noted that the Finnish Jews talked Yiddish to each other, which they took for a type of German.

The only time that the Finns gave in to the demands of the Nazis was in November 1942. The chief of the Finnish State Police agreed to hand over eight Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union and Estonia to the Gestapo, whose extradition was demanded by the Germans on criminal grounds. The Finns brought the Jews to Tallinn, which was already under German occupation. Seven of the Jews were promptly executed by the Nazis, and one managed to survive. After the media in Sweden and Finland discovered what had happened—it caused a political uproar. After—a clear order was given by the government—to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

Three Finnish Jews were offered the Iron Cross for their wartime service: Leo Skurnik, Salomon Klass, and Dina Poljakoff. Major Leo Skurnik, a district medical officer in the Finnish Army, organized an evacuation of a German field hospital when it came under Soviet shelling. More than 600 patients, including SS soldiers, were evacuated. Captain Salomon Klass, also of the Finnish Army, who had lost an eye in the Winter War, led a Finnish unit that rescued a German company that had been surrounded by the Soviets. Dina Poljakoff, a member of Lotta Svärd, the Finnish women’s auxiliary service, was a nursing assistant who helped tend to German wounded and came to be greatly admired by her patients. All three refused the award.

Alongside the Germans, Finland continued to fight the Soviets until the end of the summer of 1944. After the Germans sustained heavy losses and the counteroffensive launched by the Soviet army also led to regaining some Finnish territory, the Finns proposed an armistice. In September 1944, an agreement was signed between Finland and the Soviet Union. A short time later, Finland declared war on Germany and joined the Allied forces.

On December 6, 1944, Finland’s Independence Day, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, now the country’s new president, visited the synagogue in the city of Turku. He came there to honour the memory and loyalty of the Finnish Jews who were killed defending their country.

Sources:

The Enemy of My Enemy: The Story of Jewish Soldiers in the Finnish Army Who Fought Alongside Nazi Germany

https://www.atlantajewishtimes.com/astonishing-story-of-survival-by-jews-of-finland/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/260956

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-jews-who-fought-for-hitler-we-did-not-help-the-germans-we-had-a-common-enemy

https://www.jewthink.org/2021/01/07/how-finlands-jews-fought-alongside-the-nazis/

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Finland’s Jewish Soldiers

Denmark is often lauded for their actions during World War II, saving most Danish Jews from the Holocaust. The wartime Jewish population of Denmark was 7,800, of which 102 lost their lives to the Nazis during the Holocaust.

However, Denmark was the only Nordic country that saved its majority of Jewish citizens. Finland had a small Jewish population of approximately 2,300 people. German command mentioned Finnish Jews at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, wishing to transport them to the Majdanek Concentration Camp in Poland. SS leader Heinrich Himmler also raised the topic of Finnish Jews during his visit to Finland in the summer of 1942; Finnish Prime Minister Jukka Rangell replied that Finland did not have a Jewish question. In November 1942, the Finnish Minister of the Interior, Toivo Horelli, and the chief of the Finnish State Police, Arno Anthoni, secretly deported eight Jewish refugees to the Gestapo, raising protests among Finnish Social Democrat Party ministers. Only one of the deportees survived. After the incident, the Finnish government refused to transfer any more Jews to German detainment.

What is even more remarkable, approximately 300 Finnish Jews fought alongside the Wehrmacht in German uniforms. While Finland did not sign the Tripartite Pact and become part of the Axis Powers or an affiliate state—it had a common enemy—the Soviet Union, which made it an ally or co-belligerent of Nazi Germany. The Nazis needed help from the Finns in their determined effort to drive into Soviet Russia through the Baltic.

Therefore all Finnish soldiers were significant to the German effort. They accepted the Jewish soldiers and even took care of them specially. The Germans let the Jewish soldiers build a field synagogue for worship, a mere 2-kilometres from the German troops.

With the hopes of regaining territory lost in the Winter War, the Finnish government chose to join forces with Germany. Soon after, it declared war on the Soviet Union on 25 June 1941, three days after Germany started Operation Barbarossa.

Now Jewish soldiers understood that, by serving in an army fighting the USSR, they were also helping Hitler. Throughout the Continuation War, they had to collaborate with the Germans. Some who were fluent in German served in the Intelligence Service and, through constant liaison with German Intelligence, acquired information about the extermination of European Jewry. On the other hand, Jewish soldiers remembered the words of Marshal Mannerheim when Himmler tried to persuade Finnish leaders to deport the Jews to concentration camps, “While Jews serve in my army, I will not allow their deportation.” By serving in the Finnish Army, Jewish soldiers hoped to prevent the community from being persecuted.

There are known cases of Jewish officers of the Finnish Army awarded the German Iron Cross, which they declined. Captain Solomon Klass for heroism, but it is unclear whether he ever wore his Iron. Cross. Major Leo Skurnick and Dina Polijakoff were also awarded the Iron Cross for saving 600 German patients and the care they received, but they refused the award.) Side note: German soldiers were allowed to be treated by Jewish medical officers—who sometimes saved their lives.

For the Jews of Finland, it was more a case of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” They allied with the Germans to fight a common enemy, the Soviet Union.

Hitler with Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in 1942

After the Soviet strategic Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive in southern Finland from June to July and a change in Finnish leadership in August 1944, Finland negotiated a separate peace agreement with the USSR, formalized by the signing of the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. One of the conditions of this agreement was the expulsion or disarming of German troops in Finnish territory, leading to the Lapland War between Finland and Germany.

On 6 December (Independence Day) 1944, President Mannerheim visited the Helsinki synagogue joining in a commemorative service for the Jewish soldiers who had died in the Winter and Continuation Wars and presented the Jewish community with a medal.

sources

https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/fascinating-history-of-finnish-jews-during-ww2/

How Finland’s Jews Fought Alongside the Nazis

NATO

On this day in 1949 the idea of NATO was conceived . North Atlantic Treaty Organization or in French ,OTAN, Organisation du traité de l’Atlantique nord.

The foundations were laid down on 4 April 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, more popularly known as the Washington Treaty.

On 4 April 1949, the foreign ministers from 12 countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty (also known as the Washington Treaty) at the Departmental Auditorium in Washington, D.C.: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Within the five months following the signing ceremony, the Treaty was ratified by the parliaments of the interested countries, sealing their membership.

The 12 signatories

Some of the foreign ministers who signed the Treaty were heavily involved in NATO’s work at a later stage in their careers:

Belgium: M. Paul-Henri Spaak (NATO Secretary General, 1957-1961);
Canada: Mr Lester B. Pearson (negotiated the Treaty and was one of the “Three Wise Men”, who drafted the report on non-military cooperation in NATO, published in 1956 in the wake of the Suez Crisis);
Denmark: Mr Gustav Rasmussen;
France: M. Robert Schuman (architect of the European institutions, who also initiated the idea of a European Defence Community);
Iceland: Mr Bjarni Benediktsson;
Italy: Count Carlo Sforza;
Luxembourg: M. Joseph Bech;
the Netherlands: Dr D.U. Stikker (NATO Secretary General, 1961-1964);
Norway: Mr Halvard M. Lange (one of the “Three Wise Men”, who drafted the report on non-military cooperation in NATO);
Portugal: Dr José Caeiro da Matta;
United Kingdom: Mr Ernest Bevin (a main driver behind the creation of NATO and as Foreign Secretary from 1945 to 1951, he attended the first formative meetings of the North Atlantic Council);
United States: Mr Dean Acheson (as US Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953, he attended and chaired meetings of the North Atlantic Council).

The North Atlantic Alliance was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War. Its purpose was to secure peace in Europe, to promote cooperation among its members and to guard their freedom – all of this in the context of countering the threat posed at the time by the Soviet Union. The Alliance’s founding treaty was signed in Washington in 1949 by a dozen European and North American countries. It commits the Allies to democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law, as well as to peaceful resolution of disputes. Importantly, the treaty sets out the idea of collective defence, meaning that an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization – or NATO – ensures that the security of its European member countries is inseparably linked to that of its North American member countries. The Organization also provides a unique forum for dialogue and cooperation across the Atlantic.

The heart of NATO is expressed in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, in which the signatory members agree that:

“an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all; and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”

NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. After the destruction of the Second World War, the nations of Europe struggled to rebuild their economies and ensure their security.

Dominated by the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact was established in May 1955 as a balance of power or counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Joining the originaL NATO signatories were Greece and Turkey (1952); West Germany (1955; from 1990 as Germany).

West Germany joined NATO in 1955, which led to the formation of the rival Warsaw Pact during the Cold War

Spain (1982); the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (1999); Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (2004); Albania and Croatia (2009); Montenegro (2017); and North Macedonia (2020). France withdrew from the integrated military command of NATO in 1966 but remained a member of the organization; it resumed its position in NATO’s military command in 2009. Finland and Sweden, two long-neutral countries, were formally invited to join NATO in 2022.

Finland will join NATO today, on the 74th anniversary of NATO

SOURCES

https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65173043

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/nato

Dina Poljakoff -Jewish nurse who was offered an Iron Cross.

The role of Finland during World War 2 is a strange one. They were part of the axis powers, not so much because they were great fans of the Nazi regime, but because they saw a powerful ally in Germany to fight the soviets.

There were about 2000 Jews in Finland during World War 2, 300 of them were refugees from Germany and Austria.

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In 1941 Germany stationed troops in northern Finland and Finland then joined Germany in its attack on the Soviet Union. Some 300 Jews served in the Finnish army during the war. The German authorities requested that the
Finnish government hand over its Jewish community, but the Finns refused.
Reportedly, when SS chief Heinrich Himmler brought up the ׂJewish question
with Prime Minister Johann Wilhelm Rangell in mid-1942, Rangell replied that there was no Jewish question in Finland; he firmly stated that the country had but 2,000 respected Jewish citizens, some of who who fought in the army just like everyone else, and as such closed the issue to discussion. The Germans did not press the issue, as they were afraid to lose Finnish cooperation against the Soviets. However, later that year, Gestapo chief Heinrich Muller convinced the head of the Finnish State Police, Arno Anthoni, to deport Jewish refugees. Undertaken in secret, the deportation plan was discovered by the Finnish cabinet, which managed to stop it from being fully implemented. Nevertheless, eight Jews were handed over to the Germans. Ultimately, only one of the eight survived. Many clergymen and politicians condemned the deportation, and as a result the Finnish government refused to surrender any more Jews to the Germans. The majority of the Finnish Jews and refugees remained unharmed during the war. However they did hand over some Soviet Jewish prisoners of war over to the Nazis.

Finnish Jewish soldiers outside a field synagogue during WW2

Dina Poljakoff was a Finnish nurse. Although she was Jewish, she was offered the Iron Cross by Nazi Germany during World War II.

A native of Finland, Poljakoff was studying dentistry before the outbreak of World War II.During the war, she worked as a nurse for Lotta Svärd, an auxiliary organization associated with the White Guard. She served in the front lines of combat during World War II alongside German military units. She was not the only Jewish nurse to perform such service; her cousin, Chaje Steinbock, also worked as a nurse and accumulated a scrapbook of heartfelt messages of thanks from German soldiers who had been under her care.

Dina Poljakoff made quite an impression on her German patients, to the point that she was nominated for the Iron Cross. She was one of three Finnish Jews to be offered the award; like the other two (Leo Skurnik and Salomon Klass), she did not accept the award. Unlike the other two, she did not ask for her name to be withdrawn from the recipient list, and on the day of the awards ceremony she checked the display table to verify that her award was there, before leaving without it.

Poljakoff immigrated to Israel after the war, where she died in 2005.

sources

Click to access Microsoft%20Word%20-%205852.pdf

https://academic.oup.com/hgs/article-abstract/9/1/70/554146?redirectedFrom=PDF

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https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/77291/Poljakoff-Dina.htm

https://frankensaurus.com/Dina_Poljakoff

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The Siege of Leningrad

Today marks the 81st anniversary of the start of the siege of Leningrad.

The Siege of Leningrad was one of the deadliest and most destructive sieges in the history of the world – quite possibly the deadliest ever. It would last for 872 days, and there would be more than a million Soviet civilian casualties, plus another million Soviet military casualties and half a million German casualties.

The effect of the siege on the city was devastating . Food shortages were chronic, deaths from starvation, disease and cold were constant and cannibalism occurred throughout the years of the siege. The number of deaths in Leningrad was the single largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.

The Soviets managed to break the siege on 18 January 1943 by opening a narrow land corridor, but it would not be fully lifted until 27 January 1944 when they managed to fully repel the Germans on their drive west.

What is a lesser known fact is that it wasn’t only the Germans who laid siege on Leningrad.

The Finnish army invaded from the north, co-operating with the Germans until Finland had recaptured territory lost in the recent Winter War, but refused to make further approaches to the city. Also co-operating with the Germans after August 1942 was the Spanish Blue Division. It was transferred to the southeastern flank of the siege of Leningrad, just south of the Neva near Pushkin, Kolpino and its main intervention was in Krasny Bor in the Izhora River area.

The population of Leningrad suffered greatly. Despite all the suffering there were still some people who sacrificed their lives to safekeep things that were dear and important to them.

When the German and Finnish forces began their siege of Leningrad, choking food supply to the city’s two million residents, one group of people preferred to starve to death despite having plenty of ‘food.’ The Leningrad seedbank was diligently preserved through the 28-month Siege of Leningrad.

While the Soviets had ordered the evacuation of art from the Hermitage, they had not evacuated the 250,000 samples of seeds, roots, and fruits stored in what was then the world’s largest seedbank. A group of scientists, headed by Nikolai Vavilov, at the Vavilov Institute boxed up a cross section of seeds, moved them to the basement, and took shifts protecting them. Those guarding the seedbank refused to eat its contents, even though by the end of the siege in the spring of 1944, nine of them had died of starvation.

During the siege of Leningrad, a teenage girl Tanya Savicheva, kept a diary. She lost all her family but she herself was eventually evacuated out of the city in August 1942, along with about 150 other children, to a village called Shatki. But whilst most of the others recovered and lived, Tanya, already too ill, died of tuberculosis on 1 July 1944. Below is one her diary entries, it says everything you need to know how awful the siege was.

“Zhenya died on December 28th at 12 noon, 1941. Grandma died on the 25th of January at 3 o’clock, 1942. Leka died March 17th, 1942, at 5 o’clock in the morning, 1942

Uncle Vasya died on April 13th at 2 o’clock in the morning, 1942. Uncle Lesha May 10th, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, 1942. Mama on May 13th at 7:30 in the morning, 1942

The Savichevs are dead. Everyone is dead. Only Tanya is left.”

sources

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/history-behind-the-seven-notes.html

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/stalin-vs-science-the-life-and-murder-nikolai-vavilov

https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/the-tragic-tale-of-nikolai-vavilov

https://www.onthisday.com/photos/siege-of-leningrad

Denmark at the UEFA Euro championships

Regardless if you are a fan of the man or not, anyone who watched that match last night must have had an awful shock.

Shortly before half time during the UEFA Euro 2020, group stage match between Denmark and Finland, the Danish midfielder and star player, Christian Eriksen collapsed. He was taken of the pitch and rushed to the Hospital after he received treatment on the pitch, He is awake and stable again, after a reportedly cardiac arrest. We all wish him a speedy recovery but it appears he may not play professional football again.

Not only was this an awful shock but it was also a surprise that the match resumed after some delay. Apparently Christian Eriksen said he wanted the match to be played. The match ended up in a 0-1 win to Finland.

This was not the first time that Denmark surprised sporting fans by playing matches during an UEFA Euro championship.

In 1992, most of the Danish team had been on a beach holiday because they failed to qualify for the tournament.

They had been in group 4 of the qualifying rounds together with Austria, the Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia won the group. Denmark ended up as the runner up and failed to qualify.

However just before the tournament started, Yugoslavia was disqualified as a result of the breakup of the country and the ensuing warfare there. As the runner up of group Denmark was called up to take Yugoslavia’s place.

To make the surprise even bigger ,Denmark reached a place in the semi finals after beating France and drawing with England. In the semis the met the Dutch team, who were the reigning champion and also the favourites to win it again, the match ended up in a draw and had to be decided by a penalty shoot out. To everyone’s surprise it was won by Denmark, securing them a spot in the final against Germany.

The finals were set to be played in the Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg Sweden, on June 26.

After having beaten the other giants in European football, the Danes also managed to beat the Germans by two goals.

So Denmark went from not qualifying in the first place ,to be crowned UEFU Euro champions 1992, defying all the odds. Hopefully Christian Eriksen will also defy all the odds and make a full recovery.

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When Police Academy’s Commandant Lassard went to war.

Who hasn’t seen Police Academy or any of the sequels? I reckon mots people have. But one of the actors in the movie had such an interesting life that his story would warrant a movie and would probably become a box office success.

George Gaynes who played the clueless Commandant Lassard was born George Jongejans  May 3, 1917, in Helsinki, Finland  which  was then still, part of the Russian Empire , the son of Iya Grigorievna de Gay , a Russian artist, and Gerrit Jongejans, a Dutch businessman.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia had abdicated the throne on March 15, two months prior to Gaynes’ birth, and the Empire was about go through some turbulent times, and was already at war.

The Jongejans familyy left the country, and George was primarily raised in France, England, and Switzerland.

George attended college in the vicinity of Lausanne, Switzerland and graduated in 1937. He then attended a music school in Milan, Italy for about a year.

In 1940, George Gaynes was living in France,when France was occupied by Nazi Germany. George attempted to flee France, by crossing the Pyrenees mountains into neutral Spain. He was arrested by the Spanish authorities for illegally crossing the border, but was soon released.

In 1943, George joined the Royal Netherlands Navy. With the Netherlands under German occupation, the headquarters of the Navy had moved to London, in the UK. George had no previous military experience, but he was noticed for multilingual skills. He was  fluent in   Dutch, English, French, Italian and Russian. He was soon detached to the (British) Royal Navy to serve as a translator.

During his naval service in World War II, George took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, the Battle of Anzio in the Italian Campaign, and the Adriatic Campaign. The War ended in 1945 and George was honorably discharged in July, 1946. His highest military rank was that of a sergeant.

In 1946, George returned to France but an American theater director offered him a role in a Broadway musical and he moved to New York City later that year and became an American citizen in 1948.

In the early 1960s, George started appearing as a character actor in various television series. He was also offered a number of film roles. His career unexpectedly took off in the 1980s, with a major part in the television series Punky Brewster.

But his most famous role was that of Commandant Lassard in the Police Academy franchise.

He died at his home in North Bend, Washington, on February 15, 2016, at the age of 98.

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Sources

IMDB

 

Jews in World War 2

As the title suggests, this blog is about Jews in WWII. However it is not about Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. This is about the Jews who fought on both sides, for the allied troops but also for the Axis powers.

This may sound crazy but some Jews even got awarded an Iron Cross.

Major Leo Skurnik was a Jewish soldier/medical officer in the Finnish army.

In September 1941 he organized an evacuation of a German field hospital when it came under Soviet attack. In excess of  600 patients, including SS soldiers, were evacuated.For this action he was awarded the Iron Cross.

Skurnik was one of  three Finnish Jews who were bestowed the Iron Cross class 2 . All refused to accept the award.

More then 300 Finnish Jewish soldiers found themselves ‘allied’ to  the Nazis when Finland, who had a mutual enemy in the Soviet Union, joined the war in June 1941.

Despite Germany demanding that Finland introduce anti-Semitic laws like in the rest of Nazi-controlled Europe, the Finns refused, treating their Jewish soldiers with respect. They even allowed the Jewish soldiers to practice their religion.

There was even a field synagogue for these soldiers,  some German soldiers  sometimes even visited the synagogue and showed respect for the Jews who prayed there, despite the propaganda they had subjected to for years.

It was not so much the case that these Finnish Jewish soldiers subscribed to the Nazi philosophy ,but more of a case of fighting an enemy which was feared more in Finland, the Soviet Union.

On the other hand there were Jews fighting for the allies. About 500,000 American Jews served in the various branches of the United States armed services. approximately 52,000 of these received U.S. military awards/ They fought in Europe and the Pacific.

One of the American Jewish soldiers was private Leo Lichten. He was killed in action just outside the village of Prummern,in Germany near the Dutch border.

On November 20,1944.Leo’s company, Company A, received the  order, 1944, to attack pillboxes (small bunkers).The weather conditions were severe , and the ground was muddy, making the battle even more difficult than it might otherwise have been. Leo stormed one of the pillboxes, and was killed by machine gun fire. His body was laid to rest in the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten. Last year I visited his grave and paid my respects.

The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group,also  known as the Jewish Brigade Group or Jewish Brigade, was a military division of the British Army during  World War II. It was formed in late 1944 and consisted of  recruits  of  Jews from the then Mandatory Palestine and was  commanded by Anglo-Jewish officers. It served in the latter stages of the Italian Campaign.

In October 1944, led by Brigadier Ernest F. Benjamin, the brigade group was sent to Italy where it  joined British 8th Army in November 1944, which was engaged in the Italian Campaign under 15th Army Group.

The brigade group did partake in the Spring Offensive of 1945.  On March 19–20, 1945, it initiated two attacks. It moved to the Senio River sector, where it fought against the German 4th Parachute Division commanded by General lieutenant Heinrich Trettner. On April 9, the brigade crossed the river and established a bridgehead, widening it the following day. At the duration  of the  operations in Italy the Jewish Brigade suffered 30 casualties and 70 wounded.

 

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Sources

The Telegraph

Haaretz

Wikipedia

 

Finnish escort Aura II-The ship that sank itself

 

Aura II (formerly known as SS Halland, Bore II, SS Seagull and SS Aura) was a Finnish escort vessel, and a former presidential yacht, operated by the Finnish Navy between 1939 and 1940. The ship participated in the Winter War.

The ship was originally constructed as the passenger vessel SS Halland. She was renamed into Bore II during a sejour with another shipping company. She was bought in 1930 by the Finnish businessman Hans von Rettig, who rebuilt the ship into a luxurious yacht, and renamed her SS Seagull.

He donated the ship to the Finnish state in 1936, to be used as a presidential yacht. She was then given the name SS Aura. She was taken over by the Finnish Navy when the Winter War erupted in 1939, and since the name Aura already was taken by another vessel, she was given a new name, SS Aura II.

On 13 January 1940, Aura II was escorting a convoy across the Sea of Åland.

The small convoy consisted of the cargo vessels SS Anneberg, SS Hebe and the passenger vessel SS Bore I.

When they passed Märket Island, the escort vessel Tursas noticed torpedo tracks in the water. Soon thereafter a submarine surfaced 300 m on the port side. Tursas sounded the alarm and tried to ram the Soviet submarine. Aura II followed and dropped three depth charges, and soon an oil slick was seen on the water surface. It was the Soviet submarine ShCh-324, which had been trying to sink the largest of the transport vessels Anneberg.

However, the torpedo went between Anneberg and Hebe. Seeing the oil slick, Aura II decided to finish off the submarine. Two more depth charges were fired, but a third depth charge exploded in its thrower. The 135 kg trotyl charge completely tearing the wooden ship apart. 26 men died and 15 were saved. The ship’s commander, Lieutenant Esra Terä, was mortally wounded, but managed to utter some last words: “Let us sing, boys”. The Soviet submarine managed to return to its home base.

Algoth Niska- Finnish smuggler, footballer and adventurer.

Finland’s role during WWII is slightly complicated.The military history of Finland during World War II encompasses three major conflicts. The first two––the defensive Winter War in 1939–1940, and the Continuation War alongside the Axis Powers in 1941–1944––were waged against the Soviet Union. The third one, the Lapland War in 1944–1945, followed the signing of an armistice agreement with the Allied Powers, which stipulated expulsion of German forces from Finnish territory.

What is even more remarkable the Finnish army had 300 Jewish soldiers fighting in league with the Nazis when Finland, who had a mutual enemy in the Soviet Union, joined the war in June 1941.

Forgotten History Unlikely Allies

Whilst looking at the involvement of Finland in WWII I stumbled upon the story of Algoth Niska.

Algoth Niska (5 December 1888 – 28 May 1954) was a  smuggler, footballer and adventurer.

He was born in Viipuri in 1888 and was the youngest child. When his father died in 1903, the family moved to Helsinki, where he got interested in football. He was a member of the Finland football team which played at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, losing 4-0 to England in the semi final.

Niska joined his first ship in 1908. When the First World War broke out, he went to navigation school and graduated the following year – though he never got his papers. He was married twice and divorced both women. He had two children. The well-known Finnish musician Ilkka Lipsanen is his grandson.

In 1919, when Finnish prohibition came into force, he acquired a large supply of then-illegal liquor. High society in Helsinki soon found out whom they could ask for refreshments. When the supply begun to run out, he bought a boat and begun to smuggle liquor from Estonian and German ships who waited outside Finnish territorial waters. Later he also smuggled liquor from Sweden, where it was legal but tightly controlled.

Over the years he used various tricks to dodge police boats – and sometimes the bullets of their machine guns – during his trips between Turku, Helsinki, Tallinn and Stockholm and in the Åland archipelago. He never shot back. In one case he unloaded his cargo right in the heart of Helsinki while people were distracted during the visit of Gustav V of Sweden.

Niska was eventually wanted both in Sweden and Finland. He was sentenced for short periods in both countries. In prison he became a model prisoner and was often released early for good behavior.

In 1932 Niska was exiled from Sweden and he spent time in Riga, Tallinn and Danzig. He spoke  Finnish, Swedish, German and English.

Niska had been a smuggler during the Finnish prohibition, but had run into financial troubles after its end in 1932, so when Albert Amtmann, an Austrian-Jewish acquaintance, expressed his concerns over his people’s position in Europe, Niska quickly saw a business opportunity in smuggling Jews out of Germany.

The modus operandi was quickly established. Niska would forge Finnish passports and Amtmann would acquire the customers, who with their new passports would able to cross the border out of Germany. All in all Niska falsified passports for 48 Jews during 1938 and earned 2,5 million Finnish marks ($890,000 or £600,000 in today’s money) selling them. Only three of the Jews are known to have survived the Holocaust while twenty were certainly caught. The fates of the other twenty-five are not known. Involved in the operation with Niska and Amtmann were Major Rafael Johannes Kajander, Axel Belewicz and Belewicz’s girlfriend Kerttu Ollikainen whose job was to steal the forms on which the passports were forged

Niska fought in Laatokka during the Winter War. However there are no records of what his involvement was during the Continuation War.

In the mid-1940s Niska tried to finance the building of a new boat by giving interviews about his life – he needed the money and knew he could afford to ask.  In 1953 he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and lost his speech and power of movement. He died on 28 May 1954.