Martti Ahtisaari: Honoring and Commemorating Finland’s Nazi SS Troops

These are the Finnish Nazi SS troops which Martti Ahtisaari planned to honor and commemorate in 1999. The fifth photograph from the top shows SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner, one of Adolf Hitler’s favorite commanders,  inspecting the Finnish Volunteer SS-Battalion “Nordost” on May 23, 1943 with SS-Obersturmbannführers Hans Collani (left), the commander of the battalion, and Finnish Liaison Officer Kalervo Kurkiala (second from left), and Finnish Major Erkki Kokko. Steiner was the commander of the 5th SS Volunteer Division “Wiking”, to which the Finnish Nazi SS Battalion “Nordost” was attached. The Wiking SS Division committed numerous massacres during World War II. He commanded the 11th SS Panzer Army during the last weeks of the war in 1945 when Adolf Hitler tasked him with defending Berlin from the advancing Russian forces. Steiner commanded the SS Regiment Deutschland before the formation of Wiking.

This is the photo link.

A Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) news dispatch from 1999 on Martti Ahtisaari’s plan to honor Finland’s Nazi SS troops, “Finnish Jews Upset over Commemoration”, Helsinki, Friday, May 28, 1999.

Finland’s hidden Nazi legacy: Finnish Nazi SS Battalion Marching Songs, 2 CD set.

Dritte Nordland: The Photo History of the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen SS, 1941-1943 by Olli Wikberg, new book on the Finnish Nazi SS Battalion.

Adolf Hitler’s Visit to Finland, June 4, 1942: An account of the visit Hitler made, along with his personal staff, to honor Mannerheim, a former decorated Russian commander who commanded Whites against the Reds following the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Deportations to Nazi Death Camps: Details on how Arno Anthoni, the chief of Valpo, the Finnish secret police, deported Finnish Jews to the Nazi concentration camps in conjunction with Heinrich Muller, the chief of the German Gestapo.

Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, the chief of the German Luftwaffe, meeting with Finnish military commander Carl Mannerheim in Germany, June, 1942.

Finns honor and commemorate the 50th anniversary of a Nazi collaborator and alleged war criminal.

The only known recording of a private conversation of Adolf Hitler in his normal speaking voice is the 11 minute discussion he had with Finnish commander Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim on June 4, 1942, on Hitler’s visit to Finland.