Marti Ahtisaari and the Waffen SS
In 1999, when he was the President of Finland, Marti Ahtisaari’s
government wanted to honor and to commemorate the 3,000 Finnish Nazi
Waffen SS volunteers that served in Heinrich Himmler’s SS. Why would any
governemnt, indeed, why would anyone, want to honor and commemorate SS
troops? Why would anyone want to honor and commemorate Nazis and Nazism?
This is the question that has remained unanswered in the US and Western
media about Marti Ahtisaari. As a sock puppet for the US, NATO, and EU,
Ahtisaari’s role in honoring and commemorating the Nazi Waffen SS has
been suppressed. As a Chairman Emeritus of ICG he is regarded as part
of the globalist elite. His government’s honoring of Finnish Nazi SS
troops is a controversial subject that did not register on the radar
screen of the mainstream media.
How substantial was the connection between Marti Ahtisaari’s Finland and
Nazi Germany? What role did Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler play in
Finland? Were the 3,000 Finnish volunteers in the Waffen SS just regular
soldiers or were they Nazi shock troops who had sworn their allegiance
to Adolf Hitler and to Nazism? These are questions that the mainstream
media will not address. They are, nevertheless, meaningful questions
that will help us to understand Marti Ahtisaari’s position on Kosovo.
The Finnish SS troops swore a personal oath to the Supreme Commander
“Hitler” of the German Armed Forces. The Finnish government recruited
these Finnish SS troops. The recruitment was done in secret. The
formation of the Finnish Waffen SS unit was organized on March, 1941,
three months before the German invasion of the USSR. There was
pre-meditation, and planning. Finland was engaged in an unprovoked act
of aggression with Finnish ally Nazi Germany. Finland was not occupied
by Nazi Germany. Finland allowed Germany to launch land, sea, and air
attacks against the Soviet Union from bases in Finland. In other words,
the Finnish government and the Finnish people freely chose or decided to
be allies with Adolf Hitler and with Nazi Germany.
The name of the formation that was created was the Finnishe Freiwillige
Battaillon der Waffen SS, the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen
SS. The Finnish Nazi SS troops were issued their own national insignia.
The Finnish Army even had its own version of the swastika, which was
blue in color and discarded after World War II. The secret SS
recruitment in Finland went under the name Engineer Bureau “Ratas”. The
Finnish recruits came from Helsinki, the capital, where 1,200 were
assembled. The Finnish troops were sent to Nazi Germany for training,
where they joined several Nazi Waffen SS formations: The 5th SS Division
Wiking, the SS Freiwilligen Battalion “Nordost”, their own Finnish
Waffen SS unit, and the II SS Regiment “Nordland”, which was part of the
Wiking SS Division.
The Finnish Freiwillige Battalion der Waffen SS consisted of three
infantry companies and one motorized company and was commanded by German
SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Hans Collani. In total, approximately 3,000 Finnish
troops were part of SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler’s Waffen SS.
The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal found all SS members to be war
criminals who committed crimes against humanity. We then have to ask:
Why is Marti Ahtisaari honoring and commemorating war criminals? These
Finnish Nazi SS troops were involved in the Holocaust and in genocide.
Why isn’t this even news? Why doesn’t Marti Ahtisaari know what the
Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal held regarding the Waffen SS? Why is he so
ignorant or indifferent?
The Finnish rationalization is that Finnish Nazi Waffen SS troops were
just regular soldiers. They did nothing wrong. They did swear an oath to
Adolf Hitler. They were part of Heinrich Himmler’s Waffen SS, the
organization responsible for the Holocaust and the genocide committed
against Jews and Gypsies. The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal did find all
SS members to be war criminals. Nevertheless, the Finnish rationale is
that they were just regular soldiers. This is a salient case of
self-delusion and self-interested rationalization that approaches
psychopathology. There is almost a total disconnect here with reality as
we know it.
What are the facts?
Finland was an ally of Nazi Germany during World War II, part of the
German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Operation
Barbarossa. On June 4, 1942, Adolf Hitler made a visit to Finland to
coordinate joint efforts by Finland and Nazi Germany to launch renewed
attacks against the Soviet Union. The occasion was the 75th birthday of
Finnish commander in chief Carl Mannerheim, a former decorated Russian
commander. Hitler flew to the Immola air base on a Focke-Wulf FW-200
Condor flown by his personal pilot, SS Gruppenfuehrer Hans Baur. Joining
Hitler on the mission was Wilhelm Keitel, the chief of the German
Military Command. Hitler met with Finnish President Risto Ryti and with
Finnish and German military commanders, including German General Eduard
Dietl, the commander of German forces in Finland.
Hitler then had a long conversation with Mannerheim in a railroad car, a
conversation that was recorded. German newsreel cameras filmed this
historic visit.
Hitler gave Mannerheim a gift of three Steyr-Daimler 1500 A
Kommandeurwagen field cars. Hitler personally thanked Mannerheim for
Finnish sup****t of Operation Barbarossa.
Finnish “historiography” and Finnish “historians” claim that Mannerheim
was not particularly fond of Adolf Hitler or Nazism. But Mannerheim was
fond enough of Hitler and Nazism to visit Hitler and Nazi Germany in
late June, 1942 on an official state visit. Mannerheim would himself
visit Nazi Germany in the summer of 1942 on an official visit where he
met with Hitler again and Hermann Goering, the chief of the German Air
Force or Luftwaffe, in the presence of Himmler, Alfred Jodl, and Franz
Halder, as broadcast in the July 8, 1942 Die Deutsche Wochenschau
newsreel. Mannerheim went hunting with Goering. Heinrich Himmler would
also visit Finland in 1942 to convince Finland to de****t its Jews to the
concentration camps.
US Secretary of State Cordell Hull warned the Finnish government that
they risked war with the US by the Finnish alliance with Adolf Hitler.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote Mannerheim a letter which
threatened him with prosecution after the war for war crimes: “I wish I
could convince Your Excellency that we are going to beat the Nazis. I
feel far more confident than in 1917 or 1918. It would be most painful
to the many friends of your country in England if Finland found herself
in the dock with the guilty and defeated Nazis.” Britain, like the US,
was contemplating declaring war against Finland. Britain eventually
declared war against Finland on December 6, 1941, followed by Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand. The US broke off diplomatic relations with
Finland. Mannerheim ignored the warnings and continued to ally with
Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Finland did not have to pay for its
alliance with Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler after World War II. The
history of Finland, an enemy combatant during the war, was largely
whitewashed and distorted. Not many people are aware of the actual role
Finland played during World War II. Marti Ahtisaari was banking on this
widespread ignorance.
Nazi Germany had 200,000 troops in Finland. Finnish troops participated
in the siege of Leningrad that resulted in the deaths of an estimated
over one million Russian civilians. Ironically, the Murmansk and the
Leningrad fronts were the two Russian fronts that held during Operation
Barbarossa and where the Russians achieved spectacular and brilliant
military successes. There were, however, large civilian casualties,
which Finland must bear some historical responsibility for. But
Ahtisaari and the Finnish government have never acknowledged their role
in these deaths, let alone have they made any apology for them. Those
lives do not matter.
The Finnish Waffen SS troops fought fiercely and fanatically for
Heinrich Himmler. Himmler himself noted that the Finnish Nazi SS troops
were among the best Nazi soldiers. Gottlob Berger, the head of the SS
Main Office who coordinated recruiting for the Waffen SS, praised the
determination and commitment of Finnish Nazi SS troops in su****t of
Nazism. The Finnish SS troops fought as the advance, shock guard in the
German assault on the Ukraine and in the Caucasus. It was the 256
Finnish Nazi SS troops killed during this engagement that Marti
Ahtisaari’s government wanted to honor and commemorate in 1999.
Why would Marti Ahtisaari’s government want to honor these Nazi SS war
criminals? It is all in how you see the question. For Marti Ahtisaari
and the Finnish government, these “alleged” Nazi SS war criminals did
nothing wrong. One person’s war criminal is another person’s war hero.
Is this based in any rationality or logic? Isn’t this revisionism and
moral relativism of the worst sort? What kind of moral calculus is Marti
Ahtisaari guided by? It is a delusional psychopathology that reflects no
moral grounding. It is an amoral and unethical posture. What kind of
morality is based in subjective self-interest? Marti Ahtisaari can
decide what is right or wrong based solely on considerations of
self-interest? What kind of morality is that? It is no morality at all.
It shows a nihilistic contempt for morality and reason and the rule of
law.
This tells us everything we need to know about Marti Ahtisaari. His
position on Kosovo should not surprise anyone.
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