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 government, 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 support 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 deport 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 support 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.

Originally published on 2007-04-14

Author: Carl K. Savich

Source: Serbianna

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