Saksalaisten sotilaiden lapset. Ulkomaalaisten sotilaiden lapset ...

Marriages between Finnish women and German men from the perspective of racial
doctrine. The first German soldiers arrived in Finland in September 1940, when the
troops in Norway were permitted to travel through Finnish territory. For this
purpose, supply units were stationed in several areas. Finnish women first formed
relationships with German soldiers as early as fall 1940, soon after the arrival of
the soldiers. From September 1940 to June 1941, there were about 2 000 German
soldiers stationed in Finland. As there were few soldiers, there were also few
relationships. From June 1941 onwards the Germans had, at the most, 200 000
soldiers stationed in Finland; as a consequence, these relationships gradually
became more common.
Alfred Rosenberg, leading ideologue of the NSDAP, gave a speech in summer
1940 to the foreign press, which aimed to explain the nature of the Pan-Germania
movement, which was of course to be led by Germany. Not only the people of the
Netherlands and the Flemish, but also Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were to be
part of Pan-Germania. Thus, for example Finland and the Baltic states would not
be members thereof, as Rosenberg felt that the citizens of these states were not
members of the Germanic race. Hitler, on the other hand, wrote in November 1942
that Finns were citizens of a Nordic state and were in fact a Nordic race, having
mixed blood for a long time with Germanic peoples. And, of course, because they
were fighting on the side of the Germans.
During the war, some Finns felt that Finland had a special status compared to other
nations, and that the Germans believed them to be a ”good race”. Of course, the
Germans had their own reasons for flattering and toasting the Finns. The soldiers
stationed in North Finland had their own magazine, the “Lappland-Kurier”. In
1941-44 there were dozens of articles published in that magazine that praised the
tenacity and skill of the Finnish soldiers. These articles even elevated the natural
abilities of the Finns higher than those of the Germanic peoples of the other
Scandinavian countries.
The perspectives of the German racial experts on the racial traits of the Finns were,
to a great extent, ruled by a pragmatic attitude in 1941-44: the Finns were, after all,
co-belligerents with the Germans. As Finland was, both for political and military
reasons, an important partner, the Germans were more than a little magnanimous
concerning their racial traits, which from the point of view of their own racial
doctrine were at best rather problematic. On the other hand, the Swedish-speaking
minority in Finland was generally considered to be Germanic, and of even purer
blood than most Germans.
None of the German authorities were ready or willing to take a firm stand on the
racial requirements for Finnish women to marry German soldiers, and thus
marriage permits were handed out on a case by case basis. Though the question of
racial policy was never resolved, in practice some couples were permitted to marry
during the war. This, in turn, indicates that the officials in charge of marriage
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