Suomen Punaisen Ristin Sotavankitoimisto

The Finnish Red Cross established its POW Office in 1939 to collect data concerning the POWs during the Winter War, and later during the Continuation War. The office was established on the ground of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of POWs.

In the years 1939-1944 Finland held in custody around 70,000 Soviet POWs. Approximately 470 of them were Jewish. During the continuation war (1941-1944) the rate of mortality in the camps was very high, up to 30%. Around 2500 POWs were extradited to the Germans. Within the extradited there were 55 Jews. Two of them were returned to the Finnish authorities. Three were executed in the German-occupied Tallinn, Estonia. The others’ fate remains unknown. Most probably the extradited Jewish POWs were murdered and buried in mass graves in Northern Finland. Those who remained in Finnish custody were repatriated in the USSR after the armistice in September 1944.