Karelian War Refugees 1939-44

War refugees

This Article is written from The Nemesis Book

The Nemesis Book will be published soon.

The Soviet Union war against peace in 1939 was a war crime initiated by the Nazi German-Soviet Pact of Aggression. The invasion of Finland by the Soviet forces during the winter of 1939, November 30.

Evacuations to Escape Annexation

The highest populated region of Finland, in the path of the Soviet Union military invasion, was the Karelian Isthmus. 407,000 Karelian evacuees had to leave with haste to their family homes, farms, stocks and belonging to avoid being annexed by the threatening Soviet military forces.
The 407,000 War refugees from Karelia families were taken to safety away from the Soviet Russian invasion into the Finland interior. Early in December many children were separated from their families and placed in foster care in the Scandinavian countries.

 

Almost 80,000 Sent to Foster Families

During the 1939-40 Winter War and Continuation War in 1941-1944, nearly 80,000 children were transferred to Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. About 72,000 children were taken to or left in Sweden, 4 200 in Denmark and about one hundred children and mothers in Norway.

Adopted War Refugee Children

About 15,500 of them did not return to Finland they were adopted by the families that had fostered them. The initial Winter War that started in November 1939 and ended in March 1940, only lasted 3 months (104 days). Many of the children returned home to Finland in 1940 once the threat of war was over.

Author Victor Leinonen
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