World War II was the battle between Nazi Germany and the Allied Powers, but between 1939 and 1945, Finland fought three wars: the Winter War and the Continuation War against the Soviet Union. And finally, the Lapland War that raged against the remnants of the German forces that were allowed into Finland as co-belligerents against the Russians. In this new documentary, viewers will experience these little-known wars in Finland through the eyes of the children who lived through them.
Bombings during the Winter War and the Continuation War prompted Finnish parents to send their children to the countryside or to safety abroad. Of the 70,000 Finnish children evacuated, most went to Sweden and personal accounts of the evacuation and life abroad are featured in the film. Liisa Jussila recounts her arrival in Sweden:
“My sister must have been four and a half. I was eight and my brother is four and a half years older than I am. My mother told my brother, "You look after these girls," because he was about 12. "You are in charge and where you go, they go." When we eventually ended up in Sweden and this young minister and his wife came to pick up the two that they had thought they would house, my brother was holding our hands and said, "No. Where I go, they go." They broke down and took us all three, bless their hearts. They had no children, no experience with children, and all of a sudden they had three.”
After several years of preparation, the documentary film based on the wartime memories and of local Finnish and Swedish immigrants is to receive its premiere on January 28, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Nordic Heritage Museum. This is My Childhood: Finland at War is a 55-minute film culled from nearly 25 hours of interviews recorded by volunteers of the Nordic American Voices Oral History Project over the past six years. It is the second documentary film to come out of this project – the first being the highly successful Under the Clouds of War: Growing Up in Occupied Denmark and Norway.
- Gordon Strand, Nordic American Voices Project Coordinator
Fred Poyner IV, Collections Manager, Nordic Heritage Museum
Admission cost: Free (Donations accepted)
DVDs of the film will be available in the Museum Gift Shop for $19.95. Orders may also be placed by contacting orders@nordicmuseum.org. (Please include your name, address, and phone number in the email. Don't include credit card information, however; we'll call for those details upon receipt of your order.) A $5 shipping and handling fee will apply for delivery in the U.S.; for multiple copies, additional shipping fees will apply. Please allow 7-10 days for delivery.
