STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Or do you say Neue Welt Ordnung?] "The exhibit marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the Continuation War, which broke out on June, 25, 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union through Finnish Lappland....'During the Cold War we would not have been able to have such an exhibition due to Soviet sensibilities. Even 10 years ago, for the Fiftieth anniversary, it would have been impossible.'...'Finland might have lost the Continuation War, but one can say we won the Cold War.' Sunday July 1, 12:38 PM Exhibit offers Finns first close-up of World War II role HELSINKI, July 1 (AFP) - Historians still debate the causes and effects of World War II but a new exhibit here, made possible by the end of the Cold War, is offering Finns a first close-up view of their small country's controversial wartime maneuverings with the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. "This is the first time this kind of exhibit has been possible due to the geopolitical situation here," Ohto Manninen, a leading war historian, told AFP. The War Museum in Helsinki provides Finns with a behind-the-scenes view of what they still call the Continuation War, when Finland teamed up with Nazi Germany in 1941-1944 to win back territories lost to the neighbouring Soviet Union during the 1939-1940 Winter War. The exhibit marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the Continuation War, which broke out on June 25, 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union through Finnish Lappland. "During the Cold War we would not have been able to have such an exhibit due to Soviet sensibilities. Even 10 years ago, for the 50th anniversary, it would have been impossible," Manninen, professor of military history at the Finnish Defense College, said. In vivid detail, the exhibit describes life during the war, both for the soldiers and on the home front, with multimedia shows, rare color photographs, displays, models and installations, including a bomb shelter, machine gun nest and soldiers' canteen. Also on view are now-eerie communications between Finland and Nazi Germany detailing their preparations to go to war together, and the Enigma code machine used by the Finnish High Command to communicate with Germany, one of only four such devices in existence. A number of items on display were captured from Soviets wartime forces. Although the Continuation War is now at best just a footnote to World War II history, according to Manninen it still holds special interest here because while the conflict left Finland on the losing side of World War II it also paved the way for the Baltic state to emerge a Cold War winner. "Finland might have lost the Continuation War, but one can say we won the Cold War. It could have gone far worse, just look at the Baltics and Romania for example. The Soviet Union wasn't able to invade us, and we kept our freedom," he said. "Following the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland, which wanted to be neutral together with Sweden and Norway, was caught up in the aspirations of the Great Powers, with nobody to turn to for help," he added. It was a secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact that codified the annexation by the Soviet Union of the three Baltic states -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. When the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939-1940 to create deeper defense lines around Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in what Finns call the Winter War, the Finns were forced to give up 10 percent of their territory after 105 days of fighting. Later in World War II, when Hitler launched his campaign to conquer the Soviet Union, Finland teamed up with Nazi Germany to win back the lost territories and prevent an all-out invasion by the Soviets. "The general sentiment was that, if the Soviets came, they would stay, but the Germans would go. The main thing was that Germany fought the Soviet Union, and the Continuation War was not a fight for the Nazis, but against the Soviet Union," Manninen said. "The main idea was to get back the territories lost during the Winter War, and wait until the Soviet Union collapsed under German pressure," he added. While the Soviet Union paid a heavy price, with a total of 400,000 killed or unaccounted for during both wars, Finland lost only one-fifth of that, some 83,000 soldiers. Germany lost 23,000 in Finnish Lappland. The exhibit is open through September 2002 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
