I was reflecting a bit on Vito's Ask JTF question for the week before this one, where he suggests that Finland, despite being allied with Germany, was not really an evil nation. Chaim, of course, pointed out that anybody who allied themselves with the Nazis at any point, and for any reason, was evil, and technically (and 99% of the time in practice) he is absolutely right.
However, I, like Chaim, attempt to be a student of history, and I think Finland's decision, albeit execrable, was not quite as wicked as those of other Axis allies.
--Finland, which had only gotten its independence from Russia in 1918, had, as Vito pointed out, had been subjected to a horrific onslaught by the Nazi Stalin and his infinite army at the beginning of WWII that was very comparable to the holocaust that the West waged against the heroic Serbs in this decade. As could be expected, the "noble", "heroic" Western Allies did absolutely nothing while this went on; they did about as much to help Finland as they did to save the Jews in the Holocaust. (Of course, both Roosevelt and Churchill [ys"vz to both of those devils] both considered themselves personal friends of Uncle Joe, much like today's "democratic" leaders worship the Saudi royals and the antichrist dictators of Red China.)
--Most of the lesser Axis countries (Romania, Latvia, Austria, etc.) joined because they clearly agreed with Nazi ideology and/or wanted to partake in the Germans' spoils of war from the small countries they plundered. With the understanding that this is still no excuse, neither was true of Finland.
--Finland's behavior was relatively clean for Scandinavia: Norway was an outright Nazi puppet, and Sweden supplied the Nazis with raw materials till the very last day of the war.
--Finland's treatment of its Jews was cleaner than that of pretty much any European country but G-dly Serbia (then Yugoslavia). Finland had no camps whatsoever except for POW camps for Soviet soldiers, who were not savagely tortured and murdered the way Nazi Russian POWs were.
--Even today, the noble Serbs, or rather their socialist government, (zt"l) maintains strong alliances with the Russian Hitler Vladimir Putin (ys"vz) and even some Muslim Nazi countries (how idiotically!). Like Finland's alliance with Germany, Yugoslavia's alliance with Russia has certainly not helped her much.
If you all disagree with me, this is no big deal. Chaim is certainly right that Finland's choice was evil and without any justification. I just wanted to have an interesting discussion on an obscure footnote of history.
Chaimfan
Topic: Vito's Ask JTF Question and Finland and the Nazis (Read 3303 times)