During World War II and the Holocaust, Finland allied with the Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan) against the Allies.[1]
Finland handed over eight Jewish refugees and a few dozen Jewish prisoners of war to the Germans in 1942.[2] In addition, members of Finnish State Police participated in the screening of Jews and communists in Lapland, aware that the Germans would kill the separated Jews.[3]
Heinrich Himmler visited Finland in the summer of 1942 with the sole purpose of demanding that Finland hand over Jews to Germany. When Himmler asked Prime Minister Johan Rangell about Finland's "Jewish question", Rangell described the Finnish Jews as decent and respectable and denied that there was any Jewish question in Finland. The Germans did not want to jeopardize military cooperation between the countries and for the time being dropped their demands for the extradition of Finnish Jews.[3] None of the Finnish Jews were deported in the Holocaust in Finland.