Food catastrophe in Finland 1941 and Leningrad

[Seppo Jyrkinen]

At Autumn 1941 Finns got only 50% of all food they needed from the fields of their own: grain 52%, potatoes 43%, milk & butter 58%. Same time, August/September, Germany wanted Finns to go on towards Leningrad and also put some stress to Finns by making end of food deliveries and finally by sending General Jodl to Finland. But in vain: Finns gave them at least 5 times a negative answer.

Why did Hitler accepted this? (Three months later he made a decision to send a lot of more Food to Finland.)

Finland was a small non-Ayrian nation, 40% had voted socialists and leaders were well known Anglophiles. Most of the army was already playing card and the rest of it was rushing towards Karhumäki, which was totally worthless to Germany.

Long article about food (in Finnish only): http://www.jyrkinen.fi/mietteet/elintar ... -1942.html

[durb]

Although the winter 1941-1942 was diffiult, there was not a famine in Finland during the war. If you want, you can compare the food situation of Finnish civilians to that of the habitants of Leningrad during the siege - no doubt where the crisis was more severe.

The Finnish food crisis on 1941-1942 was felt mostly in PoW camps, and most of about 12 000 Soviet PoW´s died in Finnish captivity were victims of malnutrition. (However my guess is that the death rate of Soviet PoW´s in Finnish captivity was less than in German captivity)

However, it is true that the situation would have been very difficult if Germans had not sent grain supplies by the spring of 1942 - those food deliveries were really crucial to prevent famine. Why supplies were not sent earlier? - the reasons were mainly following: during the winter time Baltic Sea was frozen and it would have difficult to send great quantities of food supplies by sea (practically only route). It must be taken in account that also in Germany there was some shortage of food supplies and rationing. I do not believe that politics had a decisive role to do with the delay of food deliveries from Germany.

[Karelia]

There was a NEAR famine in Finland then. People died for mulnutrition not only in PoW camps, but also in several institutes, like mental institutes, nursing homes, hospitals and such. The doctors and nurses of the timehave often told similar stories: there just wasn't enough food and people died because of that. Officially the reasons of death were mostly something else, since they had been advised not to use "starvation".

The rations were too small for people to survive on them only. The average people could get extra food by gardening, fishing, picking berries etc. and survive. The problem for PoWs and people in the institutions was, that they could not get that extra food - or at least not enough.

Of course the situation was worse in Leningrad. It does not mean though, that people didn't die for malnutrition in Finland too.

It's also worth remembering, that the death rate of Finnish PoWs in soviet captivity was higher anyway and abt six times higher, if you take into account also the time of captivity, like one should.

[durb]

It's also worth remembering, that the death rate of Finnish PoWs in soviet captivity was higher anyway and abt six times higher, if you take into account also the time of captivity, like one should.

The death rate of Soviet war prisoners in Finnish captivity during the Continuation War was 29,6 %, so six times higher death rate of Finnish PoWs in Soviet captivity was about 180 %? See http://www.arkisto.fi/uploads/Palvelut/ ... UT_WEB.pdf, p. 9

But back to food crisis situation in winter 1941-1942 - I confess that I did not know about the situation in mental institutions. However my guess is that some mental institutes had their own gardens and agricultural resources, so the situation may have varied between different institutes. Also some patients may have had families, which could supply them with some food. Likely the most ill or "difficult" patients (without family support) had it most hard.

That there was a near-famine situation in Finland in winter 1941-1942 is true, but ultimately there was not large-scale starvation in civilian population. So I would not say that it was a "food catastrophe" in Finland, although the situation in some mental institutes and specially in PoW camps was difficult.

[LWD]

...
That there was a near-famine situation in Finland in winter 1941-1942 is true, but ultimately there was not large-scale starvation in civilian population. So I would not say that it was a "food catastrophe" in Finland, although the situation in some mental institutes and specially in PoW camps was difficult.

What definition of "starvation" are you using? The common defintions usually include suffering from a severe deficieny in calories. That doesn't mean one necessarily dies, indeed most deaths during a famine are not from lack of calories per se but from diseases that get acute due to reduced resistance. My impression is that famine condititions did indeed exist in Finland durilng at least part of this period.

There are a number of defintions here: http://ocw.jhsph.edu/courses/Internatio ... ture11.pdf some would seem to apply and some not and some would be debateable.

[Karelia]

It's also worth remembering, that the death rate of Finnish PoWs in soviet captivity was higher anyway and abt six times higher, if you take into account also the time of captivity, like one should.

The death rate of Soviet war prisoners in Finnish captivity during the Continuation War was 29,6 %, so six times higher death rate of Finnish PoWs in Soviet captivity was about 180 %? See http://www.arkisto.fi/uploads/Palvelut/ ... UT_WEB.pdf, p. 9

The death rate of soviet PoW's in Finnish captivity was 29,6 %, average captivity time being abt three years (my estimate). IIRC 90 % of the soviet PoW's were captured in 1941 and returned back to the USSR in late 1944. Only the first Continuation War year of 1941-42, until the harvest of 1942 was collected, was bad. After that the conditions improved rapidly and the mortality rate normalized.

The death rate of Finnish PoW's in soviet captivity was 43,1, average captivity time being abt six months, since abt 90 % (?) of them were captured in the summer 1944 and returned at the end of the same year. The conditions of the Finnish PoW's did not improve during the war despite of the massive US food aid but stayed appalling.

Since the captivity time of the soviet PoW's in Finland was abt six times longer and mortality still smaller, the annual mortality rate of the Finnish PoW's in the USSR was at least six times higher.

But back to food crisis situation in winter 1941-1942 - I confess that I did not know about the situation in mental institutions. However my guess is that some mental institutes had their own gardens and agricultural resources, so the situation may have varied between different institutes. Also some patients may have had families, which could supply them with some food. Likely the most ill or "difficult" patients (without family support) had it most hard.

That there was a near-famine situation in Finland in winter 1941-1942 is true, but ultimately there was not large-scale starvation in civilian population. So I would not say that it was a "food catastrophe" in Finland, although the situation in some mental institutes and specially in PoW camps was difficult.

It has been estimated that an average Finnish adult lost 6 kgs during that winter (got that information from a radio program), so the situations was pretty bad. One should keep in mind, that in general people were not overweight to start with.

[durb]

Finnish people in general were not overweight in 1941/1942 - when looking the image of soldiers of that time, they were skinny men despite better food rations.

However, comparing Finnish "hunger winter" 1941-1942 with the Dutch Hunger Winter 1944-1945 I would say that the average starvation level of Finnish civilians was not comparable to that of the Dutch people. In Finland there were not images of starving children who looked like concentration camp prisoners. If You want, try google with "Dutch Hunger Winter" and you will find images and plenty of good info about Dutch hunger winter. I have not seen anything comparable of that in Finnish photos of the same era.

So although the Finns felt their situation critical and sacrifices great, Finland had relatively good wartime conditions to live with - it was never occupied by foreign troops, had democratic system (only "Axis nation" to have it), decent administration and people were not dying in massive scale in hunger at any point of war.

If one wants to make comparison of "hunger winter" 1941-1942 with other Finnish food crisis, I would suggest the hunger catastrophe of 1860´s and the food crisis of 1917-1919. The 1860´s situation was clearly worse and my rough guess is that the crisis of 1917-1919 (with Civil War included) was also more serious than that of the 1941-1942.

[peeved]

It's also worth remembering, that the death rate of Finnish PoWs in soviet captivity was higher anyway and abt six times higher, if you take into account also the time of captivity, like one should.

The death rate of Soviet war prisoners in Finnish captivity during the Continuation War was 29,6 %, so six times higher death rate of Finnish PoWs in Soviet captivity was about 180 %? See http://www.arkisto.fi/uploads/Palvelut/ ... UT_WEB.pdf, p. 9

What that source calls mortality rate or death rate is no statistically viable rate at all since it omits the time factor; i.e. mortality rate should measure the number of deaths in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time which that stat doesn't take into account. Looks like a half-assed government job on the part of the researcher.

It's also worth remembering, that the death rate of Finnish PoWs in soviet captivity was higher anyway and abt six times higher, if you take into account also the time of captivity, like one should.

The death rate of Soviet war prisoners in Finnish captivity during the Continuation War was 29,6 %, so six times higher death rate of Finnish PoWs in Soviet captivity was about 180 %? See http://www.arkisto.fi/uploads/Palvelut/ ... UT_WEB.pdf, p. 9

The death rate of soviet PoW's in Finnish captivity was 29,6 %, average captivity time being abt three years (my estimate). IIRC 90 % of the soviet PoW's were captured in 1941 and returned back to the USSR in late 1944. Only the first Continuation War year of 1941-42, until the harvest of 1942 was collected, was bad. After that the conditions improved rapidly and the mortality rate normalized.

The death rate of Finnish PoW's in soviet captivity was 43,1, average captivity time being abt six months, since abt 90 % (?) of them were captured in the summer 1944 and returned at the end of the same year.
Since the captivity time of the soviet PoW's in Finland was abt six times longer and mortality still smaller, the annual mortality rate of the Finnish PoW's in the USSR was at least six times higher.

IMO too making a death rate comparison using the overall mortality and average time the survivors spent in captivity is a much better way to compare PoW death rates than using simplistic mortality figures without taking into account the time factor. Assuming your figures are correct 43,1% and six months and 29,6% and three years they would IMO translate to an annual mortality rate of 67,6% for Finnish PoWs in Soviet captivity and 11,0% for Soviet PoWs in Finnish captivity. I however suspect the actual average time the repatriated Finns had spent in Soviet captivity was somewhat higher than six months since some early war PoWs managed to survive and the Russians failed to repatriate several PoWs until long after the war. Still when using comparable data it is quite obvious that the Soviet system was much harder on PoWs and as you wrote

The conditions of the Finnish PoW's did not improve during the war despite of the massive US food aid but stayed appalling.

Markus

[Karelia]

Finnish people in general were not overweight in 1941/1942 - when looking the image of soldiers of that time, they were skinny men despite better food rations.

However, comparing Finnish "hunger winter" 1941-1942 with the Dutch Hunger Winter 1944-1945 I would say that the average starvation level of Finnish civilians was not comparable to that of the Dutch people. In Finland there were not images of starving children who looked like concentration camp prisoners. If You want, try google with "Dutch Hunger Winter" and you will find images and plenty of good info about Dutch hunger winter. I have not seen anything comparable of that in Finnish photos of the same era.

So although the Finns felt their situation critical and sacrifices great, Finland had relatively good wartime conditions to live with - it was never occupied by foreign troops, had democratic system (only "Axis nation" to have it), decent administration and people were not dying in massive scale in hunger at any point of war.

If one wants to make comparison of "hunger winter" 1941-1942 with other Finnish food crisis, I would suggest the hunger catastrophe of 1860´s and the food crisis of 1917-1919. The 1860´s situation was clearly worse and my rough guess is that the crisis of 1917-1919 (with Civil War included) was also more serious than that of the 1941-1942.

But I was not compering with the Dutch Hunger Winter, was I? The fact that they had it worse does not mean, that in Finland we did not have a food crisis year in 1941-42 - and again in 1944-45 - as well as some people dying because of starvation.

I don't need to make comparisons with the 1860's famine, 1917-1919 famine nor with 1695-97 famine, which AFAIK was proportionally the worst one of the Finnish famines by far. Again - the fact that these were worse or much worse does not really change anything.

[Seppo Jyrkinen]

You can use a word "catastrophe" because Finland's own fields gave only 50% of the food which was needed. The rest would have a political price, Leningrad as the very first.

It is true that in many place's (Leningrad, Holland, Bengal etc) the situation was much worse. Starvation in Finland did exist especially in institutions and camps which gives a hint about reason. I believe, that not only small mount of food (energy) but also monotone food (vitamin's etc) has been damaging. Outside institutions it was possible to change cowberry jam to apple jam and even if the amount of energy was the same, people got different kind of vitamins. Food amount on the free markets was some 5-10% of need and at the worst time (Spring 1942) you didn't find free food in cities at all. Black markets was not the answer either.

Finland was dancing on a rope and succeeded well compared the dangers between two tyrannies.

My focus is anyway in Hitler's policy. Finns took up a negative position to Leningrad matter and a few months later Hitler promised food to Finland. In Berlin, Finland's refusal had been brushed under the carpet. Why? Hitler had also a possibility to say to Finns: "You don't want to go on near Leningrad. Ok. We shall wait. Please tell us when you are hungry enough!"

[durb]

Hitler´s plans with Leningrad had changed already by autumn 1941. Germans were not going to assault city with likely high loss of men in bitter street-to-street and house-to-house combat - the very same reason why it did not make sense to Finns to participate in such combat and have high combat casualties. It was calculated, that Leningrad would fall like ripe fruit by starvation anyway and this was accepted strategy from the late 1941 onward. Thus Hitler agreed to supply Finns with necessary food aid for the spring 1942. I think that he had no reason to halt food aid to Finland because of Finnish passivity at Leningrad front. If there are German documents saying otherwise, I will change my opinion on this question.

[Seppo Jyrkinen]

Germans made several trials to get Finns to go on towards Leningrad and finally cut off food consignments and also send General Jodl to Finland. (Jodl and Hitler had worked together daily and they had a very close attachment, more close than between Hitler and Keitel.) At least so long Leningrad was important to Hitler.

He anyhow made a decision to "give up" the plans to conquer Leningrad. Is this decision day exactly known?

An another possibility is that the idea of sending Jodl to Finland was to put Finns to obey Germany. Or something else?

[Mangrove]

SA-Kuva n:o 36401, a Finnish Defence Forces supply depot around Ilomantsi during the summer of 1941. Strangely, the photograph depicts several American Red Cross boxes of lard meant for the civilians.