Janne wrote:I would put Kangasjärvi right there on the map. IIRC it was a former Soviet "logging camp" which was later used to as a concentration/internment/prison camp for Finnish communists or other hard-core leftists. (The conditions and the treatment of the inmates was infamously pretty much genuine post-Civil War standard, although not as quite as bad asin Koveri.)
For some inexplicable reason it was decided to give certain inamtes an opportunity to volunteer for frontline duty in Pärmi's battalion, Er.P 21, which was manned by ordinary criminal convicts. Some inmates had to be fattened up first and quite a few defected as soon as possible and eventually the "politicals" had to be returned to camps.
Anyway, that's the story of Kangasjärvi in a nutshell - but I may be on the wrong trail here?
Absolutely correct.
The pics are from a book, which I just have finished:
Leiri (Camp) by Viljo Suutari, an ex-inmate.
Before it I re-red books of Nestori Parkkari
Suomalaisessa Keskitysleirissä (In a Finnish Concentration Camp) and Taito Tiihonen
Mielipidevanki Vuosimallia 1904 ( Political Prisoner m/1904).
There is a new book about this same subject which I haven't red (yet) Harry Verner Vuorinen:
Myrskyn silmässä - Poliittisen vangin päiväkirja jatkosodan ajalta 1941-1944 (In the Eye of the Storm - Diary of a Political Prisoner during the Continuation War...)
The conditions and the treatment of the inmates was infamously pretty much genuine post-Civil War standard, although not as quite as bad as in Koveri
Well, from what I just have red, it's a bit difficult to compare them: at Kangasjärvi camp the food rations were smaller (as everywhere in Finland 1941-42 winter to spring) but the inmates didn't have to work that much. At Koveri (/Kovero) (# 3 at the map) the work was harder but rations higher.
The other camps where the prisoners were held were #2 Säämäjärvi (/Sänkkä), #4 Puropunkti (/Poropunkti) and #5 Kinnasvaara.
For the next week (
), over to Janne
Regards, Juha
