Finnish war children

Not to be confused with the Finnish children who were born during World War II in Finland (baby boomers), or with the Finnish children who were born to foreign troops and Finnish women during World War II.
Finnish war children in Turku, 1939.

During World War II some 70,000 Finnish children (Finnish: sotalapset, the 'war children' Swedish: krigsbarn) were evacuated from Finland, chiefly to Sweden, but also to Norway and Denmark.[1] Most were evacuated during the Continuation War (1941–1944) to ease the situation for their parents who set out to rebuild their homes in the re-conquered Karelia returning from the 1940 evacuation of Finnish Karelia. The first surge of evacuees arrived, however, during the Winter War when the Finns had reasons to fear a humanitarian catastrophe following the expected Soviet occupation.

Identification document and tag of a Finnish war child.
  1. ^ Korppi- Tommola, Aura. "War and children in Finland during the Second World War." Archived 2011-10-07 at the Wayback Machine p. 445–455. Paedagogica Historica Vol. 44, No. 4, August 8, 2008