Finnish Volunteer Battalion of The Waffen-SS - Initial Recruitment

Initial Recruitment

After the Polish campaign, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler sought to expand the Waffen SS with foreign military volunteers for the "crusade against bolshevism". It has also been widely speculated that Himmler sought to eventually replace the Heer (regular army) with his own Waffen SS, and with German manpower drained by conscription, Himmler was forced to look outside German borders to find men for his semi-private army. However, during the war, all Waffen SS formations served under Heer command.

As part of Himmler's efforts to raise men, the first SS multinational division was created. Originally called Nordische Division (Nr. 5), it was intended to be made up of German Waffen SS veterans and Dutch, Danish and Norwegian volunteers. The division was renamed "Wiking" (see main article for more details), and its main combat strength was three SS Panzer grenadier regiments: Germania, Westland and Nordland.

In December 1940 SS headquarters was in touch with the Finnish government as part of military negotiations with Finland. They had strongly suggested to the Finns that they should concretely show their allegiance to Germany by sending volunteers to the German armed forces. There was historical precedent for the move; a battalion of Finnish volunteers had signed up with the German army during the First World War, when Finland was still a part of Russia. They had formed the 27. Jaeger Battalion of the German Army and fought on the Eastern Front.

The Finnish government agreed to the plan, both to demonstrate their allegiance to Germany and to gain a concrete assurance of their alliance. Suggestively, the definitive Finnish academic study on the battalion is called "Panttipataljoona", or "Pawn battalion". The Finnish foreign ministry ordered the former chief of the secret police, Esko Riekki, to carry out recruiting for the battalion in secret.

At Riekki's insistence, the men were recruited from a wider range of volunteers instead of only right-wing extremists and Nazi sympathisers. The recruits were screened for racial suitability; requirements included a minimum height of 170 cm, good teeth, age 17–23 years and satisfactorily answering a questionnaire with such items as whether the recruit was of "Aryan birth" or not.

Despite the Finnish government's attempts to recruit from a wide range of political opinions, some 20% of the men had extreme right-wing affiliations. Approximately 80% were or had been members of Finnish Suojeluskunta militia.

The recruits included 10 regular officers, 66 reserve officers and 29 non-commissioned officers. This was many more officers than were necessary for a single battalion, and the German government suggested to Finland that if some 1,000 more men were recruited, the whole force could be used to form a Finnish SS regiment, manned and officered by Finns. The Finnish government rejected the idea.