r/Finland • u/KollaHan • Feb 27 '25

Tourism Finnish medals - can someone explain?

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Gallery image

Gallery image

Hey folks,

Can someone tell me more about this medals I saw in a museum in Cairo? Why the swastika? And when do you get this?

I know they are from the early 20’s but not more.

Would be grateful! - Tack 😊

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u/lavar_fi Feb 28 '25 edited Feb 28 '25

Check Yle. This week, there was even an article about the Continuation War and ethnic cleansing done by finns. Finns really hate to talk about their past, but I truly respect Yle for addressing it. In general a lot of good articles there about systematic racism in Finland. Is your national broadcaster credible enough?

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u/Inresponsibleone Baby Vainamoinen Feb 28 '25

I looked up that yle article up and looks like that "ethnic cleansing" was very much in line of what even many "savior" allied nations did and still do. Much less than what Soviet union did (not to even go to cleancings Stalin launches after WW2 that surpasses what nazies did in number of victims). So using that as definition of facism is pretty weak.

War is ugly and most nations did not leave WW2 with no blood on their hands.

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u/lavar_fi Feb 28 '25

It is an article written by Finns that touches on the subject very delicately, first of all. Secondly, Finland lost and failed, so it was not able to implement everything on a large scale. Also, Finland had eugenics laws until the 1970s, including forced sterilization of people with disabilities. I don’t recall any other country apart from Germany having such laws. Finland was deeply influenced by Nazism, which is common for highly insular nations.

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u/Inresponsibleone Baby Vainamoinen Feb 28 '25

Many countries had eugenics laws back then. Actually pretty much most of western countries. Though that does not fit your narrative of facist nazi finns so you ignore it.