I joined in quietly and followed the group, taking some pictures with my camera from time to time, thereby trying to capture the expressions and gestures of the students and their teacher. Step by step Mr. Ahonen led us to various info boards telling about different periods in Jewish history – from the Biblical era up to the state of Israel in today’s world. However, the focus of the exhibition was clearly on the Shoah – the persecution, systematic deportation and killing of over six million Jews across Europe during Hitler’s Third Reich from 1933-1945. And sure enough, all that we came to see during our round of the exhibition left its marks on our faces and occasionally made us slightly bend our bodies in dismay.

 

 

 

For instance, we had the opportunity to look at mock-up shacks and original photographs of concentration and extermination camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Maidanek or Treblinka. Some of the shocking pictures that were shown in Oulu are also exhibited at the Yad Vashem Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. Moreover, we were even able to get a glimpse of personal items belonging to Jews and their families who were once kept and enslaved by the Nazis in the ghetto of Warsaw. Other things, such as stars of David, menoras and other religious items pertaining to the Jewish faith and traditional customs were on display in special show cases. Later, when I had a quick chat with Mr. Ahonen, I heard that all the items presented were collected by himself over the last two decades.











A few hand-written letters and postcards attracted my attention. Two or three of them were posted in the early 1940’s from Vienna by an Austrian Jewish woman, whose son had luckily made it to Finland as a refugee. And the info board on which the original postcards were pinned had even more to tell. That is, one could also read about the fate of other Jews who had – in spite of their ordeals and hardships – successfully escaped the terror in German-occupied Europe. Some of them eventually landed in Finland, but most of them managed to move on to other Nordic countries or the USA, either on their own or with the generous help of Finns, Swedes or the small Jewish community in Helsinki and other parts of southern Finland.

Sadly, in 1941 the Finnish state police also deported some Jews to a labour or rather concentration camp run by Germans in Lapland, and even handed over eight Jews to the Nazis in 1942. Only one member of this particular group, to which belonged two children, five men and one woman, survived the immense horrors of the so-called Final Solution – the genocide of the Jewish people – viciously planned and carried out by Hitler’s regime and its collaborators.

When I talked to Mr. Ahonen shortly after the tour, I mentioned that there could be even more information available about Finnish Jews or Jewish refugees in Finland before and during World War II. In fact, currently there is extensive research being conducted by renown Finnish historians on these and other related issues. Considering the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere, it’s once again about time to let young people, especially, know about the dark past that Europeans share. In my view, Mr. Ahonen is one of the rare persons who is truly committed to do so, and thus keeps us remembering.

According to him, his commitment goes back to his experiences as a small boy in the years 1943-1946 when he was forced to leave Carelia and found himself stranded in Malmö in a foster family that was helping Jewish refugees arriving into Sweden from Denmark. Furthermore, he stated that his commitment to shed light on the history of the Jewish people and Israel is motivated by his Christian faith. Mr. Ahonen’s enlightening work is further backed up by his own association and by high-ranking Finnish politicians and diplomats of foreign countries. Thus far the exhibition has gathered crowds in several major cities in Finland, and it seems that it also be shown abroad next year. One can only hope so and that many people take the time to visit the exhibition.