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Arno Anthoni

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Arno Anthoni
Director of the State Police of Finland
In office
1 February 1941 – 1 March 1944
Preceded byPaavo Säippä
Succeeded byPaavo Kastari
Personal details
Born11 August 1900
Karjalohja, Grand Duchy of Finland
Died9 August 1961(1961-08-09) (aged 60)
Helsinki, Finland
EducationUniversity of Helsinki (M.L.)

Arno Kalervo Anthoni (11 August 1900 – 9 August 1961) was a Finnish lawyer who was the director of the Finnish State Police Valpo in 1941–1944. He was openly antisemite and pro-Nazi, having close relations to the German Sicherheitspolizei.[1] Anthoni and the Minister of Interior Toivo Horelli were responsible for the deportation of 135 German refugees, including 12 Jews, Finland handed over to the Nazis in 1941–1943.[2][3]

Career

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Early years

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Anthoni was born to the family of the lawyer Väinö Ossian Anthoni (1868–1933). After graduating the University of Helsinki in 1927, Anthoni worked as a lensmann (Finnish: ″nimismies″) in the Kymenlaakso region. In 1933, he was appointed the police director of the Uusimaa Province.[4]

Wartime

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In February 1941, Anthoni became the director of the State Police.[5] As Finland joined the war in June 1941, Germany started pressing the Finnish government to deport the refugees who had fled to Finland after the 1938 Anschluss.[6]

In April 1942, Anthoni visited Berlin where he discussed with Heinrich Müller, Friedrich Panzinger and Adolf Eichmann over the ″Final Solution″ plan concerning the Jews of Finland. Gestapo asked them to be handed over to the German authorities, which Anthoni reacted positively. He made a verbal agreement on expelling all German refugees Finland saw as ″unwanted element″. The agreement also included Russian POWs of Jewish origin.[7][8]

Although the Finnish government refused transferring its own Jewish citizens, Anthoni's trip caused a mass deportation of ″disagreeable aliens″ in June 1942. Among the deported were two German-born Jews.[3] The matter was also discussed on Heinrich Himmler's visit to Finland in the late summer of 1942. The Minister of Interior Toivo Horelli and Anthony soon made a classified decision on the deportation of 27 refugees, of whom 8 were Jews. On 8 November 1942, the deported were shipped to the Estonian capital Tallinn and handed over to the Gestapo. According to the documents found in the Estonian state archives, the Jews were killed just two days later.[5][6] The intention was to deport all Jewish refugees but the plan was revealed. After the intervention of the Social Democratic cabinet members Väinö Tanner and K.-A. Fagerholm the deportations were stopped.[9]

In late 1942, Anthoni asked Horelli to make a requisition for awarding the SS commander Martin Sandberger with the Order of the White Rose of Finland. Sandberger was the commander of the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst in Estonia.[10]

After the war

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As it was clear that Germany was going to lose the war, Anthoni was dismissed in March 1944. After the Moscow Armistice, he fled to Sweden but was soon returned. Anthoni was arrested in the Ostrobothnian village of Rautio in April 1945, and put into preventive detention.[11]

Anthoni never faced the Finnish war-responsibility trials. Poland and the Western Allies wanted Anthoni, Horelli and the State Police officer Ari Kauhanen to be included on the list of war criminals, but the Soviet Union never made a claim to the Finnish government. This was most likely because the Soviets focused on people who had committed war crimes against their own citizens.[12]

In early 1948, Anthoni was put on trial for misconduct.[5] He was accused of the transfer of 76 German refugees to the Gestapo in 1942–1943.[7] Anthoni claimed to have no idea of what would happen to the Jews, and told that the deported were chosen by Horelli.[5] In reality, Horelli had given him complete freedom to make decisions on his own.[7] As the Allied Commission left Finland in May 1948, Anthoni, who denied knowing what would happen to the Jews was released. The case went to the Supreme Court which dismissed the indictment in February 1949. Anthoni was only given an admonition for negligent misconduct. He received compensation for the three years that he spent in pre-trial custody. Part of his reason for his acquittal was that Georg Kollmann, the sole survivor of the deportations, who lost his wife and child, forgave Anthoni and asked that he not be punished. Kollmann, who later denied saying this, was regarded by Finnish Jews as a traitor for helping Anthoni evade consequences.[5][13][14]

Anthoni worked his last years as a lawyer for the mineral company Oy Lohja Ab, owned by the prominent Finnish Nazi Petter Forsström, who'd served time in prison for treason after being convicted of working with the Nazis after Finland switched sides.[15] He died at the Malmi Hospital in Helsinki.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Sikorski, Filip (2015). "Anthoni, Arno". EHRI Portal. Archived from the original on 11 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  2. ^ Maude, George (2010). Aspects of the Governing of the Finns. New York, NY: Peter Lang. p. 165. ISBN 978-143-31071-3-9.
  3. ^ a b Silvennoinen, Oula (2013). "Beyond ″Those Eight″: Deportation of Jews from Finland 1941–1942". Finland's Holocaust: Silences of History. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-113-73026-4-9.
  4. ^ Who's Who in Finland 1954 (in Finnish). Helsinki: Otava. 1954. p. 40. Archived from the original on 2018-09-19. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Jewish Refugees". Chabad Lubavitch of Finland. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  6. ^ a b "Suomen luovuttamat juutalaislapset ammuttiin Tallinnassa" (in Finnish). Iltalehti. 14 October 2010. Archived from the original on 22 September 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  7. ^ a b c Hannikainen, Lauri; Hansi, Raija; Rosas, Allan (1992). Implementing Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts: The Case of Finland. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 98–99. ISBN 079-23161-1-8.
  8. ^ Arad, Yitzhak (2009). The Holocaust in the Soviet Union. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-080-32205-9-1.
  9. ^ Laqueur, Walter (1998). The Terrible Secret: Suppression of the Truth About Hitler's Final Solution. New York, NY: Holt. p. 161. ISBN 978-080-50598-4-7.
  10. ^ Sana, Elina (2004). Kuoleman laiva S/S Hohenhörn : juutalaispakolaisten kohtalo Suomessa (in Finnish). Helsinki: WSOY. pp. 169–170. ISBN 951-02921-8-4.
  11. ^ Sana (2004), p. 238–239.
  12. ^ Sana (2004), p. 241–243.
  13. ^ "1-vuotias poika Helsingistä kohtasi loppunsa Auschwitzin kaasukammiossa – Suomi luovutti kahdeksan juutalaista keskitysleireille". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). 2022-11-06. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  14. ^ "Dr. Georg Kollmann". geni_family_tree. 2022-11-06. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  15. ^ "Varatuomari Arno Anthoni 60-vuotias". Helsingin Sanomat Archives (in Finnish). Helsingin Sanomat. 11 August 1960. Archived from the original on 19 September 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  16. ^ "Kuolleita". Helsingin Sanomat Archives (in Finnish). Helsingin Sanomat. 12 August 1961. Archived from the original on 19 September 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
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