We wrote Wednesday that the Finnish Air Force quietly dropped the swastika as the symbol of the Finnish Air Force Command. But not so fast. The swastika continues to adorn the Air Force Academy.
An article in DW of Germany asks how an anti-Semitism symbol like the swastika made its way to Finland.
Writes the BBC: “The symbol will always be intrinsically linked with Nazi Germany and its crimes, even though its roots go back many thousands of years.”
“The swastika entered Finland’s air force through a Swedish nobleman, Count Eric von Rosen,” the article reports. “He had gifted a plane to the air force of Finland in 1918, with a blue swastika painted on it. Rosen used to consider the swastika a good luck charm.”
Even if the use of the swastika is different than in Germany, one wonders why Finland persisted in its use way after World War 2?
History is one answer and how we played down our role and alliance with Nazi Germany. If some historians are to be believed, Finland fought a separate war against the former Soviet Union.
Would the removal of the swastika from the Finnish air force after the country signed an armistice with the USSR in September 1944 have incriminated Finland and put it in the same league as minor Nazi allies Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania?
There are much more facts that that are still hibernating. One day they’ll come out.