Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen on receiving the report compiled by Professor Ylikangas, 16 January 2004
I wish to express my warmest thanks to Professor Heikki Ylikangas for this promptly and expertly compiled report. With it is numerous references, it speaks for the extensive research-based knowledge that the author and the Finnish scientific community have on the various sides of World War II. Professor Ylikangas's report shows that Elina Sana's book brought to light important new information and it supplements her work.
Ylikangas states that the handover of civilian refugees by the Finnish State Police and its disbandment in 1942 were known facts. But as regards the other sad series of events, the deaths in prison camps and the handover of prisoners of war, Elina Sana and Heikki Ylikangas reveal new information. The numbers presented by Elina Sana are shocking: 18,700 dead and over 2,800 surrendered prisoners - figures which significantly exceed the claimed number of 2,661 surrendered persons announced immediately after the war. According to Elina Sana, 74 Jews were handed over from Finnish prison camps. Heikki Ylikangas states that some 100 Jews died in the Finnish camps.Ylikangas also casts light on the great diversity of motives behind the handovers. The fate of the 56,000 Ingrians after they had been returned to the Soviet Union under the truce agreement is also mentioned.
Ylikangas puts forward an important piece of information by indicating that the handover of Jews was ended and their systematic protection begun in 1942 as the handover of civilian refugees by the Finnish State Police was made public and information on the fate of the surrendered persons in Germany spread in Finland.
Sana's book and Ylikangas's report show that we still lack information on both the wartime events and post-war handovers.
Professor Ylikangas, let me repeat my thanks for your valuable work and relevant proposals. They provide a sound basis for further measures and the means to ponder what exact forms the measures should take.