Finland's darkest secret: when Himmler came knocking, who answered?
A dramatic documentary film that deals with the Nazi rise to power in Germany in the 1930s and the development of the persecution of Jews up to the Holocaust. The film tells about the attitude of the Finnish government to the request for the handover of the Finnish Jews presented by Heinrich Himmler in the summer of 1942. The main focus of the film is the life of Jewish refugees in Finland in the years 1938-1942 and the attitude of the Finnish government to their handover in the fall of 1942.
Direction
Takalo lets archival footage breathe like a horror film.
Editing
Cuts between 1942 memos and survivor testimony—devastating.
Director
Martti Takalo
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The actual 'death list' was believed destroyed; researchers reconstructed it from scattered ministry correspondence.
Finland's WWII narrative long emphasized co-belligerence with Germany against USSR while downplaying Jewish persecution—this film sparked parliamentary debate in Helsinki.
FI
