Yesterday the King together with the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, and her husband, Dr. Pentti Arajärvi, attended a ceremony and inaugurated the new monument in commemoration of the Finnish war children that Sweden took on during WWII. The monument stands in a park in Haparanda in the north of Sweden, at the border between Sweden and Finland.
The monument, called “Separation”, has been made and placed to commemorate that it is 60 years ago this year that the war ended in the Finnish Lappland. During the years 1939-44, around 70 000 young children were sent from Finland to Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The children arrived with trains from Karelia, Helsinki, Åbo and other large cities in Finland, carrying not much more than big name tags on them. Haparanda in the north of Sweden became a gathering place for children between 1 and 14, before they were transported to their new foster families in Sweden. Many organisations and private individuals made large efforts for these war children.
The King’s speech during the ceremony, translated by me
The Republic of Finland’s President, County Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen
Today a circle is completed. The war children’s monument here at the border between Finland and Sweden, between Torneå and Haparanda, is just about to be uncovered.
Commemorational marks exists already in many locations in Finland, locations from where the children were disconnected for their travel into an uncertain future- Since many years, there is also a commemorational plaque at Skeppsbron in Stockholm, where many children who came to Sweden, stepped onto land.
But it was up here, at this border, that thousands of war children left their home country. They were on their way to a temporary, but unknown, sanctuary in Swedish homes and families, and this took place during the ongoing war.
Most things were new, including the language, for the children or groups of siblings who came to Sweden. Some came with only an address tag around their necks. Most children, thank god, got a good life here, but the separation from their families and their home country was hard for many, and of course put traces in their souls forever.
I myself was not even born when all this happened, but later during my childhood I heard about the war children that my mother, Princess Sibylla, helped and supported at the Bellevue home in Stockholm. She understood and felt strongly for their situation, and wanted them to have a good life in every way.
Therefore it feels very natural and important to today uncover the war children monument here in Tullparken in Hapranda, 60 years after the end of the war.
I hope that it shall remind us and coming generations about the Finnish war children’s very special lives and hardship. It shall also remind us of the special closeness that has always been there, and is highly still alive, between Finland and Sweden.
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