Tourism in Rovaniemi the Whole Destination of the Arctic Road

ONLY THE PRINTS OF ALPINE BOOTS REMAINED The Winter War: flicted during the Winter War ing closed all the harbours in bombing raids and was thus fairly minor. Western Europe except for deaths at the front Voluntary Swedish pilots fly- those of Lisbon and Liina- The men of Rovaniemi left for ing Swedish air force fighters hamari, most of Finland's for- the extra military manoeuvres carrying Finnish insignia made eign trade from April 1940 on- announced in October 1939 in their base at Olkkajärvi on wards took place via Rovaniemi, the same way as did those living 9.1.1940, and were able to pro- from which the goods were elsewhere in Finland. Most of tect both Rovaniemi and other transported to the latter harbour the local men fought on the Sal- population centres from there. on the Arctic Ocean. As Sweden la front when war broke out, Some of the inhabitants also used the same route for and 162 lost their lives during moved into the countryside to much of its foreign trade, a host the Winter War. escape the bombing, and some of new haulage stations and for- Their home area did not es- 6000 persons from Petsamo, warding agencies were estab- cape damage, either, for enemy Kemijärvi and Posio were also lished in Rovaniemi. aircraft could easily bomb the evacuated to the rural district of Although some of the dam- population centres of Northern Rovaniemi. age caused during the Winter Finland on account of the inad- War had already been repaired, equacies of the region's anti-air- Lively times between there was a constant serious lack craft defence. About 1600 the wars of accommodation as the num- bombs in all were dropped on The period of peace that fol- the Rovaniemi area from 21st lowed the Winter War, before December 1939 onwards, the outbreak of the Continua- killing 25 civilians, wounding tion War, underlined the posi - The hospital was among the about 60 and damaging more tion of Rovaniemi as an increas- buildings badly damaged in than 70 buildings, including the ingly busy junction on essential the bombing during the Win- hospital. The total damage in- transport routes. The war hav- ter War of 193940. 48 Members of the Lotta Svärd organization contributed to the war effort in many ways. Here two members from Rovaniemi are seen on air raid warning duty. and Swedes who were working ued rationing, and a lack of ac- for them. The town officially commodation, which similarly had 8200 Finnish inhabitants, caused rents to double. The many of whom were at the Germans, for their part, sold front. Almost every village in liquor to the local people, which the rural district had German is one reason why Rovaniemi depots or other types of Ger- had the worst crime statistics in man military activity. The prominent presence of the Germans in Rovaniemi had a considerable impact on the lo- A signpost showing the Arctic cal economy, reflected in the Circle had been set up on the ber of jobs and the population form of a continuous shortage of Arctic Road before the war, increased at a rapid pace. The labour, a doubling in wage levels and the German troops would situation was soon also ham- compared with other parts of often stop at it for other purpo- pered by the activities of the the country, despite the contin- ses than patching their tyres. Germans in Rovaniemi. The first German troops passed through Finland on 22th September 1940 on their way from Germany to northern Norway, causing a transit command to be set up in Rovaniemi. Work began 6 months later, i.e. on February 1941, to expand this into the main supply centre for the German Mountain Troops. The massive build-up of German troops in Lapland began in June 1941, a couple of weeks before the German offen- sive against the Soviet Union on 22.6.1941. A German Army base during the Continuation War German operations in Finland expanded further upon the outbreak of the Continuation War, to the extent that there were already as many as 64 command stations of different rank in Rovaniemi in January 1942, employing over 3000 people, mainly Germans. It is estimated that some 6000 Ger- man soldiers were stationed in the town at that time, plus the 49 Austrians, Dutch, Estonians the country, including breaches leaders, but also at other levels. of rationing regulations and The population was in general drunkenness as well as thefts well disposed towards these and other crimes. alien troops. Many of the local Although the behaviour and people would have learnt at customs of the Germans depart- least the rudiments of German, ed from what the local people and some far more. Although When the evacuation began in had been accustomed to, daily most of the local women were September 1944, people tried interaction established close unenthusiastic about the Ger- to take all their most valuable personal relations not only be- mans and the German military posessions with them, as no one tween the military and civil leaders specifically forbade mar- knew, wether they would ever riage with the Finns, some be able to return. In spite of the The centre of Rovaniemi after Finno-German offspring saw the Germans had left. On the official restrictions, enormous the light of day. numbers of packages accumu- right, the chimneys of the Bo- When the Germans took rough Hall, and in the centre, lated at the railway station, a over responsibility for the surprisingly high proportion of the offices of the Cooperative northern front, the local men Bank, which were renovated which eventually found their were transferred to the main way back to Rovaniemi, al- after the war. The walls of the Finnish forces on the Karelian Rovaniemi Cooperative Stores though some were inevitably Isthmus and other fronts, where lost in transit. are similarly still in existence a total of 377 of them eventual- today. ly perished in action. Evacuation and manor house of Konttinen and destruction finally burning down the church When Finland signed an on 16.10. A regiment led by armistice with the Soviet Union, Lieutenant Colonel Wolf H. problems were immediately ex- Halsti tried to intercept the Ger- pected with regard to the with- mans north of Korkalovaara on drawal of the German troops 16th October, but was too late. from the country. With this in Within a couple of days the they mind, orders were given on had also left the area of the rural 7.9.1944 for the whole of Lap- district, at which point the first land to be evacuated. Trans- demobilised Finns from the portations from Rovaniemi be- front began to drift back to the gan on 16.9. and were complet- ruins of their home villages. ed on 22.9. Since people from The Germans usually left the the rest of Lapland were also churches untouched when ra- Reconstruction passing southwards through vaging the villages of Lapland, The Germans destroyed 548 Rovaniemi and the Germans but in Rovaniemi the last thing dwelling houses, 96 private were moving northwards at the they did before they left was to commercial buildings and nine same time, all roads and railway set fire to the church and its public buildings in Rovaniemi, lines were unbelievably congest- belfry. The stone walls of the an estimated 90 % of the total ed. In the course of one week a hospital remained intact, but property. Slightly over a hun- total of 20 000 people moved the interior was gutted entirely. dred buildings escaped total de- from Rovaniemi to northern Sweden and 4500 to Ostroboth- nia. They usually took their horses and cows with them, but slaughtered most of the sheep and pigs before leaving. Only a few men remained encamped in the woods to see how things would turn out. The largest armed engage- ment between the Germans and the Finns in the Rovaniemi area was at Taipaleenkylä on 12.–14.10., when the latter failed in their attempt to intercept the rear of the German forces and 60 Finns were killed in the operation. The Germans began to raze the town to the ground on 10.10., first destroying the A total of 603 soldiers killed in the Winter War, the Conti - nuation War and the Lapland War are buried in the Memo- rial Cemetery in Rovaniemi. 51 The people who returned immediately after the war had to live for some time in cellars and temporary huts and pre- fabricated buildings. This hut was in use in 194647. struction, although many of these were damaged. The figures for the rural district were 804 houses, 47 commercial buildings and 32 public buildings, including almost all the schools. The outbuildings were also destroyed, as were most of the road and bridges. The overall proportion of destruction was not more than 60%, however, as most of the villages on the lower found in a number of places in course of the arduous journey reaches of the River Kemijoki the following years. All the lo- into exile. below the borough survived. cal people had arrived back by It was decided in March The first civilians returned the end of September, apart 1945 that the town plan should in spring 1945, the granting of from 279 who had died in the be completely renewed, a task return permits having been de- layed until the area had been cleared of land mines and other As all the bridges over the River Kemijoki had been destroyed, a explosives.

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