Hi all. Would like to share some translations of feldpost letters from finnish SS-volunteers. I would really appreciate some help editing the english translate by some that have it as native tongue. Any correction (word, sentence or grammar) is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance, and hope you enjoy.
group photo of finnish ss-volunteers
First letter:
finnish SS-volunteers
Second letter:
finnish ss-volunteer
Third letter:
and some more photos to finish the thread. thanks for looking!
on the way home back to Finland
"welcome home"
Also thanks/credit to Olli Kleemola for helping with translations.
group photo of finnish ss-volunteers
First letter:
Greetings Olli
My wonderful vacation is over. I only have been here in Graz (Austria) for three days, and two of them I've been lying in hospital.
However now I am back in the unit, but on the day after tomorrow I believe I must go back to the hospital. My belly is not working as it should.
In the middle of the month some boys are heading for the front, but I do not think I will be able to join them.
Graz is a wildly beautiful area. High mountains surround us, and our barracks lies right below a mountain. The fruits are already ripe, and the nature is most beautiful at the moment.
However I am very pissed of because I had to leave Finland. It was thousand times more wonderful there. I left Finland in the evening of 24. with a plane to Riga.
I could well have stayed a week more but I did not know that.
The duty (service) here is too easy compared with what it was earlier; every evening you may stay in the city until midnight.
I would prefer to get to the front, We’ll see If I will be allowed to go with the boys.
Merry Christmas "somewhere there" (on the front).
Greetings to the guys I know!
SS-Kaserne KP.Finnland
Graz-Wetzelsdorf
SS-lesera (?) EK
With many greetings
Your brother Erkki
My wonderful vacation is over. I only have been here in Graz (Austria) for three days, and two of them I've been lying in hospital.
However now I am back in the unit, but on the day after tomorrow I believe I must go back to the hospital. My belly is not working as it should.
In the middle of the month some boys are heading for the front, but I do not think I will be able to join them.
Graz is a wildly beautiful area. High mountains surround us, and our barracks lies right below a mountain. The fruits are already ripe, and the nature is most beautiful at the moment.
However I am very pissed of because I had to leave Finland. It was thousand times more wonderful there. I left Finland in the evening of 24. with a plane to Riga.
I could well have stayed a week more but I did not know that.
The duty (service) here is too easy compared with what it was earlier; every evening you may stay in the city until midnight.
I would prefer to get to the front, We’ll see If I will be allowed to go with the boys.
Merry Christmas "somewhere there" (on the front).
Greetings to the guys I know!
SS-Kaserne KP.Finnland
Graz-Wetzelsdorf
SS-lesera (?) EK
With many greetings
Your brother Erkki
finnish SS-volunteers
Second letter:
Kaukasus 8/9-42
My teacher!
A small greeting again here from the lines of the German army.
You may be better aware of the world situation then I, as at this moment we are not able to get more precise information. I will now tell something about some situations I have faced with my own eyes. Firstly, the nature here is one of it’s kind I never even could dream about! Small, roughly-cut-looking pieces of clouds are hanging down, covering the countless tops of skyhigh mountains, which, seen from far away, look like blueish wawes. In the gulleys, thick deciduous forest grows. just at this moment there are a few boys who have been "pushed" (placed) right to the front, literally to the middle of the russians. Our unit is about a kilometer backwards.
The food is also being brought here with a "handsome carriage" it is being brought by a well-armed fighting group. The atmosphere is mostly very warlike, as even this letter is being written on a submachine gun. We have been here for a week now. There are russians in a state of huge siege (motti) and they are desperately trying to get out. From the information we have gotten from the POWs, we know they are hungry in there. From this place my thoughts often fly to the loved places back home. My schooltime memories have not died at all. Many people remember you, while by memories living back to that life again.
I also have other causes to thankfully remember you, my teacher.
I did recieve a letter from home, in which they tell about the midsommerfest at home.
All other young people have been there, besides me. The fest time went here before I did even notice it! But because of the letter from yesterday I could live the time in my memories, at home. Its only now I really do know what the life at home really is worth, and how beautiful life there is!
I often get kind of virions, where peace has returned. I see how many young people grow up and gain strength, and I imagine, how much love will be poured upon our beloved land, which will be brought to happines and prosperity by that love. While tinking about this, I often come to that decision, that it is worth suffering. It is worth enduring the heat, the thirst and the hungriness. Sometimes it is worth giving away everything you can for such a big thing! I am happy that I have got the possibility to really DO something. That’s what I am you thankful for. I know that not everybody in Finland can understand that I am working for my own country, even though from far away. I know that you will understand this, because you were one of the first men in this huge work. But we are not asking after blessing thanks, other from our country and our conscience. We are not demanding thanks from them either, because duty needs no thanks.
At the end I wish you all the best God can give
Tell my greetings to your nearest ones.
With best greetings
Matti
My teacher!
A small greeting again here from the lines of the German army.
You may be better aware of the world situation then I, as at this moment we are not able to get more precise information. I will now tell something about some situations I have faced with my own eyes. Firstly, the nature here is one of it’s kind I never even could dream about! Small, roughly-cut-looking pieces of clouds are hanging down, covering the countless tops of skyhigh mountains, which, seen from far away, look like blueish wawes. In the gulleys, thick deciduous forest grows. just at this moment there are a few boys who have been "pushed" (placed) right to the front, literally to the middle of the russians. Our unit is about a kilometer backwards.
The food is also being brought here with a "handsome carriage" it is being brought by a well-armed fighting group. The atmosphere is mostly very warlike, as even this letter is being written on a submachine gun. We have been here for a week now. There are russians in a state of huge siege (motti) and they are desperately trying to get out. From the information we have gotten from the POWs, we know they are hungry in there. From this place my thoughts often fly to the loved places back home. My schooltime memories have not died at all. Many people remember you, while by memories living back to that life again.
I also have other causes to thankfully remember you, my teacher.
I did recieve a letter from home, in which they tell about the midsommerfest at home.
All other young people have been there, besides me. The fest time went here before I did even notice it! But because of the letter from yesterday I could live the time in my memories, at home. Its only now I really do know what the life at home really is worth, and how beautiful life there is!
I often get kind of virions, where peace has returned. I see how many young people grow up and gain strength, and I imagine, how much love will be poured upon our beloved land, which will be brought to happines and prosperity by that love. While tinking about this, I often come to that decision, that it is worth suffering. It is worth enduring the heat, the thirst and the hungriness. Sometimes it is worth giving away everything you can for such a big thing! I am happy that I have got the possibility to really DO something. That’s what I am you thankful for. I know that not everybody in Finland can understand that I am working for my own country, even though from far away. I know that you will understand this, because you were one of the first men in this huge work. But we are not asking after blessing thanks, other from our country and our conscience. We are not demanding thanks from them either, because duty needs no thanks.
At the end I wish you all the best God can give
Tell my greetings to your nearest ones.
With best greetings
Matti
finnish ss-volunteer
Third letter:
Behind the Front 20/1-42
Dear Mom!
My loveliest greetings to you mom. I am writing this the day before we will be brought to the front. I have bad feelings that soon I will not have any change to write in a long time, so I am writing now, in this evening, specially for you, mom. Remember, Do not be nervous because of me, since I am in no danger. We have warm outfits and equipment, and those that are too cold, I have had ”töppöset” (kind of house shoes to be put inside the shoes) made out of felt by one Ukrainian family mother. They are made with a (sewing) machine and they fit very well! So my feet are going to be completely safe when I stand in the cold trench and observe the Russians. My hands are going to be safe and warm too. I have all by myself knitted big mittens out of a piece of felt. So everything is in order here.
Now that we are here at the frontline you must be feeling unwell too. I assume your heart is beating nervously for me. Surely you are going to greatly calm down when I write to you like now in the moment of leaving. You can be sure about that your picture as well as the smallest and the most beautiful XXXX (unreadable) come into my mind when the things dropping out of the sky are not just water drops. Because now I really understand what is war and what is the quiet peace of home. If I’d only sometime in the future get the chance to sit in the dining hall, drinking good coffee and buns. Discuss and think about the world. I have until now had no time to miss my home, but it will come, when you have some time long lied direct aside the enemy. But the case is, we have to either win or die. I am quitting my letter now and send you, mom, my warmest and loveliest greetings here from the front . Of course also for others at home.
Greetings
Your son
Torleif
(letter kiss)
Dear Mom!
My loveliest greetings to you mom. I am writing this the day before we will be brought to the front. I have bad feelings that soon I will not have any change to write in a long time, so I am writing now, in this evening, specially for you, mom. Remember, Do not be nervous because of me, since I am in no danger. We have warm outfits and equipment, and those that are too cold, I have had ”töppöset” (kind of house shoes to be put inside the shoes) made out of felt by one Ukrainian family mother. They are made with a (sewing) machine and they fit very well! So my feet are going to be completely safe when I stand in the cold trench and observe the Russians. My hands are going to be safe and warm too. I have all by myself knitted big mittens out of a piece of felt. So everything is in order here.
Now that we are here at the frontline you must be feeling unwell too. I assume your heart is beating nervously for me. Surely you are going to greatly calm down when I write to you like now in the moment of leaving. You can be sure about that your picture as well as the smallest and the most beautiful XXXX (unreadable) come into my mind when the things dropping out of the sky are not just water drops. Because now I really understand what is war and what is the quiet peace of home. If I’d only sometime in the future get the chance to sit in the dining hall, drinking good coffee and buns. Discuss and think about the world. I have until now had no time to miss my home, but it will come, when you have some time long lied direct aside the enemy. But the case is, we have to either win or die. I am quitting my letter now and send you, mom, my warmest and loveliest greetings here from the front . Of course also for others at home.
Greetings
Your son
Torleif
(letter kiss)
and some more photos to finish the thread. thanks for looking!
on the way home back to Finland
"welcome home"
Also thanks/credit to Olli Kleemola for helping with translations.
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