During World War II, 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to safety in Sweden. But life wasn't always better there. A new Swedish documentary looks at the abuse some of these children endured at the hands of their foster parents.
For some of Finnish war children, what was supposed to be a safe haven was in fact hell. This is the message of Osoitelappu tuntematon (or 'Address to the Unknown') produced by the Finnish-language section of Swedish public broadcaster SVT.
Finnish child evacuees interviewed in the film say they suffered from physical and sexual abuse for years in their Swedish foster homes.
“My first memory is of my foster mother beating me,” said Bengt Lander, one of the former war children featured in the film.
Producers of the documentary say there's been an overly romanticised view of war children's lives in Sweden. According to documentary maker Eija Sarinko, it's important that unpleasant experiences also come to light.
Some 15,000 Finnish war children never returned to Finland. Today, these children are past retirement age, but this hasn't stopped those who say they were abused from seeking damages. Sweden's parliament will soon decide if children mistreated in orphanages years ago are entitled to compensation, but Finnish war children were excluded from the proposal.
It's impossible to know how many Finnish children were abused by their Swedish foster families. Producers, however, say the film's publicity may bring many new cases forward.
“I can’t forgive. That’s not possible, but I’m still not bitter,” said Lander.
Yle TV1 will air the documentary film 'Address to the Unknown' on November 13.
http://yle.fi/uutiset/finnish_war_child ... se/6359929
