It was a tremendous pleasure to be part of this day when a large group of forty students from Kallion lukio visited the WW2 sites of Hanko. With young people like this Finland is in very good hands in the future.
The day included visits to the areas around the Hanko Front Museum where battles raged in 1941 and after that a visit to the remains of ”Durchgangslager Hanko”, the German Second World War transition Camp that saw use between 1942 and 1944.
I have seldom guided such a motivated and attentive group of students. The tour touched on many tragic events and histories of soldiers as well as civilians caught in the terrible turmoil of WW2. What could have been a better backdrop for these stories than the eerie German barracks.
During the day we made up preliminary plans for co-operation with the teachers from the school that accompanied the students. Hopefully a grant will kick off this co-operation that includes both groundbreaking work in the media and battlefield archaeology for the participating students.
We are hopeful that we could start our co-operation already in the autumn of 2021.