Well I guess it could be worse, at least the SS Galizien generally fought & died hard against the Soviets. They could've honored a UPA vet (the black & red flag guys) instead
When I was researching this fellow, I discovered exactly that: the Bandera faction opposed this effort, because it believed that these folks were just being cannon fodder for the Germans. They preferred stuffing wells with Polish children and massacring Jews.
It speaks volumes that Bandera is now the national hero of Ukraine.
Does Siege of Leningrad not mean anything to you? 4 year long blockade of the city, resulting in a death of a literal million people? He even advocated for city's destruction, but relented when Reich's offensive was crushed.
The only reason why he isn't in the same boat as many other friends of Hitler is that he turned coat and joined his enemies alongside his troops.
You will have to link me to something corroborating that statement as I couldnt find anything like that. All my knowledge of the continuation war was that Finnland was very hands off, not wishing to fully engage and generally only capturing territory lost in the winter war. Hitler was generally exacerbated by the Finns reluctance to fully commit and push beyond their established borders (they did send troops into land never claimed by Finland in the north but this was the only incident I could find).
Further the leningrad front was under German command including all Finnish forces and the Northern front, including German forces was under Finnish command.
And even if what you say is true and Mannerheim was heavily involved in the direct siege of Leningrad, rather than just cutting off Russian access to the Borth of the city, I'd be hesitant to call a siege of a major Russian city (it's old capital, bearing the name of the founder of the soviet state no less) a war crime in the same way as the deliberate targeting and murder of civilians is a war crime
When I was researching this fellow, I discovered exactly that: the Bandera faction opposed this effort, because it believed that these folks were just being cannon fodder for the Germans. They preferred stuffing wells with Polish children and massacring Jews.
It speaks volumes that Bandera is now the national hero of Ukraine.
I would imagine that having Carl Mannerheim and other "heroes" of the Whites as national icons speaks volumes just as much.
Or is Bandera an exception somehow?
I don't recall him committing massacres or being a genocidal maniac, but feel free to show me.
Does Siege of Leningrad not mean anything to you? 4 year long blockade of the city, resulting in a death of a literal million people? He even advocated for city's destruction, but relented when Reich's offensive was crushed.
The only reason why he isn't in the same boat as many other friends of Hitler is that he turned coat and joined his enemies alongside his troops.
You will have to link me to something corroborating that statement as I couldnt find anything like that. All my knowledge of the continuation war was that Finnland was very hands off, not wishing to fully engage and generally only capturing territory lost in the winter war. Hitler was generally exacerbated by the Finns reluctance to fully commit and push beyond their established borders (they did send troops into land never claimed by Finland in the north but this was the only incident I could find). Further the leningrad front was under German command including all Finnish forces and the Northern front, including German forces was under Finnish command.
And even if what you say is true and Mannerheim was heavily involved in the direct siege of Leningrad, rather than just cutting off Russian access to the Borth of the city, I'd be hesitant to call a siege of a major Russian city (it's old capital, bearing the name of the founder of the soviet state no less) a war crime in the same way as the deliberate targeting and murder of civilians is a war crime