page_title: Finnish Civil War prison camps
section_title: Executions and the Political Offence Court
hierarchical_section_title: Finnish Civil War prison camps / Executions and the Political Offence Court
caption_attribution_description: English: Red rebels are being executed in Varkaus during the insurrection in Finland in 1918. Svenska: Röda upprorsmän avrättas i Varkaus under upproret i Finland 1918. Suomi: Kuva Varkaudessa tapahtuneesta joukkoteloituksesta on vuosikymmenien myötä muuttunut sisällissodan symboliksi. Valkoisten kenttäoikeus tuomitsi lähes 200 punaista ammuttaviksi välittömästi heidän antautumisensa jälkeen.
context_page_description: Finnish Civil War prison camps were operated by the White side of the 1918 Finnish Civil War. They were composed of 13 main camps, mostly active from the April–May 1918, and more than 60 smaller POW camps at the final period of the war. Number of captured Red Guard members and associates was approximately 80,000 including 4,700 women and 1,500 children. A total of 12,000–14,000 prisoners died in captivity. Camps and their hopeless conditions effected in the minds of many people much deeper than the bloody war itself, although the camps were totally ignored for decades by the White interpretation of the Civil War history.
context_section_description: Before the establishment of the Political Offence Court (Valtiorikosoikeus), more than 5,000 capitulated Reds were shot by the decisions of the local Court-martials. The mass executions had started in February under the instructions given by the Commander-in-Chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. Court-martials divided the prisoners into three groups: first group included Red Guard leaders and members of the Red administration as well as all Reds accused of war crimes like murders, arson and looting. They were mostly given death penalties. The second group consisted of all other Red Guard members and associates who were given prison sentences. Third group was categorized innocent and released.
  Mass executions were finally ceased by commander Mannerheim's order and the Political Offence Court was established in the late May. It was composed of 145 separate courts which handled more than 75,000 cases. The Senate made a decision to keep the prisoners detained until each person's guilt could be examined. Capital punishment was given for 555 Reds but only 113 were executed, as it was possible to plea for mercy.
  The notorious Estonian-born war criminal Hans Kalm alone was responsible of more than 500 executions at the Hennala prison camp in Lahti. At least 200 of his victims were women and the youngest of them were only 14 years old. 104 of the 1,482 children held in prison camps died. Most of them died of starvation or disease but some 20 were executed, the youngest being only 9-year-old boy.
caption: Two Red Guard members in front of a firing squad in Varkaus
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