Within historiography, the Finnish SS volunteers have been seen within Finland as an apolitical group, often connected to the Jäger Movement and the idea that the battalion was an elite unit.

For example, a 2019 report by the National Archives of Finland concluded that "at least some of the cases show that Finnish volunteers did participate in carrying out atrocities against Jews and civilians".

[5] Following the Finnish Civil War of 1918, during which the German Empire and USSR intervened to support the White and Red factions respectively,[6][7] anti-communism and ethnic hatred of Russians became popular sentiments in Finland.

In November 1940, Gottlob Berger, chief of the SS Main Office,[14] began exploring the possibility of expanding recruitment for Nordland in Finland.

[17][23] In January 1941, Swedish businessman Ola Vinberg made a visit to Helsinki on a secret assignment with the German Foreign Office and reported to Berger his belief that around 700 Finns would join the SS.

Helsinki first wanted Finnish volunteers to serve in the German Army,[22] but eventually consented to the formation of an all-Finnish unit in the Waffen-SS.

[32] A second round of recruiting was held from 3 to 27 July 1942 and was limited to 200 men of the Finnish Army under the direction of the pro-German mathematician Rolf Nevanlinna, who replaced Riekki.

[35][36] The recruits' motives included a desire for German training, which belied possible economic advancement immediately through the SS and in the future through the Finnish Army, and pro-German, anti-Russian sentiment.

[25] From 6 May to 5 June 1941, 1,197 Finnish recruits traveled to Germany in five ships – four from Turku to Danzig (now Gdańsk) and one from Vaasa to Stettin (now Szczecin) – for training and without passports.

[52] After a month of delay brought about by heavy railroad traffic, the Volunteer Battalion began transfer to SS Division Wiking on 3–5 December 1941 and joined it along the Mius River on 8 January 1942.

The battalion rejoined SS Division Wiking at Maykop on 13 August and subsequently, in September and October, sustained heavy casualties in the attacks on Malgobek, part of the failed German drive on the Grozny oil fields.

[53] A company of replacement Finnish volunteers arrived and were trained briefly in Germany in September 1942 and then joined the SS Division Wiking on 23 November.

These complaints led to a formal note being filed by Johan Wilhelm Rangell, the Finnish prime minister, which Berger forwarded to Himmler on 9 February 1942.

With the help of his assistants, among others SS Obersturmführer Antti Aaltonen and Georg H. Hayen, SS-Hauptsturmführer Jouko Itälä managed to recruit enough defectors, prisoners of war and interned sailors to form a Finnish company.

[65][66] The first book written on the Finnish battalion was Sakari Lappi-Seppälä [fi]'s memoir in 1945, which was critical of the Wiking Division and reported on German atrocities.

[68] Unto Parvilahti published his memoir in the mainstream press in 1958, claiming the Finnish volunteers were "not Nazis, they were heroic soldiers who simply defended their fatherland".

Many accused Parvilahti of being a Nazi, but the conservative journal Suomalainen Suomi [fi] called his claims "laudable, for it is clear that many former SS men were treated unfairly after the war".

Holmila uses the example when Jokipii, describes the aftermath of the death of Westland regiment commander Hilmar Wäckerle and the atrocities committed (burning of a nearby village, Russians and Jews executed without trial for being accused of collaborating with the sniper who killed Weckerle), said that no Finns "were there", which goes against the narrative of Lappi-Seppälä.

According to Silvennoinen and Tikka, approximately 46 percent of the volunteers, i.e., over twice the number calculated by Jokipii, would have clearly expressed their support for fascist politics.

This narrative surrounds the character of General Felix Steiner, first commander of the SS-Wiking Division, who "recognized and acknowledged the combat skills of his Finnish soldiers".

[78][79] Swanström followed the article with a 2018 book Hakaristin Ritarit (Knights of the Swastika), which the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat described using the title (transl.)

"[80] Swanström's 2017 article prompted the Simon Wiesenthal Center to request from Finnish president Sauli Niinistö an inquiry into the possible participation of the Waffen-SS volunteers in the Holocaust.

[77] The resulting 2019 publication drew significant media coverage,[81][82][83] including demands for "correction" by close relatives of the SS-volunteers, which the National Archive of Finland refused.

The report's author, Lars Westerlund, concludes that "at least some of the cases show that Finnish volunteers did participate in carrying out atrocities against Jews and civilians", including specifically Olavi Karpalo and Parvilahti.

[85] According to Swanström, his publication and that of Westerlund resulted in a "post-myth research situation [which] allows for the history of the Finnish SS-men to be inspected more realistically and from more points of view".

[86] Commentators such as the president of the SS heritage association noted that the reports were not absolutely definite in their statements that the Finns themselves committed atrocities.

According to historian Bernd Boll [de], the Wiking Division, while marching to Złoczów, went "hunting for Jews" and shot "everything and anybody that looked even the slightest bit suspicious".

[3] Historian Peter Longerich wrote: "In Zloczow at the beginning of July, under the very eyes of Sonderkommando 4b and tolerated by the city commandant, Ukrainian activists had organized a massacre of the Jewish population in which members of the SS Viking Division took part on a huge scale.

However, there is no concrete evidence regarding the involvement of Finnish soldiers in atrocities, so it is commonly assumed, according to Parvilahti's standard narrative, that the troops saw "unpleasant excesses" of German warfare but the war was very much conventional.

The demonstration attracts close to 3000 participants according to the estimates of the police and hundreds of officers patrol Helsinki to prevent violent clashes.