hitler's visit to finland
marshal wilhelm keitel, hitler, mannerheim and president risto ryti (1942)
on june 4th 1942, hitler made a visit to finland under extreme secrecy to celebrate the 75th birthday of the marshall of finland, carl gustav mannerheim.
this was hitlers only stay outside of the 3rd reich that summer, and overall an odd venture. hitler didn't travel much in general, and when he did, it was business related. the real purpose of the visit was to ensure finland stay allied to nazi germany.
the visit took place in imatra, where hitler was greeted at immola airfield by president risto ryti and finnish officials, then accompanied to mannerheims personal train. there a birthday meal and negotiations took place.
hitler dining with finnish prime minister jukka rangell, president risto ryti and mannerheim (1942)
during his visit, in this train car the only known recording of hitler's normal voice was taped.
a sound engineer for the finnish brodcaster yleisradio (yle) thor damen, had been tasked with recording hitler's official speech and birthday message to mannerheim, after which thor continued to record the private conversation between the two without permission.
after 11 minutes, hitlers ss guards noticed and made a cutthroat gesture as a polite suggestion for him to stop recording. they demanded for the tape to be destroyed, but yle was eventually allowed to keep it in a sealed container with the promise of it not being opened again.
it was made available to the public later in 1969, and you can listen to it here:
many doubted its authenticity after the tapes release due to hitlers voice being 'too soft'. the reason for this was most likely the fact he'd been drinking, something hitler didn't do often.
today, a largely unknown stone plaque commemorates the meeting, 400 metres away from it's original place as it was moved in 1994 to a quieter location due to it being in an industrial area.
the memorial plaque, saivaanhoivintie imatra
the coach in which the meeting took place in is on display in mikkeli and open to the public once a year on mannerheims birthday.
mannerheims saloon car on display, mannerheimintie 1 mikkeli