Interpreting prisoners-of-war. Sketches of a military translation culture in Finnish POW camps during World War II (1941-1944)

Abstract

In the four years of Finland’s Continuation War against the USSR, Finnish troops captured 67,000 Soviet prisoners-of-war who were handled behind lines in an extended network of POW formations. Drawing from archived correspondence between the responsible military administration and the POW camp commanders, the article analyses the resources allocated for the management of communication issues as wells as the discourses concerning the interpreter’s tasks, role, trustworthiness, and positioning in the strenuous and violent conditions of POW camps.