Editing Racial policy of Nazi Germany (section)

==Finno-Ugrics==
The [[Finns]] had a debatable position in the Nazi racial policies, as they were considered a part of the "Eastern Mongol race" with the [[Sámi people|Sámi]] people in traditional racial hierarchies.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war): Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland |journal=[[Scandinavian Journal of History]] |last=Evjen |first=Bjørg |date=2019-05-09 |issue=1 |volume=45 |pages=25–47|doi=10.1080/03468755.2019.1607774|hdl=10037/17966 |s2cid=164636406 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Finland and the Holocaust: A Reassessment |journal=[[Holocaust and Genocide Studies]] |last=Holmila |first=Antero |date=2009-12-01 |issue=3 |volume=23 |pages=413–440|doi=10.1093/hgs/dcp041}}</ref> Finland did not have [[Lebensborn]] centres, unlike [[Norway]], although [[Finland]] had tens of thousands of German soldiers in the country. Archival research however has found out that 26 Finnish women were in contact with the Lebensborn program for unspecified reasons.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Sota vei Suoman natsien äitiyskotiin |url=https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10162067 |last=Kerola |first=Päivi |date=2018-04-22 |publisher = [[Yle]] |access-date=2022-08-01 |language=Finnish}}</ref>

In 1941 Nazi Germany established the [[Reichskommissariat Ostland]] to administer the conquered territories of the [[Baltic region]]. The colonial department in Berlin under Minister [[Alfred Rosenberg]] (born in [[Tallinn]] in 1893) looked on Estonians favorably as Finno-Ugrics and thus as "Aryans", Generalkommissar [[Karl-Siegmund Litzmann]] authorized a ''Landeseigene Verwaltung'', or local national administration.<ref>Historical dictionary of Estonia (2nd edition), by Toivo Miljan, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015</ref> As Germany [[Operation Barbarossa|invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941]], Finland [[Continuation War|participated in the invasion]] primarily to recover the territories it was forced to cede to the USSR after the [[Moscow Peace Treaty]] which ended the [[Winter War]] between the Finns and the Soviets. Owing to Finland's substantial military contribution on the northern flank of the [[Eastern Front (WWII)|Eastern Front of World War II]], Hitler decreed in November 1942 that "from now on Finland and the Finnish people be treated and designated as a Nordic state and a Nordic people", which he considered one of the highest compliments that the Nazi government could bestow upon another country.<ref name="rich">Rich, Norman (1974). ''Hitler's War Aims: the Establishment of the New Order'', pp. 400–401. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., New York.</ref> Hitler stated in private conversation that:
<blockquote>After their first conflict with the Russians, the Finns applied to me, proposing that their country should become a German protectorate. I don't regret having rejected this offer. As a matter of fact, the heroic attitude of this people, which has spent a hundred of the six hundred years of its history in fighting, deserves the greatest respect. It is infinitely better to have this people of heroes as allies than to incorporate it in the Germanic Reich—which, in any case, would not fail to provoke complications in the long run. The Finns cover one of our flanks, Turkey covers the other. That's an ideal solution for me as far as our political protective system is concerned.<ref name="Trevor-Roper2000vii">Trevor-Roper, H.R. (2000). ''[https://archive.org/stream/HitlerTableTalk/Hitler%20TableTalk_djvu.txt Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944]''. New York: Enigma Books</ref></blockquote>