The Archives of the Finnish Literature Society

Collection

Reference number:: SKSÄ 1968:538:1 - 539:1; SKSÄ2014:168; SKSÄ2014:169; SKSÄ2014:170; SKSÄ2014:171; SKSÄ2014:172; SKSÄ2014:173; SKSÄ2014:174; SKSÄ2014:175

Scope and content:: The archives of the Finnish Literature Society holds a vast collection of oral history. There are some interviews with members of the Finnish Jewish community. These include Abraham Stiller’s interview from 1968 and nine interviews conducted by Simo Muir between 2013 and 2014.

Archival history:: The Finnish Literature Society was founded in 1831 and its Folk Poetry Archives (Kansanrunousarkisto) was founded in 1934, the Literature Archive in 1971. In 2016 these archives were fused into one archive.

Administrative/biographical history:: The objective of the archives of the Finnish Literature Society has been to collect material in Finnish, both oral and written, about Finnish folklore, literature, music, traditions, and, from the 1960s onwards, oral history. Until now there have been very few interviews pertaining to the history of Jews in Finland. The first appears to be an interview in Swedish with merchant and philanthropist Abraham Stiller (1885–1972) by Galit Hasan-Rokem in 1968. Between 2013 and 2014 Simo Muir conducted interviews in Finnish about Jewish life and culture in Finland.

Subject terms:: Aid and relief; Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity; Holocaust; Jewish community; Oral history; Trade and commerce; World War II