Never Alone: Finland, Jewish Deportations, and the Holocaust

Never Alone tells the true story of Finish businessman Abraham Stiller and his efforts to stop deportations of Jews during the Holocaust. The script is based on Rony Smolar’s book, Uncle Stiller. Smolar also served as a consultant for Finnish Jewish culture in the film.

The film was a recent audience award winner at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. I’ll be curious to see how Finland audiences receive it after this January’s release. It tells a part of Finnish history that people need to know. Never Alone is an award-worthy film and I cannot say enough good things about the performances. Klaus Härö has previously had four films chosen by Finland to represent the country at the Oscars. Only one of them has advanced as far as the shortlist. None have made it into the final nominations. Could this be the one?

When one thinks of the Holocaust, one usually thinks of the Nazis placing Jews in ghettos and later deporting them to camps. At least, this is usually how it goes. While Finland had been an Axis ally during World War II, their 2000+ Jewish population was safe from the horrors of the Holocaust. I’ve seen Sisu so I knew about Nazis being in Finland during the war. I’d just assumed, as anyone would, that the Jewish population would have been deported. It appears–yes, this comes as news to me–this is not the case. I’m more familiar with everything that took place in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe during the war and the Holocaust. Northern Europe, not so much.

Abraham Stiller (Ville Virtanen) did what any Jew would do with Jewish refugees arriving in Finland in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They had nowhere to go as the Nazis sieged across Europe but he led the Helsinki Jewish community in seeing to it that they had jobs and places to stay. As we all know, the good luck can only last for long. One of the first things he does is welcome them into his home with Vera (Nina Hukkinen) for Shabbos. Come 1942, both the war and the Holocaust rears its ugly head in Finland by way of Finnish State Police director Arno Anthoni (Kari Hietalahti). He was pro-Nazi and openly antisemitic. One gets a pit in their stomach every single time he appears on screen and opens his mouth. The police director was working hand in hand with Minister of Interior Toivo Horelli (Carl-Kristian Rundman).

Anthoni visited Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller early in 1942, promising to turn over the Finnish Jews. Not just this but he handed over a list of Finnish Jews to the Nazis! The Jews fell into three categories during this point in time: Finnish Jews, Jewish refugees, and Soviet POWs of Jewish faith. What you do not really see in the film is that Finland and Germany are fighting the Continuation War, a sub-conflict of World War II, against the Soviet Union. In further research, Finland turned over some 48 Soviet POWs of Jewish faith to the German paramilitary unit, Einsatzkommando Finnland, along with another four Jewish refugees.

If not for Stiller having allies in the government, things could have been much worse. Minister of State Finances Väinö Tanner (Hannu-Pekka Björkman) plays a substantial role in stopping deportations because other ministers were out of town. The brief luck would only last for so long. A cabinet meeting takes place on November 3. One assumes that they would drop the matter, seeing as how many ministers threaten to resign. However, deportations end up going forward but not to the extent that they could have been. There was public outcry and rightfully so. While the film’s focus is on the Jews, Finland deported 27 political prisoners in all in November 1942.

The film goes back and forth between its present-day 1972 and earlier events between 1938-1942. Footage from 1972 is in black-and-white as a journalist interviews Stiller. The earlier events are shown in color.

Virtanen rises up to the challenge of having to speak six different languages in the film. The opening psalm of Kabbalat Shabbat–Psalm 29–is repeated throughout the film. He also recites the Shabbos candle lighting blessing upon lighting a match in the Lapland field. It’ll never not be weird seeing subtitles on the screen during Jewish prayers. I do not know if the actor is Jewish but he certainly makes it look easy. But for what it’s worth, Rony Herman–who stars as Georg Kollman–was born in Israel and his family later moved to Austria.

The film is dedicated to the memory of Janka Kollman, Franz Olof Kollman, Heinrich Huppert, Kurt Huppert, Elias Kopelowsky, Hans Robert Martin Korn, and Hans Edward Szybilski. They were the seven non-Finnish Jews deported back to Nazi-occupied Europe and died during the Holocaust. Only Georg Kollman survived–he was separated from both his wife and child. Every one else was killed at Auschwitz. He later moved to Israel, where he remarried and worked as a doctor. Like many survivors, he refused interviews and didn’t share his experiences.

The world owes a debt of gratitude to Abraham Stiller, the Jewish congregation of Helsinki, and the few government ministers and members of Parliament who had the decency to put a stop to deportations. It doesn’t change the fact that seven Jewish refugees perished during the Holocaust. As for Anthoni, he got off way too easy during a 1948 trial–a statement by Georg Kollman seems to be a primary factor. Could it have been a mistranslation? Quite possibly.

It’s no surprise that a movie like this one led me down the rabbit hole of studying Finnish history. After all, it’s based on a true story, one that I had never heard of before studying Jewish film festival lineups. I promise you that learning the history behind the film is worth it. A journal article by Oula Silvennoinen examines Finland’s role during the Holocaust. Chabad of Finland also has an article on the Jewish refugees.

In as much as Never Alone is about Abraham Stiller, it is also a film that puts Finland’s role during the Holocaust back in the spotlight.

DIRECTOR: Klaus Härö
SCREENWRITERS: Klaus Härö, Jimmy Karlsson
CAST: Ville Virtanen, Nina Hukkinen, Kari Hietalahti, Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Rony Herman, Naemi Latzer, Peter Kanerva, Carl-Kristian Rundman, Tomi Samela, Lukas Walcher, Alexander Jagsch, and Satu Tuuli Karhu

Never Alone held its East Coast premiere during the 2025 Miami Jewish Film Festival. Upcoming screenings include the 2025 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Menemsha Films will release Never Alone at a later date. Grade: 4/5

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Danielle Solzman

Danielle Solzman is native of Louisville, KY, and holds a BA in Public Relations from Northern Kentucky University and a MA in Media Communications from Webster University. She roots for her beloved Kentucky Wildcats, St. Louis Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, and Boston Celtics. Living less than a mile away from Wrigley Field in Chicago, she is an active reader (sports/entertainment/history/biographies/select fiction) and involved with the Chicago improv scene. She also sees many movies and reviews them. She has previously written for Redbird Rants, Wildcat Blue Nation, and Hidden Remote/Flicksided. From April 2016 through May 2017, her film reviews can be found on Creators.

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