nazi campaign ring?

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richarde270

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Hello everyone
I recently went through a bag of old jewllery left to me by my father ,I found an old ring with swastikas on the it. The ring is brass, on the front it has "Petsamo Rovaniemi" and a map of I think Finnland with a Reindeer .There is a Swastika on each side of the ring.
I have found the symbol on the front ofthe ring online but it is on pins.I have not been able to find anything about a ring

Maybe someone knows and can let me know what exactly I have

looking forward to any responses

Richard
 
Hi richarde270,

You may want to include some pictures if possible. I have a buddy who knows a fair bit about militaria and there are definately people on this board who could help you identify your ring.

Good luck,

Izzit
 
richarde270 said:
Hello everyone
I recently went through a bag of old jewllery left to me by my father ,I found an old ring with swastikas on the it. The ring is brass, on the front it has "Petsamo Rovaniemi" and a map of I think Finnland with a Reindeer .There is a Swastika on each side of the ring.
I have found the symbol on the front ofthe ring online but it is on pins.I have not been able to find anything about a ring

Maybe someone knows and can let me know what exactly I hav

looking forward to any responses

Richard
Click to expand...

Not Nazi, but Finnish, they used the swastika symbol as well, though definitely not the ideology.

http://winterwarfinland.webs.com/finnishswastika.htm

Grizz
 
Finland and Germany were allied against the Soviets, which made Finland officially our enemy, though as far as I have heard we never conducted any actual operations against them.
 
There are several people on this board who speak fluent Finnish. Tiina is one of them; she has always answered my impossible questions nicely.
 
"...Not Nazi, but Finnish..." My thought exactly. No reason to assume Nazi when it's with a Finnish map. Probably has nothing to do with campaigns either, but I wouldn't put any money on that.
 
richarde270 said:
Hello everyone
I recently went through a bag of old jewllery left to me by my father ,I found an old ring with swastikas on the it. The ring is brass, on the front it has "Petsamo Rovaniemi" and a map of I think Finnland with a Reindeer .There is a Swastika on each side of the ring.
I have found the symbol on the front ofthe ring online but it is on pins.I have not been able to find anything about a ring

Maybe someone knows and can let me know what exactly I have

looking forward to any responses

Richard
Click to expand...

Hey Richard, my father-in-law was born in Petsamo. I have a modest Finnish collection and can probably help you out. PM inbound.
 
It is correct that the swastika (hakaristi) was used by the Finnish armed forces, well before the Nazis, and has nothing to do with the Nazi ideology. It is an ancient symbol of goodluck.
hannunvaakuna.png


However, this ring itself could be of German origin, since the Wehrmacht did go through Finnish Lappland during the Continuation War.
 
?? far cry from a swastika?? I think the Chinese used (and still use) a swastika as a symbol. It is virtually the same aside from the fact that it would turn clockwise, opposite of the Nazi swastika (counter clockwise)

Any Manx members out there? The Isle of Man has the same sort of concept but theirs have 3 legs instead of 4 stylized ones. The symbol promotes "motion" in all cases I do believe.
 
TheTooner said:
Finland and Germany were allied against the Soviets, which made Finland officially our enemy, though as far as I have heard we never conducted any actual operations against them.
Click to expand...

The Finns only fought against the Soviets. The Finnish Russian War actually began before WW2 broke out with a Soviet invasion of Finland. Although the Finns were vastly outnumbered they and the Finnish winter gave the Soviets a severe ass kicking. Peace broke out between them in 1940 I think but the war resumed after the German invasion of USSR. The Finns were only allied with Germany out of necessity, the lesser of two evils to them. You have to remember that the Soviets just finished grabbing nearly half of Poland in concert with the Germans, a fact seldom mentioned in discussions of Germany invading Poland. Plus Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, old Stalin had ambitions of his own.
 
In the 105 day war between 750,000 - 1,000,000 Soviets were killed.Stalin decided Finland could keep their independence.A 40-1 kill ration in favor of the Finn's.....hard to explain away the losses....... Harold
 
Mike Webb said:
The Finns only fought against the Soviets. The Finnish Russian War actually began before WW2 broke out with a Soviet invasion of Finland. Although the Finns were vastly outnumbered they and the Finnish winter gave the Soviets a severe ass kicking. Peace broke out between them in 1940 I think but the war resumed after the German invasion of USSR. The Finns were only allied with Germany out of necessity, the lesser of two evils to them. You have to remember that the Soviets just finished grabbing nearly half of Poland in concert with the Germans, a fact seldom mentioned in discussions of Germany invading Poland. Plus Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, old Stalin had ambitions of his own.
Click to expand...

They did extremely well, considering they were between a rock and a hard place, just in maintaining their sovereignty after everything settled. ;)

Grizz
 
That is just one of many variations, and its (and variations) use in Finland dates back beyond the Iron Age.

Here is something I found about the ring:

Translated from German: This is a Petsamo - Rovaniemi ring, the men of General Dietl (mountain infantry) will be awarded. They have also earned at a 800 km trek in Finland, Petsamo after Rovieaniemi. It is made of bronze with two swastikas on the side and a reindeer and the distance on the front panel. Remnants of the original silver plating are available.
Click to expand...

ht tp://forum.militaria-sammlergemeinschaft.ch/showthread.php/3298-Petsamo-Rovaniemi-Ring
 
plinker 777 said:
?? far cry from a swastika?? I think the Chinese used (and still use) a swastika as a symbol. It is virtually the same aside from the fact that it would turn clockwise, opposite of the Nazi swastika (counter clockwise)

Any Manx members out there? The Isle of Man has the same sort of concept but theirs have 3 legs instead of 4 stylized ones. The symbol promotes "motion" in all cases I do believe.
Click to expand...

The swastikia originated from the Inian culture, and the Germans adopted it from them. Never came from the Chinese. The Indian Hindu culture still uses the swastika also with 4 dots in the symbol, one at the top, bottom, left and right to this day.

See pic below on link of Indian swastikia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
 
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Cgn99 said:
The swastikia originated from the Inian culture, and the Germans adopted it from them. Never came from the Chinese. The Indian Hindu culture still uses the swastika also with 4 dots in the symbol, one at the top, bottom, left and right to this day.

See pic below on link of Indian swastikia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
Click to expand...

He got it right, a backwards swastika is a Buddhist symbol and represents dharma or balance, you will see it all over asia, China included of course.
 
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