Hennala is a district in the city of

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. It is known of the

Stora Enso Stora Enso Oyj (from sv, Stora and fi, Enso ) is a manufacturer of pulp, paper and other forest products, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The majority of sales takes place in Europe, but there are also significant operations in Asia and S ...

packaging factory and the former Hennala Garrison which also worked as a concentration camp after the 1918

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

. Together with the garrisons in

Riihimäki Riihimäki (literally "Drying barn hill") is a town and municipality in the south of Finland, about north of Helsinki and southeast of Tampere. An important railway junction is located in Riihimäki, since railway tracks from Riihimäki lead to ...

Dragsvik ''Note: This article is about Dragsvik in Finland, not Dragsvik in Norway.'' Dragsvik is a village in Uusimaa, Finland. It is located to the northeast of Raseborg. Dragsvik railway station and a manor house called Dragsvik gård are located there ...

and

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; sv, Tavastehus; krl, Hämienlinna; la, Tavastum or ''Croneburgum'') is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Tavastia and the modern province of Kanta-Häme in the south of F ...

, Hennala is one of the best preserved examples of the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

military architecture in Finland. It is listed as one of the Cultural environments of national significance by the

Finnish National Board of Antiquities The Finnish Heritage Agency ( fi, Museovirasto, sv, Museiverket), previously known in English as the National Board of Antiquities, preserves Finland's material cultural heritage: collects, studies and distributes knowledge of it. The agency is a ...

. The combined population of the statistical areas of Hennala and Tornator, corresponding to the area of the district of Hennala, was 2,363 in 2019.

History

The Hennala Garrison was completed in 1911–1913 when Finland was an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. As the Russian Army left Finland in early 1918 and the Finnish Civil War broke out, the garrison was occupied by the

Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...

. After the Battle of Lahti, Hennala was turned into a prison camp. Hennala camp was one of the most infamous camps the

Whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

established after the war. In few months, at least 1,100 of the 11,000 Red detainees died of executions, disease and malnutrition before the camp was closed in 1919. In 1920–2014 the garrison housed the

Häme Regiment Häme Regiment ( fi, Hämeen rykmentti), ( sv, Tavastlands regemente) was a unit of the Finnish Army located in Lahti. The regiment's main duty was to train conscripts and the personnel of the Finnish Defence Forces and the Finnish Frontier Guar ...

and 1940–1994 the Central Military Hospital No 2. During the 2015

European migrant crisis The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...

Hennala was turned into an immigrant reception center. In September, Hennala became the center of international attention after local anti-immigration activists threw stones and fireworks at the asylum seekers and

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...

workers. One of the demonstrators was wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

Services

Two Lahti Region Transport bus lines run through Hennala: line 2 between Viuha and Metsä-Pietilä in Okeroinen, and line 12 between Ala-Okeroinen and the Market Square via Rykmentinkatu and Metsä-Hennala.

References

Districts of Lahti Military of Finland {{Lahti