Once in a while I need to look for something in our storage room and chance upon historical treasures. Today, I started reading our 1939 annual report and found two references to Finland.
At this time the Icelandic Red Cross ran health stations, primarily for fishermen, along the coast. In 1939, we were fortunate enough to get a real Finnish sauna oven for one of these health stations, which enabled us to offer seamen - as they came in cold and wet from the day's fishing - a place to relax in the steaming warmth of a real sauna. The oven came on one of the last ships to leave Finland before the outbreak of hostilities. I would not be surprised if the oven was procured through the Finnish Red Cross, but the record doesn't say.
The other reference was a little later in the year, after the onset of the winter war. My predecessors here went all out to collect funds for the Finnish Red Cross, organizing fund-raising activities throughout the country. In the event, it turned out to be the biggest fund-raising effort in our history - which at that time, admittedly, was only 15 years old.
It is somehow comforting to know, as cooperation between our two Red Cross societies continues, that there is a more-than-70 year history behind us.
All the best,
Þórir Guðmundsson, Director of International and Domestic Operations
Historical treasures from Iceland 1939
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