Thoralf Kyrre

Thoralf Kyrre (28 December 1913 – 27 November 1960 in Copenhagen, Denmark) was a Danish engineer who was involved in the pro-German resistance movement in Finland from 1944 to 1945.

Kyrre was a Danish supporter of Nazism who arrived in Finland as a volunteer during the Winter War, a war between the Soviet Union and Finland from 1939 to 1940, and remained in the country working as an engineer at the Helvar radio factory. Kyrre was sentenced to prison in Denmark in 1939 after breaking into the Social Democratic Party office and installing listening devices on the premises of the Soviet Trade Mission.^[1]

During the Continuation War, Kyrre worked for the Finnish State Police (Valpo), led by Arno Anthoni; among other things, he installed wiretapping devices in the detention cells at Valpo's Ratakatu headquarters and was involved in the development of a wiretapping device that could be used to listen to what was being said in the vicinity of the phone. This device was used by Valpo to listen on the homes of opposition elements.^[2]

After the armistice

After the Moscow armistice in 1944, Kyrre set up a secret radio station in the attic of his Helvar radio factory in Pitäjänmäki, Helsinki, to send reports from German agents operating in Finland to Germany. The antennas of the radio station did not attract attention because there were many other antennas on the roof of the radio factory.

Kyrre was assisted by Elli Poikonen, former clerk of the German Embassy, one of whose tasks was to decrypt the secret codes used in radio traffic.^[3] Kyrre and Poikonen were introduced to each other by "Master Hämäläinen", who was in fact the chairman of AKS, Vilho Helanen.^[4] In the fall of 1944, Kyrre installed equipment that could be used to eavesdrop on calls from the Allied Control Commission at the Hotelli Torni. In addition to Sonderkommando Nord, the Finnish military intelligence also used these Kyrre devices. However, the ACC found out about the interception and started feeding false information to the listeners.^[5]

Valpo arrested Kyrre and Poikonen after the Helvar radio station was discovered on 23 January 1945.^[6] On 16 March 1945 they managed to escape with the help of the sympathetic Valpo detective Urho Gunnar Rantala. He was recruited by engineer Karl Sundholm.^[7] Rantala assisted in the escape because he believed the detainees were to be extradited to the Soviet Union. After the escape, investigators in the Kyrre case began to believe that there was a larger organization responsible.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Poikonen was later caught and sentenced in August 1946 to two and a half years imprisonment, but Kyrre hid in Finland for ten months and on 25 January 1946 crossed the Tornio river to Sweden. Kyrre was imprisoned in Sweden for some time, but was able to continue his journey to Denmark. Kyrre later served in the CIA in Iceland, among other places.^[11] On 6 December 1948 he sent a mocking letter to Valpo. The letter wished for "a rapid collapse of your department".^[7] Petter Forsström, Director of Lohjan Kalkkitehdas Oy [fi], served as the funder of the getaway and was also involved in the planning of the getaways.^[12]

v t e Far-right politics in Finland
Pre-1945 groups	Academic Karelia Society Blue Cross Blue-and-Blacks Finnish Realm Union Finnish-Socialist Workers' Party Finnish National Socialist Labor Organisation Front Soldier League Finnish People's Organisation Finnish Labor Front Labor Organisation of Brothers-in-Arms Lalli Alliance of Finland Lapua Movement Organisation of National Socialists National Socialists of Finland National Socialist Union of Finland National Trade Union Confederation of Finland NSDAP/AO Finnland Party of Finnish Labor Patriotic Citizens of Viitasaari Patriotic People's Movement Patriotic People's Party People's Community Society Rising Finland Stormers Vientirauha
Post-1945 groups	Atomwaffen Division Finland Blue-and-Black Movement Blue and White Front Finland – Fatherland Finns Party Finnish People First Finnish People's Blue-Whites For Independence Freedom Alliance Kohti Vapautta! National Democratic Party National Union Council Nordic Resistance Movement Patriotic People's Movement Patriotic Popular Front Power Belongs to the People Suomen Sisu Soldiers of Odin Turku Society for the Spiritual Sciences Truth Party (Finland)
Pre-1945 people	Reino Ala-Kulju Vilho Annala Torsten Aminoff Hjalmar von Bonsdorff Severin Dobrovolsky Kai Donner Johan Christian Fabritius Petter Forsström C. A. J. Gadolin Herman Gummerus Yrjö von Grönhagen Bertel Gripenberg Reidar Hedman Vilho Helanen Gunnar von Hertzen Carl-Gustaf Herlitz Kalevi Heikkinen Antti Isotalo Y. W. Jalander Karl Jansson Kustaa Jussila Kaarlo Kares Y. P. I. Kaila Hans Kalm Arvi Kalsta Rauno Kallia Toivo Karanko Edvard Karvonen Aarne Kauhanen Juho Kaveheimo Olavi Karpalo Yrjö Kivenoja Juhani Konkka Vihtori Kosola Jussi Leino Gunnar Lindqvist Arvi Malmivaara Jussi Muilu Iisakki Nikkola Vietti Nykänen Thorvald Oljemark Johannes Öhquist Unto Parvilahti Martti Pihkala Otto Piisinen Boris Popper Yrjö Raikas Niilo Rauvala Erkki Räikkönen Hilja Riipinen John Rosberg Yrjö Ruutu Yrjö Saarinen Antti Salamaa Bruno Salmiala Kaarlo Salovaara Jaakko Seise Elias Simojoki Teo Snellman Arne Somersalo Paavo Susitaival Paavo Talvela Eino Tuomivaara Örnulf Tigerstedt Jukka Tyrkkö Ensio Uoti Mauno Vannas Kurt Martti Wallenius Artturi Vuorimaa
Post-1945 people	James Hirvisaari Esa Henrik Holappa [fi] Juha Korhonen Juha Kärkkäinen Jouni Lanamäki Seppo Lehto Junes Lokka Olavi Mäenpää Pekka Siitoin Ano Turtiainen Tuukka Kuru
Pre-1945 events	Assassination of Heikki Ritavuori Murder of Onni Happonen Murder of Erik Mättö [fi] Murder of Yrjö Holm [fi] Mäntsälä rebellion Peasant March Ståhlberg kidnapping Vaasa riot
Post-1945 events	612 march Kursiivi printing house arson 1986 Oulu airplane hijacking attempt [fi] Jyväskylä library stabbing 2016 Helsinki Asema-aukio assault Assassination attempt of Pekka Kataja [fi] Kankaanpää terrorism arrests Lahti terrorism arrests [fi]
Other	21 Paths to the Kingdom of Darkness Ajan Suunta Finnish volunteers in the Waffen-SS Finnlands Lebensraum Kansallissosialisti Kustaa Vaasa Magneettimedia MV-media Siniristi Steelfest Pro-German resistance movement in Finland (Thoralf Kyrre, Lauri Törni, Arvid Ojasti, Claes Purjo)

After the armistice

Death

References

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