Kalervo Kurkiala

Kalervo Kurkiala (born Kalervo Groundstroem, Längelmäki November 16, 1894 - December 26, 1966) was a Finnish priest and Obersturmbannführer in the Waffen-SS during World War.

Biography
Kurkiala, then still going by his birthname Groundstroem, was a lieutenant in the Jäger Movement, which consisted of Finnish volunteers trained in Germany to form the 27th Jäger Battalion (Finland) for action on the northern part of the eastern front during World War I. He was influenced by a militarism which he thought beneficial to young men, "country boys" as well as "bookworms and spoilt, sloppy idlers": military training, besides preparing a person for the future, builds muscle and character (instilling an "unflinching sense of duty"). A student of theology at the University of Helsinki between 1913 and 1919, he was ordained priest in 1919 and visited the department of theology at the University of Greifswald that same year.

A Finnish biography of Kurkiala by Iivari Rämä, Jääkäripapin pitkä marssi, appeared in 1994.