Kemi

A town of 19,339 people on the Bothnian Bay at the mouth of the Kemijoki, founded in 1869 by decree of Alexander II because of the deepwater port beside it. Thirty kilometres away is Tornio and the Swedish border. In October 1944, during the Lapland War against their former German ally, German forces seized 132 Finnish civilian hostages here and threatened to kill them unless captured German prisoners were released; Finland refused and threatened the same in return. The hostages were freed unharmed on 11 October.