Religion: Friends Behind the Curtain

Buried deep in Finland's endless pine forests some 40 miles south of Rovaniemi, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, is the little community of Varejoki. The people of Varejoki, struggling desperately to keep alive and to create a new life for themselves, are a strange assortment. There are 50 Finnish farmers—mostly refugees from the northern district of Petsamo, now Russian territory—who live with their 300 children in lean-tos and shacks. There are several score prisoners—mostly short-term smugglers and black marketeers—who live in improvised barracks almost without guards. And there are 35 welcome visitors sent by the American Friends Service Committee...