Waffen SS fans march canceled, problems remain

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

MEP from Latvia Tatyana Zhdanok demanded that the country's authorities open a criminal case against the politician and director Raivis Dzintars, who shot a documentary film glorifying the "exploits" of Latvian legionaries "Waffen SS".

Earlier in March 2020, Russian historians published a list of living SS men from Latvia who were involved in Nazi crimes on Russian territory. The reaction of the official Riga was extremely hypocritical: having assured the world of their commitment to the fight against the legacy of fascism, the relevant authorities of the country did not take any real action. Izvestia understood the reasons for the revival of Nazi ideology in the Baltics.

The march of nationalists was thwarted by the coronavirus

Every year on March 16, Riga hosts events of the unofficial legionnaire's day - admirers of these “Latvian freedom fighters” conduct a solemn procession with the laying of flowers at the Freedom Monument. This year, the march was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but representatives of the right-wing radical parties brought flowers to the monument in private. The anti-fascist rally, which was just as traditional on that day, did not take place either.

In February, the co-chairs of the Russian Union of Latvia party, Tatiana Zhdanok and Miroslav Mitrofanov, handed the then Mayor of Riga Oleg Burov an open letter signed by 38 MEPs from 16 EU countries. It was also addressed to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia Krisjanis Karins and the Chairman of the Seimas Inara Murniece. “Today, when the celebrations in honor of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp have just taken place, we urge you not to allow processions and demonstrations aimed at honoring and glorifying the soldiers of the Waffen SS legion on March 16, 2020,” the MEPs said in their address.

However, it is hardly in Latvia that they are ready to give up legionnaires so easily. The leader of one of the coalition parties Raivis Dzintars made a documentary film “The Latvian Legion. Resurrection of Justice”- and sent it out to schools with a proposal to use it as a teaching aid. A number of Latvian schools readily accepted this proposal. Last September, Defense Minister Artis Pabriks ("Development / For!") Took part in commemorative events in honor of the 75th anniversary of the fighting near the town of More, where soldiers of the Latvian Legion fought with Soviet troops. He made a heartfelt speech there, calling the Latvian SS men heroes.

When the Nazis occupied Latvia in 1941, they found a sufficient number of supporters here among the local population. On February 10, 1943, Hitler announced an order for the formation of the Latvian Volunteer Legion "Waffen SS". It was partially completed with previously formed Latvian volunteer units.

In total, during the Second World War, two Waffen SS grenadier divisions, the 15th and 19th, were formed on the territory of Latvia. 110,550 people passed through the legion - 87,550 in combatants, 23,000 in auxiliary units. On March 16, 1944, both divisions for the first time jointly participated in hostilities against the advancing Soviet troops near the Velikaya River - it was this date that the legionnaires later chose for their holiday. Later, the Latvians retreated to the west and ended up in the so-called Courland cauldron, in which they practically held out until the end of hostilities. Some, however, managed to evacuate to Germany and take part in the battles for Berlin.

List of executioners

Now the main subject of dispute among historians regarding the Latvian Legion is the question of whether they participated in the war crimes of Nazism. The position of semi-official Latvian historians is unambiguous: innocent. The argument is put forward that no charges were brought against the 30,000 Latvian soldiers captured by the Allies. “Documentation provided by Latvian organizations convinced the allies that Latvian legionnaires should be treated as citizens of independent Latvia, illegally called up for military service. Therefore, despite the protests of the Soviets, they were released and later received permission to emigrate to Great Britain, the USA and other Western countries,”notes the historian Inesis Feldmanis. However, even Latvian historians admit that those who took an active part in the Holocaust, for example, members of the infamous team of Viktor Arajs, also ended up in the ranks of the legion.

The Russian State Military Archive (RGVA) contains documents testifying to the crimes of the gendarmerie company, which was part of the 19th Latvian SS Division, committed on the territory of the Leningrad and Novgorod regions.

In particular, on December 18, 1943, in the village of Zalya-Gora, west of Novgorod, about 250 civilians were shot; at the beginning of January 1944, the above unit took part in mass shootings in the city of Chudovo, Leningrad Region; On January 21, in the village of Glukhaya, about 200 people were locked in a barn and shot from machine guns. In total, from December 18, 1943 to April 2, 1944, the personnel of the 19th Latvian SS division took part in punitive actions, during which 23 villages were destroyed (in 13 of them, up to 1,300 people were shot).

Examples of the brutal attitude of the Latvian SS legionnaires to prisoners of war are also given.

And in May last year, Russian searchers unearthed a burial ground located in the vicinity of the village of Zhestyanaya Gorka, Batetsky District (Novgorod Region). During the excavation, 42 skeletons with bullet holes in the back of their heads were recovered, including three for children. At the burial site, spent cartridges from German weapons were found in abundance. The search engines said that the pits could contain the remains of over 3 thousand Soviet civilians. All of them were shot in the head from machine guns and rifles, and stabbed to death with melee weapons in 1941-1943.

According to the materials raised in the archives, a "taylkommando", formed from members of the Nazi security police and the Nazi special service (SD), operated here. In August, the FSB administration for the Novgorod region published a list of punitive officers, drawn up in 1967, who were involved in the murders in the village of Zhestyanaya Gorka and the village of Chernoe during the Great Patriotic War. In some SS and SD documents that were found, only the name, nationality (for example, "Bruno, Latvian") and, occasionally, rank were indicated. Nevertheless, the executioners were named: Rudolf Grotte, Oleg Klimov, Sergey Korzhi, Janis Tsirulis, Alfons Udrovskis, Nikolay Krumin, Porfiry Belyaev, Kharijs Liepinsh, Karlis Latsis, Adolf Klibus, Artur Krivins, Bruno Zagers and others. All are natives of Latvia. There is no information about whether the perpetrators were punished.

Latvian legion in the light of truth

On the same day, March 16, when in Riga Raivis Dzintars and his associates laid flowers in memory of the legionnaires, in Moscow Russian historians Alexander Dyukov and Vladimir Simindey for the first time named the names of many ex-members of the legion and their biographical data: their report “Participants of Nazi crimes … 96 veterans of the Latvian SS Legion who are still alive”were presented at a conference held in the office of MIA“Russia Today”. Vladimir Simindey, head of research programs at the Historical Memory Foundation, told Izvestia:

Historian Vladimir Simindey

According to our estimates, more than 300 former Latvian SS legionnaires can still live in various countries of the world, with the absolute majority outside Latvia. Such vigorous old people, sometimes for a hundred years … But 96 persons included in the list of the report "Participants of Nazi crimes …" are those whom we have managed to find and identify by now, verify information on various emigrant media, on thematic sites and in videos. My colleagues and I will continue to work on the deanonymization of SS legionaries, we will be grateful for the help of journalists, researchers and the public. Many of these legionnaires, who took the oath of allegiance to Hitler, are living out their days extremely quietly in the most distant corners of the planet - for example, in Latin America.

The historian emphasizes that some of the legionnaires, before joining the ranks of the 15th or 19th Latvian divisions of the Waffen SS troops, even in 1941-1942 volunteered for the “self-protection” police, the Latvian auxiliary security police SD, or in the Latvian police battalions - divisions of collaborationists who exterminated Jews, prisoners of war, partisans.

Historian Vladimir Simindey

In the film “Latvian Legion. Rebirth of Justice”, among others, the persons on our list numbered 28, 58 and 76 are praised: former SS legionnaires Edgars Veveris, Visvaldis Latsis and Edgars Skreja. The most colorful figure, of course, is Latsis - a volunteer in a police battalion, a commander of a shock platoon, an ex-deputy of the Diet, who was awarded the highest award in modern Latvia - the Order of Three Stars and … a person involved in a criminal case initiated against him last year by the Investigative Committee of Russia for rehabilitation Nazism in the book "The Latvian Legion in the Light of Truth." Moreover, in this propaganda film, sent to all schools in Latvia for use in the educational process, Latsis admits for the first time: yes, he took part in an anti-partisan action …

Interestingly, the spokesman for the US Department of Justice, Peter Carr, told the Russian press that Washington is serious about investigating Nazi crimes and is ready to consider information about the legionnaires. “The Russian authorities should use official intergovernmental channels,” Carr said. Also asked to transfer information about legionnaires, allegedly involved in war crimes, and the Department of Justice of Canada. A spokeswoman for the department, Allison Storey, said that the staff of the Canadian program of investigations of crimes against humanity and war crimes will conduct the necessary screening of elderly legionnaires.

According to Storey, the Justice Department, together with the border and immigration services and the police, is ready to work to ensure that those who are involved in the genocide do not have the opportunity to live peacefully in Canada. “We are glad that the USA and Canada are interested in the list 96. Only a cautious hope can be expressed that due diligence will be carried out, but previous experience discourages over-optimism. As for Latvia, in the post-Soviet period not a single Nazi collaborator was brought to justice for war crimes or crimes against humanity,”says Vladimir Simindey.