Commemoration for SS unit causes controversy in Latvia

RIGA, Latvia, March 15 (JTA) — A soldier´s association in Latvia has decided to ban its annual march commemorating the Latvian Nazi SS legion, saying the international controversy could harm Latvia´s bid for NATO membership.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized the motives behind the cancellation. Locally, the move has set off a torrent bickering over how this tiny Baltic nation should handle the sensitive date that one local newspaper called "a hot potato."

In 1988 Latvia officially declared March 16 as the day of Latvian soldiers. The holiday commemorates March 16, 1943, when the Latvian legionnaires unit was established.

The partially volunteer unit fought alongside the Nazis, hoping to drive out the Soviet occupiers. More than 50,000 of the 140,000 Latvian legionnaires died in the losing cause.

Meanwhile, the Riga City Council, which had granted permits to two radical groups to publicly commemorate March 16, reversed its decision this week after the city´s mayor and the Riga Security Commission warned of possible threats to public order.

The Latvian Human Rights office, however, said the city´s ban is a violation of human rights.

Leaders of the two Latvian radical groups, Latvietis and Klubs 415, insist they will honor their heroes on Saturday by placing flowers at the city´s Freedom Monument and at Tornakalns Railway Station, where Latvians were forced into wagons and deported to Siberia.

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Wiesenthal Center in Israel, applauded the decision by the Riga City Council. Still, he was outraged that the Latvian National Soldiers Association halted its annual march due to fears of the fallout from NATO, rather than out of good will.

"They don´t get it," Zuroff said. "They never reached the obvious and logical conclusion that people who fought alongside Hitler should not be proud of themselves. We praise the decision of the City Council but, to be perfectly honest, a lot of work has to be done in Latvia about World War II lessons and the horrors of Nazism. Many of them were no Righteous Gentiles."

Zuroff, long a student of Holocaust history in the Baltics, says the Latvian legionnaires were not a murder squad, but many members voluntarily participated in the murder of more than 30,000 Jews in 1941 and 1942 under Arajs, a Latvian Nazi security police squad.

Although they joined the Nazi effort out of resentment at the Soviets — who occupied Latvia in 1940 — "they knew who the Nazis were" since more than 30,000 Jews already had been murdered, Zuroff said.

"The Fascist spirit was quite strong in Latvia," Zuroff said. "If you get into bed with Nazis, you are supporting them."

Latvians were "willing to give their lives so Nazi Germany would win World War II," he said.

Nikolajs Romanovskis, chairman of the soldiers association, said Latvians who resisted the Nazi draft either were sentenced to death or deported to concentration camps.

Janis Silis, president of Klubs 415, told Latvian TV that the legion was formed as a response to Soviet repression.

Latvian Parliament member Yacov Pliner, who is Jewish, said, "Those who were called up into the legion were unhappy people and it is their tragedy, but those who entered the legion voluntarily are criminals."

Zuroff caused a stir here earlier in the week when he said: "It is high time that Latvians fully internalize the fact that fighting on behalf of Hitler and Nazi Germany during World War II was the moral equivalent of supporting Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaida terrorist network. The Latvian SS Legion should not be glorified, nor should its members be considered Latvian heroes."

Romanovskis called Zuroff´s remark "a continuation of 50 years of Soviet propaganda."

"Let them solve their problems with the Palestinians and then mind the business of others," he said.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga refused to comment on the issue. The Latvian Ministry of Foreign affairs released a statement calling Zuroff´s comments "odd."

March 16 also represents a sore spot for Latvia´s ethnic Russians, who comprise about one-third of the population. Tensions between the two communities run high, and the bickering has fueled a media war between Latvian and Russian-language newspapers.

"Procession On March 16: Provocation Or Stupidity?" asked one headline in the Russian-language press.

It seems that several countries in Eastern Europe are now commemorating those who joined the SS. The same thing is happening in the Ukraine.

Ukrainian city council recognizes SS veterans as heroes

By The Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine - A city council in western Ukraine has recognized Ukrainian soldiers who fought with the Nazis as fighters for freedom from Soviet rule, allowing them greater pensions and social benefits.

The Ivano-Frankivsk city council decided Monday to proclaim 24 veterans of the Nazi SS Halychyna division as fighters for Ukrainian independence, according to the region's official web site. The new status would give them increased pensions and discounts for communal services, the site said, citing the press service of the regional administration.

Representatives of the local Russian Association protested the decision.

The Halychyna division was created after Nazis occupied parts of Soviet Ukraine in the early part of World War II. The division functioned in Ukraine's western regions, and many ethnic Ukrainians hostile to the Soviet regime joined.

It really is hard to comment on things like this. In this time of history, Stalin was no better or worse than Hitler. All the people in the middle of these two "Evil Empires" were going to feel pain, and had little choice in thier future, certainly not a country as small as Latvia. Any people who willingly killed with the SS or the Soviets are nothing more than murderers. If they were fighting for thier country than they should be remembered as hero's.

If you want a truly bizarre example of the strange turns of history during WW2 the story of the Jews who served in the Finnish Army is incredible-the Finns were allies of Germany but anti-Semitism was not practiced by the government or the populace,hence a number of Finnish Jews served in the Winter War against Russia and alongside German forces during WW2.They wore the reversed blue swastika of the Finnish armed forces(it predated the German swastika)which had no Nazi implications.Some were even offered decorations by the Germans fighting in the same area,which they refused( a no-brainer for sure)and at the height of the slaughter of Jews in Eastern Europe,the Mannerheim government refused to hand over any Finnish Jews to the Germans.The story has more aspects,but just this excerpt I found pretty amazing.Believe it or not,I came upon it while researching Finnish postage stamps.

AS a son and Grandson of survivors of the Holocaust and Soviet repression, I can tell you that the whole area was majorly F*****d. Hitler and/or Stalin; pick one to kill you. Most people just tried to survive, but far too many cynically helped one or the other. (Or both. My father and some other Jews, fighting in a antinazi partisan unit, were captured by a Catholic unit working with the communists, and exchanged him to the Nazis for the safe passage of their families.)

That said, the SS units were volunteer and anyone serving in them should burn in hell.

The story of the Finns in WWII is pretty fascinating.

And, the tale of their resistance to the Soviets is legendary. One of the greatest snipers in history was a fine. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he was credited with over 300 confirmed kills if I'm not mistaken.

He shot Communists before breakfast, and that's something to be admired in my book.

"They never reached the obvious and logical conclusion that people who fought alongside Hitler should not be proud of themselves."

What a disgustingly simplistic version of history. Such a solution was neither obvious nor logical at the time. The speaker's pro-Soviet agenda is obvious. Latvia had been invaded and conquered by the USSR, and the Germans were perceived as liberators. This was true in all the Baltic states and in the Ukraine as well. The only way one could fight against Soviet domination from 1941 through '45 was to fight "alongside Hitler." This was also true for the Cossacks, the Finns, and Vlassov's Russians. At one time, before the West went completely senile, we understood this, as witnessed by the fact that Finnland's wartime leader, Marshall Mannerheim (who "fought alongside Hitler"), is even portrayed on an American postage stamp - the "Champions of Liberty" series.

There were Waffen-SS volunteers from all over Europe and the overwhelming majority were COMBAT troops, and were not responsible for either the death camps or the Einsatzgruppen.

So, rhetorical question, how come Latvians who sided with Germany are evil and Americans who sided with Stalin are not? Stalin certainly killed more, but then he started much earlier and ended much later than Hitler. Perhaps, since Stalin's victims were predominantly Slavs (and Christians) they just don't rate.

Better that Latvians should die in Siberia than that they should be allied with those terrible Germans.

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