Latvia’s
Nazi Nostalgia
(FIRST PUBLISHED BY 2G fORUM)
(FIRST PUBLISHED BY 2G fORUM)
By
Monica Lowenberg
Now, Woody Allen isn’t to everyone’s taste
but every so often he does manage to come out with a golden nugget that makes
you roar in the aisles if not chuckle.
In his film Midnight in Paris
there is one such nugget. When speaking
about which era they would most like to live in, the central character says in a
dead pan voice, ‘I am a little nostalgic about La Belle Époque,
sans tuberculosis.’
La Belle Époque, the ‘beautiful era’ a
period in French history starting in 1890 and ending when World War 1 began,
when peace and prosperity in Paris allowed the arts to flourish and Zola,
Picasso and Gauguin, amongst other greats, met their friends for un
cafe in Maxims, or so we believe. However, on scratching the surface, we find
the era was not so belle. Time and the desire to forget trauma have a curious way of making us distort facts and see
only what we want to see, unless one reads Zola’s ‘J’accuse’ one would forget the Dreyfuss affair that highlighted
French anti-Semitism during the Belle Époque, one would forget government
corruption and one would forget urban poverty riddled with tuberculosis.
Nostalgia
is a dangerous thing as often it is wrapped in illusions, illusions that feel
more comfortable to deal with than reality. Without first hand witnesses on
hand it is easy to discard historical facts, primary and secondary sources if
one so chooses. It is also easy to even
distort facts particularly if one has the backing of the powers that be, as
Milan Kundera so clearly pointed out, "The struggle of man against power,"
he wrote, "is the struggle of memory
against forgetting.”
And so
in view of these facts, when I tell you
that since 1998 on the 16th of
March each and every year, in the very centre of Riga, Latvia, a member of the
EU since 2004, a NATO and OSCE country, marches have been regularly held to
praise the ‘heroism’ of the former Latvian Legion, i.e.Waffen SS veterans in
their combat against the allies during the Second World War and that each year
these events are receiving tacit (and sometimes very explicit and public)
support from state authorities, this year from the president himself who stated
the Latvian SS are not criminals but should be ‘bowed down to’ , you are perhaps not surprised? Perhaps, it will also not surprise you that
our very own British conservatives, the presumed heirs of Churchill, perhaps as
an antidote to the French revolution, perhaps as a summer Valentine’s day,
joined up forces on the 14 July 2009 with Robert Zile, a Latvian MEP whose
associations support Nazi marches?
Of
course marches take place all the time and why should one get upset about a few
SS men being heralded as heroes and offered flowers? As the Latvian ambassador wrote to me, when
February this year I asked him to sign the petition I had set up against the 16
March marches in Latvia with the support of Dr Barry Gardiner (Labour MP) and
Bob Blackman (Conservative MP), ‘There
are no war crimes attributed to the Latvian units of the Waffen SS which was
formed in 1943. Members of the notorious Arajs Komando constituted less than 1%
of those enlisted and in most cases they were duly prosecuted after World War
II. All the above mentioned was
recognised by western allied authorities, including the UK government, when admitting
former legionnaires to their territories.
In a twist of irony, some were even enlisted by the US army to guard
Nazi war criminals at the Nurnberg Tribunal...
In light of the aforementioned I cannot see how your petition would help
in bringing justice to the victims of war crimes or crimes against humanity,
including the Holocaust. On the contrary,
it would simply replicate some of the old but recently reheated Soviet
propaganda about ‘those Fascist Latvians’.
I can only regret that your research into the history of the Latvian
legion was limited to communicating with Mr.
Feigmanis (sic Mr Feigmanis is actually a historian and has a PhD) and some left wing politicians in
Latvia’. Both sides of my polite
debate with the Latvian ambassador are reproduced in full by DefendingHistory.com
at: http://defendinghistory.com/monica-lowenberg-in-dialogue-with-latvias-ambassador-to-the-uk/32025
Curiously
enough, on the very same day and within a
few hours of receiving this email from the Latvian ambassador, Mr Martin
Callanan, the chief whip, at the time, of the conservatives in the European
Parliament, also wrote to me expressing very similar sentiments ,
‘It is very unfortunate that your purpose
does not seem to be to clarify the historical facts about the Latvian Legion or
to honour victims of the Genocide against the Jewish population, which is why I
cannot sign your petition.’ A few hours
after sending this email to myself Mr Callanan publicly announced that he would
be leaving his post as conservative chief whip,
"It has been
a privilege to serve as Leader of Conservative MEPs for the last 16 months. It
has been a tumultuous time for the EU and a fascinating time to lead the
delegation. I am proud of the successes that Conservative MEPs are achieving
and the hard work that we put in to defend the national interest. I would love
to stay on but my commitment as the newly-elected chairman of our wider
European grouping requires my full-time dedication. It was an enormous
privilege to have been elected leader of the ECR last December’
So,
who is telling stories here? Maybe it is
time to get a few facts straight.
It is a sad and important fact to remember
that a substantial number of the same Latvian Waffen SS (the “legionnaires”)
had, prior to joining the Latvian SS legion, been members of the worst Jew
killing machine the world has ever known, killing with the Nazis in the
summer-autumn of 1941 some 75, 000
Jews. To honour such men, no matter how
many were involved, is a travesty of justice. The legionnaires who were
mobilised into the Latvian Legion, against their free will, are in some
respects victims but as the video clips of this year’s march which I protested
at (see links below) reveal, their descendants do not perceive them as such as
they desecrated the wreath to the victims of Nazism and hissed anti-Semitic
statements.
Aside from any EU regulations that
strictly forbid days that commemorate and glorify Nazism, (see Report on
Latvia by the ECRI (European
Commission Against Racism and Intolerance published 21 February
2012) for
let us not forget Latvia is since 2004 a member of the EU, NATO and OSCE ,
apologists and supporters of the march would be wise, on seeing the You tube
clips and the international petition site that I set up in January 2012 against
the SS marches http://www.petitions24.com/stop_the_16_march_marches_and_latvians_revising_history
littered with anti-Semitic, homophobic and xenophobic sentiments, to concede that days that commemorate Nazism and any
associations with Nazism will simultaneously generate anti-Semitic, homophobic
and xenophobic sentiments. All the flowers in the world will not dismiss this
and the above mentioned tragic facts.
As Dr Efraim Zuroff stated in The Guardian
already in 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/14/conservatives-poland-right-wing ‘The results speak for themselves. Although
there were numerous Nazi war criminals who could still be brought to trial, not
a single one was ever punished in the Baltics, which had the worst record of
local collaboration, and only two have been punished in democratic Eastern
Europe. Although various leaders issued public apologies (usually in Israel,
almost never at home), they failed to deliver in terms of prosecution,
restitution, education and documentation. Even worse, Holocaust-related issues
became the main cause of renewed local anti-Semitism, which threatened the
minuscule remnant Jewish communities in these countries.
For
some reason, these issues, which should have been highly significant in
determining the candidacy of these countries for European Union and NATO
membership, were apparently not taken into account. Suddenly, these countries
have the legitimacy of those memberships without having fully internalised the
concomitant values. Miliband is correct in pointing out the obvious flaws of
the Conservatives' new allies. But they are only the tip of the eastern
European right wing, which is determined to rewrite the history of the Second
World War in a way that no self-respecting European should accept. By joining
forces with parties such as Fatherland and Freedom and Law and Justice, the
Conservatives are granting important legitimacy to a false narrative that seeks
to whitewash war crimes and erase the heroic victory of those who saved the
world from Hitler and the Nazis.’
Latvian
nationalists and apologists who argue that the legionnaires should be seen as
distinct from the German SS, as one they were acquitted of crimes by the
American courts in the 1950’s and two they guarded at the Nurnberg trials,
forget two very important points:
- 95.6% of Latvia's pre-war Jewish population
were murdered in 1941 and 1942 by German Nazis and Latvian Arajs commandos
and auxiliary police, many of whom subsequently, in 1943 and 1944 freely
joined the Latvian SS Legion, the
15th and 19th divisions, the 15th becoming the most decorated
out of all SS divisions. It is true that the Latvian Legion per se did not
murder, virtually all of their Latvian compatriots; who happened to be
Jewish, but a substantial number of them prior to joining the legion had
been mass murderers of the worst kind. (The main core of the Waffen SS
legion Lettland was created in 1943 from 16 battalions of Latvian police
which in 1941-1942 participated in the Holocaust in not only Latvia but
also Russia, Belorussia and in the executions in the Warsaw ghetto.)
- With regards to the Latvian Legion guarding at
the Nurnberg trials the reality is that only a third of them did so, in
the exterior ring not because they were innocent of crimes but because
they spoke good German! Other rings
were composed of Americans, allied troops and police. One should also question the following,
Ivan Demyanyuk, also like the Latvian legionnaires, worked for the
Americans immediately after the war, does this mean he is not a criminal?
Other facts
to consider are the following:
1. The legionnaires participated in the defense
of the Reich’s Chancellery in Berlin in April-May 1945, right next to Hitler
defending him from Soviet attacks. Now,
if that is not collaboration what is?
2. The Legion
fought under the Nazi high command for a victory of the Third Reich. They do
not deserve to be honoured for fighting for a victory of the most genocidal
regime in human history. Ironically, such a victory would have been a disaster
for Latvia since the Nazis had no intention or plan to grant Latvia independence.
Historians know very well of the Nazis’ plans to do away with the Latvian
(among other Baltic) peoples after the planned-for victory. There would have been
no Latvia to become independent in 1991.
3. About
one-third of those who served in the Legion were volunteers, many of them those
who had served in Latvian Security Police units which had actively participated
in the mass murder of Jews in Latvia and in Belarus, such as the infamous Arajs
Commando mass murder squad.
4. When
Latvian SS killed Soviet soldiers they in turn allowed Nazis on the western
front to kill more British and American soldiers and in turn allowed Auschwitz
and other concentration camps to continue their heinous crimes against
humanity. During the years of the Latvian Holocaust, the Soviet Union was in
alliance with Great Britain, the United States and other Western democracies,
whose ranks Latvia has now joined.
5. Democratic
Latvia should not glorify those willing to give up their lives for a victory of
the Third Reich. The Latvian Righteous Gentiles would make much better role
models for today’s young people in Latvia and for future generations.
6. The
ultranationalists who support the march are the ones who are seeking to rewrite
the historic narrative of the Holocaust in Latvia in order to hide or downgrade
the crimes of local Nazi collaborators and promote the canard of equivalency
between Communist and Nazi crimes.
7. Ceremonies in churches and cemeteries are also forms of honouring the
deceased (whether they deserve it or not). Witness the masses held in Zagreb
and Split, Croatia, last December in honour of the Croatian mass murderer and
leader of the Ustashe Ante Pavelic.
Anyone still feeling nostalgic?
I knew the day of Holocaust 'debate' would come. Just not in my lifetime
Why is it left to the US to confront the Tories on an alliance with those who distort historical truth and defend Nazi collaborators?
1. Stephanie Butnick in Tablet on recent news in Lithuanian-Jewish affairs Novemeber 7 2013:
2. Monica Lowenberg 'Riga, Roots and Reflections' published by Defending History.com 28 October 2013
3. http://www.neweasterneurope.
published 5 November 2013 by New Eastern Europe
Any comments to this article expressing a different point of view have as yet not been published by the editors.
An example comment is the following:
'As much as it is necessary for those who feel they have
suffered under various occupations to be heard, it is historically false and
morally reprehensible at best to:
1. Equate Nazi crimes with Communist
2. Create
an argument where collaborators are
likened to the victims they willingly
and brutally murdered particularly
3. When
the topic is thousands of "nationalist heroes" who did the actual
KILLING of an ethnic minority in their midst --- all the men, women and
children of that minority --- for then the current campaign of double-talk to
equate this genocide with various other crimes becomes even more reprehensible
and completely unbecoming to nations that are, or want to be, bona fide members
of and partners in Western civilisation, and its European Union and NATO
alliances.
Baltic people and Ukrainians who collaborated with the Nazis
are not victims, they were collaborators , collaborators who worked for the
most genocidal regime the world has ever known.
A regime that murdered on an
industrial scale millions of innocent civilians, who were targeted because they
happened to be Roma and Sinti and Jewish.
The vast majority of the Jews murdered had no connections to high
ranking Communist leaders some of whom were Jewish, many did not even know who
Stalin was.
The stubborn insistence of, in particular, the Lithuanian and
Latvian governments to honour TODAY via marches and monuments for the Latvian SS,
name plaques and streets after collaborators are acts that only highlight their complete
unwillingness to accept that their
‘heroes’, their liberators from the Soviets, were also collaborators of the worst
kind. This is not education this is
revisionism, as is this article. '
posted by Monica Lowenberg 6 November 2013
Latvian state dance troupe displays Nazi swastika 17 November 2013 in Riga stadium
article by Graeme Atkinson and Monica Lowenberg , Hope Not Hate, 24.11.2013
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/
Latvian state dance troupe displays Nazi swastika 17 November 2013 in Riga stadium
article by Graeme Atkinson and Monica Lowenberg , Hope Not Hate, 24.11.2013
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/
You
Tube Clips
Interview with Monica Lowenberg speaking about her trip to Latvia and the annual SS marches that take place in the capital of Riga.
2. Nazi Heroes- Waffen SS hailed in Latvia
VIEWS: 95, 547
3.
‘I am a European like you’ says Joel Rubinfeld…’The days of the Third Reich are over!’
‘I am a European like you’ says Joel Rubinfeld…’The days of the Third Reich are over!’
VIEWS:87,501
The
laying of the wreath for the victims of Nazism by:
·Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center (Israel),
·Hermann Dvorzak, leader of the European
Social Forum (Austria),
·Monica Lowenberg, British academic and
initiator of the petition 'Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising
history' (UK),
·Dovid Katz, former professor of the
Vilnius University, editor of DefendingHistory.com (Lithuania/UK),
· Joel Rubinfeld, president of the European
Jewish Parliament (Belgium),
·Joseph Koren, president of the association
"Latvia without Nazism"(Latvia)
·Helmut Scholz, EP deputy (Germany),
·Tatjana Ždanoka (Tatyana Zhdanok), EP
deputy (Latvia)
Two Latvian young men and two Latvian young
girls desecrate the wreath to the victims of Nazism (17 mins of footage)
Joseph Koren, president of the association
"Latvia without Nazism" (Latvia) and Dr Tatjana Ždanoka (Tatyana
Zhdanok), EP deputy (Latvia) try to restore the wreath to the victims of Nazism
and remove the Latvian SS plaque that was placed in front.
The film explores the search for these collaborators, the efforts to prosecute them and the refusal of countries to bring their citizens to justice.
More info at richardbloomproductions.com
10. BBC The Story of the Jews , Episode 4 , Over the Rainbow with historian Simon Schama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9BaGc-yFE4 first televised 22.09.2013
Documentary series. Simon Schama explores how Eastern European Jewish culture
made its mark across the world, from Soviet politics to Hollywood cinema. At 52.12 in episode 4 Simon Schama visits Lithuania and speaks out regarding what happened there.
http://www.radiotimes.com/programme/cm8pt6/the-story-of-the-jews
11. http://ru.focus.lv/sports/dinamo-rigakhl/pered-matchem-rizhskogo-dinamo-v-arene-riga-byla-razvernuta-svastika 20.11.2013
Latvian dance troupe recreate a Swastika prior to a hockey match against a Russian team in Riga's football stadium. Riga is to be European Cultural capital for 2014...
Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!
You Can Add Your Voice To This Petition Here: http://www.petitions24.com/stop_the_16_march_marches_and_latvians_revising_history
and
Petitioning HE President Dalia Grybauskaitė
President of Lithuania
Abandon defamation of Holocaust survivors and glorification of Holocaust perpetrators
