Thread by @HistorianBlood

The tale of two histories: #cultureofwar

1. 110,000 Latvian volunteer fought bravely as nationalists against Soviet oppression.
Or
2. About 42,000 Latvians of our legion served in the SS-Police units and joined Einsatzgruppen killing actions against Jews, socialists and Poles.

https://twitter.com/paultyredagh81/status/1636790896850243584

In 1944 another 123,000 men were conscripted but only 16,000 front fighters. The rest were committed to combating Soviet, Polish and Latvian partisans.

Latvian volunteers were assigned to HSSPF - North SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln. He devised the ‘sardine packing’ method of mass killing. Jewish victims were forced to stand on the previous killed. The most vile method during the Holocaust by bullets.
Wiki picture

The first volunteer, June 1941, was from Viktors Arājs (13 January 1910 – 13 January 1988) who formed a killing unit - Sonderkommando Arajs - which served under the SD. 1945 fled to the British zone - prison mugshot.
Wiki

Sonderkommando Arajs was formed of former student right wing fascists of the Pērkonkrust movement. They set up base in an abandoned police precinct. In July 1941 they began to burn Synagogues with Jewish victims.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_o…

The Sonderkommando Arajs was between 500-1500 strong and very early on created a reputation for sexual violence against women. Arajs raped at least one Jewish female who testified against him. In 1979 a German court found him guilty and he received a life sentence.

In 1941 the local and city Germany army commandants facilitated the killing actions in the Baltic states and Ukraine. They were instructed to arm local volunteers and supply necessary materials for acts of destruction and local powers of arrest and license to kill.

Throughout 1942 and 1943 the Latvian volunteers increased and formed the Latvian Legion in 1943. They professed nationalism and service to god - naturally they served under the SS that was institutionally ungodly and anti-state religions.

All Wehrmacht branches tried to grab the volunteers with the most useful skills. The #NaziLuftwaffe was particularly active in raising detachments of former Latvian aviators to serve as aircrew or technicians - 6,000 volunteers and conscripts.

The Waffen-SS formed two grenadier divisions - 15th & 19th - and served mostly with the VI SS Corps on the eastern front. The saw action in the siege of Leningrad, Berlin and the Courland Pocket.

At the end of the war as many as 50,000 were sent to Soviet Gulags. A number of Latvians joined the partisan movement and continued the ‘struggle’ against the Soviet Union as the Forest Brothers - a Baltic wide group - supported with arms by British MI6 until the mid 1950s.

In 1950, the US Allied High Commissioner - John McCloy - claimed the Latvian SS were not in fact a movement or the SS and did not represent a threat to the USA. Many Latvian SS killers were treated as honest Displaced Persons.

In the mid-1980s, UK Parliament, Scotland Yard and some British and Canadian scholars began looking at the evidence. In searches of the US archives evidence was discovered that McCloy and UK/US secret services had suppressed the truth.

In about 1985, BBC Panorama ran a study of the Baltic communities and the evidence of collaboration with the Nazis was significant. Evidence from German cases and trial evidence indicated significant Baltic/Latvian volunteering for killing actions.

Conferences from the 1980s into the 1990s continued as Scotland Yard disbanded its war crimes unit. Several investigators moved on taking their evidence to the @ushmm to publish books. Some of the back story is here.
theguardian.com/uk/2006/feb/04…

What is less well known was that a large amount of evidence was in UK, USA and Canada but filed under listings that were not obvious. As in any mass search items get overlooked. In 2000 I began discussions with former British MI6 officers who were former army interrogators.

The British Army, continued interrogations of foreign nationals into 1947-8. Then the interrogators were transferred into careers - journalism, diplomats and government officials and enrolled into MI6. Hence the support for the Baltic partisan movement.

Interviews with Latvians living in the UK, all were former SS men. They initially claimed they had not given their allegiance to Hitler but gradually recalled they had. Their SS documents were dual language and included service to Hitler - both political and military allegiance.

Thus far, all collected evidence is partial, perhaps upwards of 75% complete - maybe 50% accurate with a significant margin of truth - as to numbers, persons and scale of support from UK. There is potential to take the story further.

The problem is not that that files probably still exist, it’s where they’re located. Many files opened include a note : contents destroyed on grounds of national security. Sadly, the most prominent destroyer of record was Winston Churchill during his times as PM.

Files discovered, opened and then removed to be reclassified - it happens. It’s bizarre, but sensitive files concerned with the 1944 SS killings in Normandy were released in the 1990s and then reclassified secret.

Several UK interrogation reports of the Luftwaffe are on record in UK trials, but the file papers have entirely disappeared. How the Latvians dodged Scotland Yard’s investigation does appear strange but it’s possible they were denied access on national security grounds.

In 2003, had a long discussion with the late Clive Emsley on UK war crimes investigations and the police. There might have been a research project but access to Scotland Yard records wasn’t so straightforward. Clive was concerned that the police knew more than was released.

As for the tale of two histories: there is no doubt the Latvians, along with other Baltic nationals volunteered to serve with the Nazis and perpetrated Holocaust crimes and waged genocide. For member nations to give credence to the ‘other’ story doesn’t fit with @EURightsAgency

As for the thread - it’s not confronting Latvia’s Nazi past. Indeed, it is using the war in Ukraine to revitalise and restore the lie that Latvians were ordinary soldiers. Scholars are now forced to confront a fascist resurgence which is both anti-historical and about power.

We look at countries outside of our danger zone who manipulate history for political ends. This is now happening across Europe, the UK and the USA. Hence why I joined recent debates.

https://twitter.com/HistorianBlood/status/1635931716450746368