Europe News
Latvia braced for annual Waffen-SS memorial day
Mar 15, 2007, 4:48 GMT
Riga - The Latvian authorities were bracing themselves this week for the nation's most controversial date - March 16, the day which commemorates Latvian veterans of the Waffen-SS.
'Given that ideologically-opposed groups will be present in public, there is the possibility of conflict situations which could lead to breaches of the peace,' Kristine Apse-Krumina, spokeswoman for the security police, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
'There will be a reinforced presence of our officers, both on the streets and held in reserve,' added Ieva Reksna, spokeswoman for the Latvian police force.
March 16 in Latvia is dedicated to the Latvian Legion, a Waffen-SS unit formed by the Nazi forces which occupied the Baltic country from 1941-44. The majority of legionaries were conscripts and many saw themselves as fighting to defend Latvia from Soviet occupation.
In 1950 the US Displaced Persons Commission acknowledged the legionaries' conscript status, saying that the legion 'stood apart and (was) different from the German SS in terms of goals, ideologies, operations and constitution.'
But every year the commemoration is harshly criticized by Jewish organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, who point out that some legionnaires were transferred from volunteer units which carried out crimes against humanity across Eastern Europe.
And it is slammed by Russia, which interprets the day as proof that Latvia is sponsoring a 'rebirth of fascism.'
The date regularly proves a headache for the Latvian Foreign Ministry, which has to explain to the world at large why the legion should not be condemned as a regular SS unit.
Two years ago demonstrators including left-wing politicians dressed as Holocaust survivors and staged an illegal picket during a march by veterans. The police removed them, but TV images of the incident severely embarrassed Latvia internationally.
Last year lawmakers responded by banning all demonstrations and fencing off demonstrators' traditional rallying-point, the Freedom Monument in Riga. Human-rights groups criticized the ban, which was later condemned by the constitutional court.
Almost all Legion veterans stayed away, staging their own commemoration in church and a war cemetery, but a handful of ultra-nationalist youths attempted to break a police cordon to scuffle with a handful of extreme left-wing demonstrators.
This year the foreign ministry has made its feelings known in advance. In a press release issued Wednesday, Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks warned that 'radical forces' were trying to 'use this tragic event to increase their popularity and discredit Latvia.'
Nonetheless, five groups representing both extremes of Latvian politics have announced that they will gather on the day.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
You're a typical Russian hypocrite. Nowhere in Latvia does there exist anti-Semitism except among the Russian colonist groups which propagate violence and hatred against Jews. Almost half of the people living in Latvian are illegal Russians who engage in criminal and subversive activities in order to undermine Latvian society.
I say to all Russian colonists in Latvia: Go back home to Russia. You have no right to exist in Latvia.
Yer I hate Nazis but this is a bit different, these guys were trapped between Hitler and Stalin, what the hell would any of you have done.
Can any of us imagine the type of (mis)information Latvians were being fed at the time? How could they know what to do for the best? These men and boys suffered for their country just as much as those who fought with the equally abhorent Soviets and they all deserve respectful commemoration.
Please do not paint these SS guys as victims. Latvian police and paramilitary and military were infamous for killing not only the jews (started even before germans came)and destroying Riga's getto (there's a whole park-forest in the middle of the city where excecutions were made - people walk on mass graves), but jewish people were brought from all over the Europe for execution. Germans obviously did not want to bloody their hands, if they had so many volunteers to do that. Also Waffen SS was making raids into russian and belorussian territory and destroying whole villages with all the people. People that they did not kill were brought to the concentration camps - adults to Europe, children to Salaspils camp near Riga, where medical experiments were made. There are still survivors to tell you some chilling stories. When they'll die, ya'll can lie and twist the facts all you want.
Unfortunately, Latvia has almost no previous history as a state before WW2. Peter the Great fought and bought it (forever) from Swedish crown, Lenin gave it independence according to Brest Treaty and probably expressing his gratitude for Latvian Shooters being such devoted guards of his :/. They had history of military coup and dictatorship before Stalin came and claimed territory back. They have no history of fight for independence except under nazi swastika cymbol. Very young nation (as a whole nation, not just a bunch of tribes). Unfortunate, unfortunate... But not the victims and not the heroes!
Time for Latvia, a modern European country to move on and leave the past behind.
These are sensitive issues for Latvians, Russians, Jews and the others caught up in the holocaust and the Soviet annexation of Latvia after 1945.
These marches should be bannes AND commemorated in 'private'.
This is 2007 after all!!!!!
One has to wonder how many Lativans are sold in the sex slave trade today by the same Jews that sit here and whine about those evil SS Legionares. You Jews are far more guilty of Humanitarian crimes than the SS Lativa. Google Lativan sex slave trade Jewish Mafia for yourself and see what you get.
When are the whining, lying Juden EVER gonna tell the truth about the REAL Holocausts of the 20th Century - the Aemenian Massacres, and the Bolshevik slaughter of millions and millions and millions of Russian Christians?
The Young Turks were JEWS and Bolshvism - Communism - is merely Talmudic Rule made manifest.
Hitler has been demonizeed for night on 70 years - but historians always manage to forget a few salient details, critical to his rise to power. The 1933 Declaration of War, on Germany, by the Jewish World Congress. issued form Jew York City. AND the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was designed ot bring Germany to Her knees - and 80% of the attendees were Jews. What? Jews are supposed to .50 % of world population - and 80% of the attendees of the Versailles Conference were Juden? Huh?
Hitler SAW what the Jews were up to.
You have no idea, about the Latavian Legion, they weren´t those criminals, as you would like to see them. Neither they were fighting for Hitler´s racist war, rather for the Independence of the baltic states. You probably won´t believe me in your poitical paranoia, but read this;
'In April 13, 1950, a message from the U.S. High Commission in Germany (HICOG), signed by John McCloy to the Secretary of State, clarified the US position on the 'Baltic Legions:' they were not to be seen as 'movements,' 'volunteer,' or 'SS.' In short, they had not been given the training, indoctrination, and induction normally given to SS members. Subsequently the US Displaced Persons Commission in September 1950 declared that:
The Baltic Waffen SS Units (Baltic Legions) are to be considered as separate and distinct in purpose, ideology, activities, and qualifications for membership from the German SS, and therefore the Commission holds them not to be a movement hostile to the Government of the United States.'
So stop nagging about people, you never know, so you can just follow the mainstream and damn everything without thinking. You know what, your behaviour is the same the Nazis required for their evil system, to damn everything, because the maisntream said.
page: 1
Ana Casian LakosMar 15th, 2007 - 05:44:09
The anti-semitism is disgusting. Latvia should be ashamed of itself for perpetuating it. It's apalling.
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