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SHALOM
Estonia
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It is very rare, if
not unprecedented, for an American ambassador to write an op-ed
piece in a local newspaper severely criticizing the country he
is serving in for failing to take sufficient measures to prosecute
local Nazi war criminals, but that is precisely what Joseph De
Thomas, U.S. ambassador to Estonia, did in late May this year.
In a pointed op-ed piece which appeared on May 28 in the Estonian
daily Eesti Paevaleht, Ambassador De Thomas took his host country
to task for its failure to adequately deal with three major issues
relating to the Holocaust and suggested the following practical
steps to help remedy the situation. In his words, Estonia had
to “Do justice where justice is needed,” i.e. take
a proactive stance on the prosecution of Estonian Nazi war criminals,
not a single one of whom had been brought to trial since Estonia
obtained its independence from the Soviet Union (as opposed to
Communist criminals many of whom have been brought to trial); “Recognize
the Holocaust is part of Estonia’s history,” i.e.
observe Yom Hashoa in a dignified and significant manner and
mark all the sites in the country in which the crimes of the
Holocaust were committed; and “Teach our children about
the past,” i.e. make sure that the subject of the Holocaust
is adequately covered in Estonian textbooks, which as far as
Ambassador De Thomas understood is not currently the case. more...
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A Brief Summary
of the History of the Holocaust in Estonia
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Prior to World War II,
4,500 Jews lived in Estonia half in the capital of Tallinn and
the rest primarily in Tartu, Valga, Parnu, Narva, Giljandi, Rakevere,
Voru and Nomme. In June 1940, the country was occupied by the
Soviets who in mid-June 1941 deported some ten thousand Estonians,
among them close to 500 Jews, to Siberia. more
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