Riga (dpa) - Almost 70 years after the end of World War II,
a controversial monument to local Waffen-SS troops in Latvia
has increased tensions between Russia and the Baltic state.
Russia sees the memorial, which was unveiled recently in Bauska, as a glorification
of the German Nazis. But Riga honours the fighters, known
as Legionnaires, as heroes who fought for Latvia‘s independence.
This is not the first time that the
Baltic state has been accused of promoting neo-fascist activities.
And the Russian Foreign Ministry is not the only one to get
annoyed.
"There have been attempts
again and again to glorify former SS soldiers," says Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem, who believes
Latvia is trying to disguise the role of its citizens in
the Holocaust.
"Not a single collaborator
has ever been hunted down or punished," he says.
Latvia is regularly accused in the
centre‘s annual report of failing to hold Holocaust perpetrators
accountable, primarily due to what it argues is a lack of
political will.
Latvia‘s role in World War II has
also led to conflict with Russia. Moscow sees Latvians as
willing collaborators who cheerfully welcomed the German
Wehrmacht into the country after Hitler‘s attack on the Soviet
Union, and who took part in the mass murder of Jews.
Historian Karlis Kangeris does not
dispute that many people living in the Baltic states were
happy when the Wehrmacht drove back the Red Army in 1941
and were also willing to sign up to the military.
"Many Latvians saw Stalin‘s
Soviet Union as a greater threat than Nazi Germany," he explains.
This view is shared in neighbouring
Estonia, where the removal in 2007 of a Red Army war memorial
in the capital, Tallinn, led to protests by the country‘s
large Russian minority.
Germany‘s capitulation in 1945 did
not mean liberation for the Baltic states, but rather the
beginning of what many consider a Soviet occupation that
involved the mass resettlement of hundreds of thousands of
Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians.
The authorities in Riga argue that
the more than 100,000 conscripts in the Latvian Legion, a
formation of the Waffen SS, fought only the Soviet Union,
which had previously occupied and annexed Latvia. The authorities
say the conscripts were not responsible for the Holocaust.
However, the Latvian Auxiliary Police
were involved in the mass murder of Jews. Its members included
many Latvians who turned Jews into scapegoats for Soviet
crimes and later joined the legion.
The traumatic events of World War
II for the Baltic states can be studied in the Occupation
Museum in Riga, where a copy of the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact
hangs behind glass.
The pact carved up Eastern Europe
between the two powers. Its consequences sealed the destiny
of the three Baltic states for the next 50 years.
Its aftermath is still felt today
in the EU and NATO members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,
where the integration of substantial Russian minorities remains
unsolved.
Experts do not see relations between
the Baltic states and Russia improving in the foreseeable
future.
One reason for this is how history
is remembered by both sides in Riga. While former soldiers
of the Red Army traditionally march on May 9 to celebrate "Victory Day," Latvian SS veterans parade on "Latvian Legion Day" on March 16. The events never fail to stir controversy.
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