The authorities of the Latvian town of Bauska, located to
the south of Riga, unveiled a monument to three battalions
of the Latvian legion of Waffen SS punitive police, RBC
reports. The inscription on the monument says that the
monument is dedicated to "Bauska's
Defenders Against the Second Soviet Occupation." It also says that "Latvia is for Latvians."
According to Vesti, it became the first monument to punitive police in the Baltic
states. Nazis used the battalions to exterminate hundreds
of civilians in the Pskov region of Russia, in the Brest
region of Belarus, as well as near Dnepropetrovsk.
Local human rights activists from
the Association Against Nazism has already demanded the monument
should be either dismantled or move to a cemetery. Representatives
of the organization said that official authorities should
not allow the glorification of Nazism.
"The Association Against
Nazim believes that the monument should be removed or moved
to the Waffen SS Cemetery, while Bauska mayor Valdis Veips
should resign and apologize to the people who suffered from
the atrocities of Nazism in Latvia," the head of the organization said.
According to him, the Association
will address the Minister for Regional Development and Environment
Protection of Latvia, Edmunds Sprudzs, seeking the mayor's
resignation, said Rosbalt.
The Latvian SS Legion was created
in 1943 in the Nazi-occupied Latvia. Its members took part
in punitive operations against partisans and civilians. The
majority of legionaries were killed or captivated by Soviet
troops during the war.
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