"Polygon for massacres": published documents on the atrocities of the Latvian accomplices of the SS during the Great Patriotic War

The Center for Public Relations of the FSB of Russia published archival documents about the atrocities of Latvian nationalists during the Great Patriotic War.

As noted in the special service, the materials of the Central Archive of the department were made public against the backdrop of recent "aggressive Nazi manifestations" in the Baltic Republic.

These include the demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators, a ban on celebrating Victory Day, criminal prosecution of citizens for trying to honor the feat of the Red Army, and "rabid Russophobia."

“One of the countries that have been actively reviving Nazism over the past three decades is Latvia, whose leadership honors the “veterans” of the Latvian SS Legion and other criminal armed collaborator groups that hold their parades every year, and at the same time forbids citizens from celebrating May 9, Victory Day, ”- according to a message on the FSB website.

"Latvian executioners"

It follows from the documents of the Central Archive of the FSB that after the occupation of Latvia in the summer of 1941, local collaborators willingly went to the service of the invaders, whose plans included the killing of prisoners of war and civilians, especially the Jewish population.

The first punitive formation of the Latvian "volunteers" was the so-called Arajs team.

It acted as a unit of the "Latvian Auxiliary Police".

This detachment received its name by the name of the leader - Viktor Arais, who in 1942 earned the title of SS Sturmbannfuehrer for his faithful service to the invaders.

As noted in an interview with RT, historian, associate professor of GAUGN Dmitry Surzhik, the Arais team became the main tool for "carrying out the Nazi genocide" by the hands of Latvian collaborators.

“Arajs often independently ordered the arrest of Jews and personally tortured them.

This punisher also tried to cash in on them.

He demanded a bribe from the Jews in exchange for freedom, but, having received it, he still killed the unfortunate, ”Surzhik said.

Arais' wards smashed the Riga synagogues, fought partisans, participated in the genocide of Soviet citizens and guarded the Salaspils concentration camp, the largest of the 23 death factories created by the Nazis in Latvia.

Salaspils was built in October 1941, 18 km from Riga.

It was built at the expense of the inhuman exploitation of the Jews.

Many of those who were involved in the work died of hunger and overwork.

• Minutes of the interrogation of a member of the "Arajs team", SS Untersturmführer Talivaldis Ozols of December 9, 1944

• © fsb.ru

The camp was used to kill Jews deported from Germany.

Also families of peasants from Belarus, Pskov and Leningrad regions were delivered there.

Able-bodied Soviet citizens were sent to work in Germany, and their children were left in a concentration camp.

Up to 12 thousand children passed through Salaspils, about 7 thousand of them died a martyr's death.

In addition to the subordinates of Viktor Arais, members of the Latvian SS Volunteer Legion, units of Mārtiņš Vagulans, Herbert Teidemanis and other collaborationist formations dealt with the civilian population on a regular basis.

Latvian nationalists showed such zeal for massacres that even the Germans themselves spoke of the loss of “human appearance” by the Latvian executioners, according to archival documents.

The exact number of people tortured in occupied Latvia is unknown.

However, after the war, Soviet investigators found burial sites with the remains of about 300,000 people on the territory of the Baltic republic, according to the FSB materials.

The Nazis were on hand off scale bloodthirstiness of local collaborators.

According to the Center for Public Relations of the FSB of Russia, the Germans deliberately turned Latvia into a "testing ground for massacres."

Thus, the Nazis tried to hide their own responsibility for monstrous crimes.

“This colossal number (about 300 thousand killed. -

) is also explained by the fact that, having appreciated the zeal of the Latvian executioners, the Germans began to bring Jews here from other European countries to be killed, thus hiding their bloody crimes before the “civilized West”, - said the secret service.

"Total extermination"

The inhuman nature of the activities of the Latvian nationalists is clearly reflected in the interrogation of the member of the Arajs team, SS Untersturmführer Talivaldis Ozols, published by the FSB.

He said that in April 1942, in the Bikernieki Forest, together with his wards, he killed at least 7 thousand people, including the elderly, women and teenagers.

In addition, the collaborator admitted that he even killed infants.

“I carried out the orders of the Germans, and infants were also shot,” Ozols said during interrogation on December 9, 1944.

• Stalag 347 concentration camp in the Latvian city of Rezekne, where more than 40 thousand people were killed

• RIA News

• © Vasily Savransky

As follows from the testimony of Hitler's accomplice, the Germans used the services of the Latvian executioners not only in the Baltic country.

The punishers cracked down on defenseless people in Belarus as well.

Basically they killed Jews.

“I admit that the people we exterminated were completely innocent of anything, but by order of the German authorities, such a nationality as Jewish was subject to total extermination, and I carried out the orders of the Germans, and I recognize this as a grave crime,” Ozols said.

Another Nazi accomplice, a graduate of the Fürstenberg SD school (Security Service of the Reichsführer SS), Indriks Krumins, spoke during interrogation on August 9, 1945 about the massacres of prisoners of the Minsk ghetto.

Old men, women and children also became victims of the executioners.

According to him, people were "pushed into gas-fired gas-fired vehicles."

“I personally participated in the expulsion (of people. -

) from houses, and also pushed Jews into gas chambers.

Gas cars continuously left after being loaded into the forest and returned back for new batches (prisoners. -

) ... On this day, the operation was carried out before sunset, and approximately 10 thousand Soviet citizens were killed, ”Krumins told the investigation.

Another professional executioner among the Latvian collaborators was Albert Konrads.

In excerpts from the interrogation published by the FSB, he said that he was instructed to exterminate the Jews driven into the Minsk ghetto.

“We took Jews from apartments, drove them with their whole families to the square, here, to the “ghetto”, and then sent them on trucks to the place of execution,” Konrads said during interrogation on December 25, 1944.

If in the apartments of the Minsk ghetto the executioners found frail old people and sick people unable to move independently, then they were killed right in their beds.

• Minutes of the interrogation of collaborator Albert Conrads, December 25, 1944

• © fsb.ru

The Center for Public Relations of the FSB drew attention to the fact that not all Latvian executioners were punished for their heinous crimes.

For example, in 1945, SS Obersturmführer Karlis Ozols

was able to escape to the western zone of occupation of Germany, and then settle in Australia.

The authorities of this country were aware of the identity of the collaborator, but still granted him citizenship in 1956.

The SS officer was a talented chess player, and the Australians turned a blind eye to the Nazi past in order to attract him to the national team.

In Australia, the executioner lived safely to the age of 88.

"Faithful Servants"

According to experts interviewed by RT, during the occupation period, a significant part of Latvian nationalists participated in repressions against the civilian population.

At the same time, the executioners realized that they were killing innocent people.

“Back in the 1930s, Judeophobic sentiments began to flourish in Latvia.

After the occupation of the republic, it was not difficult for the Germans to find sadists who were ready to mock and deal with Jews, ”explained Dmitry Surzhik.

• Extract from the protocol of interrogation of Indriks Krumins dated August 9, 1945

• © fsb.ru

As Nikolai Mezhevich, president of the Association of Baltic Studies, stated in a RT commentary, the available archival documents allow us to conclude that the Latvian nationalists "hurried to proudly report" the results of the massacres of civilians.

At the same time, despite the numerous facts of nationalist atrocities, the Latvian authorities have been consistently planting a cult of accomplices of Nazi Germany for the past 30 years, Mezhevich stated.

“The Germans found many loyal servants in occupied Latvia, but it is important to recall that many Latvians joined the Red Army.

These are the real heroes of Latvia.

However, the memory of them is being actively erased by the imposition of the cult of nationalists and the demolition of monuments to real liberators,” Mezhevich summed up.