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The Latvian Legion

When the German Blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union started on 22 June 1941, the Nazis were hoping to win the war within a very short time on their own. However, as the fighting became more and more difficult, German troops were illegally, under the guise of "volunteering", reinforced with inhabitants of the occupied countries, including Latvia.

Having experienced Soviet atrocities, which included mass arrests, deportations and executions, many Latvians at first viewed the new occupiers as liberators, and in the early days of the German occupation, some Latvians actually volunteered to fight the Communists. As early as 1942, however, "volunteering" became a cover for illegal conscription to avoid coming into direct conflict with the 1907 Hague Convention. Conscription usually was carried out by using the cover of the Labour Service (Arbeitsdienst), which was established by German decree on 17 December 1941.

The first battalions, consisting of real volunteers, were formed for military duty in late 1941. The Germans did not consider them equal to their armed forces and called them "auxiliary police" (Schutzmannschaft). Most of them, served as combat units, but some were used to carry out raids against Red guerrillas and to perform ghetto guard duties. By 1944, the occupation power, with the collaboration of the Self-Administration, had formed a total of 33 auxiliary police battalions.

Many Latvians served in other capacities as well: in the paramilitary State Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst), construction and other auxiliary services. Toward the end of the war, minors were recruited to serve as German Air Force auxiliaries (Luftwaffenhelfer).

After the debacle at Stalingrad at the end of January 1943, Hitler announced "total war" and formed a number of foreign combat units under the aegis of Waffen SS. On 10 February 1943 he ordered the formation of the "Latvian SS Volunteer Legion," "the size and kind of the unit to be determined by the number of Latvian men available."

Members of the Self-Administration saw in the Latvian Legion a chance for the formation of potentially autonomous military units that might become the core of a future independent Latvian army. They submitted to the German authorities a set of preconditions, including a promise to restore the independence of Latvia. Despite a rejection, the Self-Administration proceeded with the mobilisation.

A propaganda campaign was unleashed shaming and condemning draft evaders and proclaiming that enlistment to fight Bolshevism was a Latvian patriotic duty. Threats were made against draft evaders and their families. Actually, most men who were drafted were convinced that they were fighting to protect their homeland against the worst of their two historic enemies. Unlike those enlisting in German forces in countries where only Germany was the enemy, for Latvians the only alternatives to serving the Germans were potential enlistment into the army of the other enemy upon its return or joining the national partisans. Some 60,000 were actually enlisted by the Red Army upon the return of Soviet occupation.

Despite its title, the Latvian Legion was neither real "SS" nor "volunteer". It had no connection with Hitler's purely Germanic elite guard unit, which the post-war International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg declared, along with the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) and the Gestapo, to be a criminal organisation. The Nuremberg Tribunal recognised the Waffen SS to be military combat units. By 1943, threats and coercion had to be applied when it became clear that the numbers of draftees did not reach the "number of men available." It is estimated that only some 15% of the soldiers were true volunteers. Especially toward the end of the war, draft evasion and desertion became commonplace.

The Legion at first incorporated several auxiliary police battalions, eventually augmented by conscripts. Its core consisted of two divisions, the 15th and the 19th, but they did not fight as a unit, and their top commanders were Germans. Only unit commanders were Latvians. The highest Legion military post was that of the Inspector General, but it was not part of the German command structure and thus had only limited functions. General Rudolfs Bangerskis was appointed to fill this post, and he was the only Latvian officer who was given an official SS rank, though it is clear that the Germans only intended this as a temporary measure for the duration of the war.

According to most recent calculations, approximately 115,000 inhabitants of Latvia served in various units and capacities in German military service in World War II. Casualties were high, especially in latter stages of the war when ill-equipped and purely trained young conscripts were sent to the front. Most legionnaires and other Latvian military units ended up fighting the Red Army on the eastern front in Poland and Germany in 1945.

At the time of Germany's capitulation, approximately 30,000 Latvian soldiers became prisoners of war of the Western Allies. Documentation provided by Latvian organisations convinced the Allies that Latvian legionnaires had to be considered citizens of independent Latvia and illegally conscripted military personnel. Therefore, despite Soviet protests, they were released and eventually allowed to emigrate to Great Britain, the USA and other Western countries. Many served as labour and guard auxiliaries for the U.S. and British forces in Germany. Legionnaires captured by the Soviets were sent to hard labor camps before their release and were discriminated against after their return to Latvia throughout Soviet rule.

The dispute over the role and importance of two divisions of Waffen SS known as the “Latvian Legion” probably has been the most intense and still is one of the most divisive factors in Latvian society. A total of 140,000 people were called up to form the Latvian Legion and about 50,000 of them died in the war or deportations following the restoration of Soviet rule in Latvia. In 1950 Washington published a declaration about Baltic SS legions having being special units to be distinguished from other German SS troops and not regarded as movements harmful to the United States government. The Latvian Foreign Ministry has said that the forming of the Latvian SS Legion was a crime of the Nazi regime, because the 1907 Hague Convention forbids drafting residents of occupied territories into armed forces. To bypass the convention, the Nazis labeled the legionnaires as "volunteers". Those who avoided the service in the Legion, however, risked being jailed or even executed. The Latvian Legion was a combat unit and one third of its men died in action.

The Latvian Legion was established in February 1943, but March 16 was picked as the commemoration date because on this date in 1944 the 15th and 19th divisions of the legion locked in a fierce battle with the Soviet Army at the Velikaya River in Opochka region in Russia. A mass meeting cum demonstration devoted to the anniversary of the creation of fascist Germany's SS [Schutzstaffel] Latvian Legion was held on 16 March 1991 at the Riga Communal Cemetery. An organizer of this meeting was the board of the Latvian Republic branch of the Daugavas Vanagi international emigre military-political organization, which was formed in 1945 in Belgium by former servicemen of the SS Latvian Legion who had not become reconciled to defeat in the Great Patriotic War and who had not abandoned possible revenge.

Former SS Latvian legionnaires, members of the Daugavas Vanagi organization, participants in the police battalions and reconnaissance and punitive services of fascist Germany, former members of gangster terrorist formations and other persons who had in the past acted on the side of fascist Germany with weapon in hand took part in the mass meeting.

Under the leadership of the SD [Sicherheitsdienst] police, formations of the Ayzsargi military-fascist organization torched inhabitants of the village of Audrini in Rezeknenskiy District, and hostages taken from the village were publicly executed in the city's market square. The bloody punitive expeditions of the Latvian police battalions carried out against Belorussian and Russian partisans left behind them thousands of peaceful citizens killed and villages burned. The traces of their outrages live on in the peoples' memory.

Gangster-terrorist and sabotage formations were organized on occupied Latvian SSR territory in 1944-1945 under the leadership and control of German-fascist reconnaissance and punitive organs for reconnaissance and subversion and terrorist activity both in the rear of the Soviet Army and against the peaceful population of the republic. The appropriate secret arms and explosives caches were created for them.

The Latvian People's Front's newspaper ATMODA for 13 March 1991 published the article "Crown of Glory and Pain" and also photos of SS Latvian legionnaires on parade under the command of the infamous General Bangerskiy, executant of Hitler's wishes in Latvia. This article attempted to rehabilitate and promote "heroes" and "martyrs" of the avowed supporters of fascism.

"Latvians were willing collaborators of the Nazis" is an old Soviet accusation in the wake of World War II when the Soviet Union reoccupied Latvia. Though there were Latvians who collaborated with the Nazi German rulers, most of the people were placing their hopes on the Western Allies and a fair post-war settlement that would restore Latvia's sovereignty. Historically, Latvians considered the Germans as their enemies, and only the brutal first Soviet occupation changed that view for a while. For good reasons the Nazis distrusted the Latvians and eventually planned to colonise the country.

"Latvians are honoring the SS". Latvians are honoring soldiers who fought against the Soviet Union in World War II. Most of them were illegal recruits under German occupation. Under occupation, they had no choice to serve in the armed forces of their own sovereign state. Members of the Latvian Legion, though carrying the German-imposed designation "SS", served as combat soldiers and did not engage in crimes against the humanity. There never was and could not be a Latvian branch of Hitler's criminal, Germans-only SS. Crimes against the humanity on the German side, including crimes of the Holocaust, were carried out by Latvian auxiliaries of the Nazi SD (Sicherheitsdienst) and some auxiliary police units. Some of them later became legionnaires, but that does not make all legionnaires guilty by association. Many of these individuals have been prosecuted and brought to justice. Many have died. The Latvian government condemns such crimes and will bring charges against surviving perpetrators.

There is a tendency to equate legionnaires with German police units from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and should be considered wrong. Furthermore, the Russian media reinforced the blurred image of “Latvian formations” that took part in so-called punishment operations.