Riga has hosted a march commemorating Latvians who fought in Hitler’s Waffen SS during WWII.
Hundreds of people marched in the Latvian capital Riga on Monday to commemorate Latvians who served in a Waffen SS unit for Nazi Germany during World War II.
While the country’s law bans the public display of Nazi symbols and glorification of Nazism, the annual march is permitted to proceed under the pretext of freedom of expression. At the same time, celebrations of the Soviet Union’s WW2 victory over Nazi Germany have been outlawed since 2022.
The unofficial Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires, held on March 16, honours two divisions raised by Adolf Hitler to fight the Soviet Union’s Red Army as it pushed through the Baltics and to Berlin in 1944.
It has been held in the EU country annually since the 1990s. The event has been condemned by Moscow but largely overlooked by Brussels.
Some 200 people took part in the heavily policed event on Monday, according to local media. Participants carried the national flags of Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine, and laid flowers at the foot of Riga’s Freedom Monument. The gathering included several Latvian officials and representatives from veteran organizations in Spain and Slovakia.
Critics argue that honoring a Waffen SS unit amounts to a glorification of Nazism. Of some 93,000 Jews who lived in Latvia before the German invasion in 1941, an estimated 70,000 were killed, according to the European Jewish Congress.
Latvian authorities argue that while the legion did, in fact, technically fight on Hitler’s side, they were fighting for the country’s independence and to prevent the return of Soviet occupation. The Latvian SS was among the last of the Nazi forces to surrender in 1945.
While allowing commemorations of Nazi collaborators to continue, in 2022 Latvia restricted gatherings at Soviet-era monuments and banned symbols linked to the USSR’s World War II victory. It also mandated dismantling such memorials, leading to the removal of Riga’s Soviet Victory Monument, despite prior protection under a 1994 agreement with Russia.
For a history of the Latvian Legion:
https://rumble.com/v71yive-the-complete-history-of-the-latvian-legion-latvian-ss.html?e9s=src_v1_cmd%2Csrc_v1_upp_a
Can we stop using the Nazi slur please, the Germans never used it and it was invented by a Marxist Jew as an insult to the National Socialists.
Thank you Keith, you point to a serious lack of understanding in many individuals using that ‘nazi’ slur adage.
One has to comprehend the real history and has to distinguish between aspects of war versus the ‘idea’, which was opposed by the very core of the onjon that is dictating the Iran war now.
https://archive.org/details/the-greatest-story-never-told_202407/01_The+Greatest+Story+Never+Told.mp4
A lecture in perspective. The best 6 hrs ever spent for comprehension of history.
History is a complex beast. I understand where the Latvians are coming from, as they were forcibly absorbed into the USSR. Not a pleasant place to be under Joseph Stalin, although it improved in latter years. As for the Waffen SS, I can see why they would sign up but wonder what this means today?
If its promoting Fascism, even after the nations true liberation in 1991 I would say they need to take a hard look at who and what they want to be. Do they want the kind of society will are seeing emerging in the UK, Germany, France, Australia and Canada? The denial of genuine free speech, freedom of expression, the right to privacy, enhanced censorship, digital ID’s (often by proxy), social media bans and warped medical discrimination and potentially forced or coerced medical treatments? All hallmarks of fascism.
Same as Ukraine.