I thank you for printing Mark Ames’ “Bush's Bitburg?” (Nation, May 23), for now, once and forever, the readers of The Nation can see what unadulterated Soviet propaganda was, and what kind of hostile fiction the nations caught in between the Soviet and Nazi millstones had to put up with. If the hyperboles do not fly from Berlin they fly from Moscow. The two imperial powers of the past century disagreed on many things but, judging from their writings, they agreed that the disarmed and occupied people between Germany and Russia were the real criminals, worse than Cheka or Gestapo men. Of the potpourri that the article contains, I want to touch upon three points: the Holocaust in Latvia, Latvians in World War II, and the Latvian SS Legion.

The Holocaust in Latvia

The major problem about the Holocaust in Latvia is that there is more than one version of it. The earliest and first, and in a way the most trustworthy one, was the secret report of October 15, 1941 that Brigadeführer Walter Stahlecker, the leader of the Einsatzgruppe A, sent to the RASHA office in Berlin. For those who do not know, Stahlecker was the SD leader in charge of the killing operations in the Baltics. This was a version that served to convict numerous Germans at Nuremberg and later trials.

The second version, which is similar to the first one, is the one accumulated after the war by West German courts. As pertaining to Latvia the most important cases are those of Arajs and Jahnke tried by the Hamburg judiciary and that of Graul tried in Hannover.

The third version is contained in a variety of Soviet investigations that include the work of the Extraordinary Commission and numerous trials held by NKVD/KGB and SMERSH officials. These cases were not particularly well researched and the sentences frequently were inconsistent and capricious, yet the trials most of the time were based on factual information and real, even if biased, interrogations. 

The fourth version is what the Nazi public relations crew produced as the killing of the Jews was happening. This information was intended for domestic and foreign consumption, and Hitler himself was involved in proclaiming. (See my article “Neighbors did not kill Jews”: http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/ezergail/ [now available here]).

The fifth version is what Jewish survivors have accumulated. Among these the most influential memoirs has been the work by Max Kaufmann, Die vernichtungs der Juden Lettlands (1946). This genre is characteristic more for the pain they communicate than factual information they convey. In no court  of law anybody could be convicted on the skeletal information they contain.

The sixth version is contained in Soviet Show trials and propaganda literature. Among the show trials we can name the ones of 18th and the 21st Schutzmannschaft Battalions, and the Maikovskis case, of which the final act was played out in Mūnster Germany during  the 1990s. As Mark Ames’ rendering of the Latvian role in the Holocaust, this genre is ninety  percent fiction.

Today in Latvia all of the versions are on the table and none, considering ideological complexities of the past, can celebrate a victory. Under the auspices of the President of Latvia, a Commission of Historians, consisting of Latvians, Jews, and Germans has been convened to study this and other question of recent history. Hopefully the Commission will come up with the seventh and true version. If it was for me to decide, I would opt, as I did in my study, for the melding of the concepts and information from the first three prototypes.

Latvians in World War II

Did the Latvians have any special relationship with the Nazis as Ames infers? In truth during the course of the war. there were three Latvias. About the same number of Latvians served in the Nazi as in Soviet military forces. Both superpowers claimed that they served in their respective units as volunteers. In reality for most of them the service was coerced. The only true volunteers were those Latvians who fought for the cause of the Allies. The third Latvia consisted of Latvian diplomats and embassy employees, the official Latvians who still carried the seal of independent Latvia. Their effort consisted of appointing the Latvian merchant fleet to the service of the Allies and turning their embassies into intelligence gathering centers. Voldemars Salnais, the Ambassador to Sweden in effect became an OSS resident in Stockholm. During the course of the war he established contacts in German occupied Latvia that reached into all occupation, civilian and military agencies. Salnais reports are assembled in my book: Stockholm Documents. The German Occupation of Latvia. What did America Know? Salnais reports consisted of economic, cultural. political, and military information.

Latvian SS-Voluntary Legion

The question of the Latvian SS-Voluntary Legion has been on the US investigative agenda since the end of the war. [The] first time it arose regarding the status of the Legion’s veterans and their right to enter DP camps and their right to emigrate to the USA and other allied countries. An extensive inquiry by American and UNRRA officials followed which resulted in full rehabilitation of the Latvian Legionaries. The final absolution came in 1950 in a letter from the US Displaced Persons Commissioner Harry N. Rosenfield to the Latvian Ambassador in Washington Dr. J. Feldmanis. The following decision became the operative document that allowed for the Legionaries’ emigration to the USA.

Dr. J. Feldmanis
Charges d’Affaires of Latvia   
Latvian Legation
1346 Connecticut Avenue
Washington 6, DC.
September 12, 1950

Dear Dr. Feldmanis:

Please pardon the delayed acknowledgment of your letter of August 2, 1950. By now, of course, you know the decision of the Commission. It has approved the following motion:

“That the Baltic Waffen SS. Units (Baltic Legions) are to be considered as separate and distinct in purpose, ideology, activities, and qualifications for membership from the German SS, and therefore the Commission holds them not to be a movement hostile to the Government of the United Stated under Section 13 of the Displaced Persons Act, as amended.”

Sincerely yours,

Harry N. Rosenfield

Commissioner

Since 1950 nothing has happened, or new information has emerged, that has necessitated the US government to mend it or countermand this decision. In the world-wide search for Nazi war criminals that has ensued since the time, no Legion’s veteran has been accused for any crime committed during the service in the Legion. The Soviet treatment of the Legionaries was quite different, but that is another story.

Andrew Ezergailis, Prof.
Author of The Holocaust in Latvia
 

Additional Reading

Ames' original article and additional rebuttals are available on the web.

• Bush’s Bitburg | The Nation — Mark Ames' article on The Nation's website (originally published May 23, 2005)
• The Case for Latvia: Disinformation Campaigns Against a Small Nation (Rodipi, 2008) — Jukka Rislakki notes that, as far as he is aware, The Nation never published any rebuttals to Ames' piece, nor any corrections to his misstatements. Rislakki rebukes Ames' "tirade" starting at page 40 of his book.

Ames has been a frequent contributor on Russian state media's cable TV outlet, RT (formerly "Russia Today") since its founding in December, 2005, including hosting a popular travel series, The Wayfarer. Ames also continues to be a regular editorial contributor to The Nation. We have found no mention of Prof. Ezergailis or his letter on The Nation's web site.