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Hundreds of Waffen-SS veterans march in Riga, antifascists ‘sanitize’ square after them
RT,
16
March, 2015
Up
to a thousand Nazi Waffen-SS veterans and their supporters have
marched through Latvia’s capital, Riga, in their annual
commemorating procession. In response, Latvian anti-fascists came out
to “clean up” the route.
The
march of the SS veterans started in Vecriga, in Riga’s old town, at
11:00 local time Monday after a religious service. The participants,
holding the national flags of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, walked
through the city to the Monument of Freedom, where they lay flowers.
Many veterans wore uniforms of the legion and pre-war uniforms.
The
use of Nazi and Soviet symbols was forbidden in the parade and the
participants were not allowed to veil faces.
The
annual march causes controversy among various social groups.
Anti-fascist and Jewish organizations, such as the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, believe such rallies glorify Nazism.
“These
people fought for the victory of the Third Reich, the most genocidal
regime in human history,” Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, told RT in Riga. “Among the
people who served in Latvian SS Legion there were those who
previously served in area commando, Latvian security police, actively
involved in mass murder of Latvian Jews and Jews brought to Latvia to
be murdered.”
Zuroff
says the participants of the march are often associated with the
fight for Latvia’s independence.
“Here
they try to create the impression that these people helped bring
about independent Latvia,” he said. “There is a direct line from
fighting the military service to independent Latvia today. But
nothing can be farther from the truth because Nazi Germany had
absolutely no intention to give Latvia independence. That is only
because the Nazi Germany lost the war that today there is independent
democratic Latvia.”
Numerous
policemen were present at the march and also a private security
agency’s employees as the authorities expected confrontations with
local anti-fascist organizations. Latvian Interior Minister Rihard
Kozlovskis had earlier called on the residents to stay away from the
city center unless absolutely necessary.
The US Embassy in Latvia
also recommended its citizens to pay more attention to security.
Anti-fascist
activists staged a protest, wearing white overalls and pretending to
“disinfect” the area from the “Nazi disease,” cleaning and
washing the pavement near the Freedom Monument. Other participants
displayed photos from concentration camps in Latvia.
Ex-Nazi collaborators equating USSR with fascists to whitewash own sins – Jewish intl. organization
Russia
has condemned the holding of the Nazi veterans’ march as a
violation of international law.
“This
is a direct contradiction against the ruling of the Nuremberg
Trials,” Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's human
rights ombudsman, told the lower house of parliament, the State Duma,
in Moscow.
The
Latvian legion of the Waffen-SS consisted of almost 150,000 Latvians
and was split into two divisions. The legion was created in 1943 on
the orders of Adolf Hitler. In March of the same year, the legion was
already battling the Soviet Red Army near the town of Pskov. It was
among the last of the Nazi forces to surrender in 1945.
The
Waffen-SS march has been held annually on March 16 since 1998,
although it is not an official holiday. Latvia’s national day of
remembrance for war heroes is on November 11.
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