From THE JERUSALEM POST, Aug. 22, 2009, by EFRAIM ZUROFF, Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center:
...Estonia, the smallest of the Baltic republics ...suffered German and Soviet occupations... the Nazis being regarded as the by-far lesser of the two evils and the Soviets considered the arch-villains.
Thus late last month ...Estonia hosted its annual reunion of Waffen-SS veterans at Sinimäe, the site of one of the fiercest battles fought by the 20th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division (also known as the First Estonian Division) against the Soviets in the latter stages of World War II.
SS veterans from other European countries, in which such gatherings are illegal, were only too happy to join in the festivities ...foreign SS veterans who came to the reunion, as well as younger persons sympathetic to them, were welcome guests in Estonia.
Foreign and even local anti-fascists who sought to demonstrate against the reunion, on the other hand, were treated very harshly ...protesters from Finland and Latvia were declared persona non grata and expelled from Estonia, whereas local anti-fascists were arrested when they sought to protest in concentration camp garb, while others were detained for no reason to make sure that they would not be able to register their legitimate protest.
The annual SS veterans reunion is only the tip of the iceberg of sympathy for these men who are considered fighters for Estonian independence even though the victory they sought to achieve was for Nazi Germany, which had no intention of granting them sovereignty. ....
DURING MY visit, I encountered several additional examples of the Estonians' reversal of conventional historical wisdom about World War II. The most famous, and the incident which sparked violent riots in Tallinn in the spring of 2007, was the removal of a monument honoring the Soviet soldiers who liberated the country from the yoke of the Nazi occupation, from its central location in the capital to a military cemetery on the outskirts of the city.
Besides grievously insulting the large Russian minority which views the Soviet troops as heroes who achieved a vital victory in the fight against Nazism, the removal of the statue was also a painful blow to the Estonian Jewish community, whose annihilation in 1941 was orchestrated by the Nazis and their Estonian collaborators. Having visited both the monument's original location opposite the national library and its new site, it is clear that Estonians prefer not be reminded that their current narrative is a distortion of the historical events of World War II.
I encountered another blatant example of the rewriting of Estonian history at the Maarjamae memorial ground, dedicated to "the units participating in the 1944 defensive battles in Estonia." It was bad enough to see large plaques commemorating the infamous SS Viking Division and other European Waffen-SS units, but the most shocking and infuriating sight was a marker in honor of the Omakaitse, a paramilitary self-defense organization which played a very active role in the arrest and murder of numerous Jews and communists in 1941. Among its more notorious commanders was the mass murderer and rapist Evald Mikson, who commanded the unit in Vonnu and whom the Wiesenthal Center exposed living in Iceland in 1991.
TODAY WILL be marked in Estonia as a day of remembrance for the victims of totalitarian regimes. This ostensibly innocuous initiative to commemorate Nazi and communist victims together is actually just a first step towards obtaining official recognition that communism and Nazism were equally evil, a major step toward undermining the current status of the Shoah as a unique tragedy and one which will help deflect attention and criticism from the Estonians' distortion of history and failure to face their Holocaust past. (They have since independence, failed to prosecute a single Estonian Holocaust perpetrator, while bringing to trial numerous communist criminals.)
On the surface, it would be poor manners for our ambassador to be absent from the ceremonies, as if we are oblivious to Estonian suffering under the communists, but as long as Estonia and the other Baltic countries insist on rewriting history and relativizing Nazi crimes, Israel must make it unequivocally clear that we will not support such initiatives.
29 comments:
Estonia, the smallest of the Baltic republics ...suffered German and Soviet occupations... the Nazis being regarded as the by-far lesser of the two evils and the Soviets considered the arch-villains
BS. Saying that one is as bad as the others is not saying that the other is "by-far lesser of the two evils". No murder is more justified than another. Ironically it is You who is expressing that kind of view.
Dear "Anonymous"
I posted this excerpt from an article by Efraim Zuroff, because I agree with him that it is horrendous that Nazis are lauded as "heroes" in Estonia. There is no implication in the article, nor do I believe, that either Soviet or Nazi totalitariansim is preferable to the other. They are both despicable.
What are you trying to say? Do you agree with the Estonians holding an annual reunion of Waffen-SS veterans at Sinimäe, or not?
I agree with him that it is horrendous that Nazis are lauded as "heroes" in Estonia
First of all - nazis are not lauded as heroes (nor even "heroes") in Estonia. Your lack of knowledge in this matter is only surpassed by Your apparent unwillingness to dig deeper into this topic that at the first glance seems to be so clear. Accusing one nation and nationality of nazism is not something that should be done so hastily.
My intent is not to insult You, however the article written by Zuroff is not only extrapolating some facts to areas where they don’t belong but interpreting them clearly out of the context.
With all due respect but do You really think that if this kind of approach and interpretation of history that Zuroff is imputing to Estonians were to be true, EU member states like Germany or France would keep quiet about it?
I would recommend You to read the publications of Estonian Jewish Center or at least the entry on Estonia in Jewish Virtual library to get the Jewish of view of the historical and contemporary attitudes toward any kind of Nazism or/and anti semitism in Estonia.
Anonymous
Thank you for the references to Jewish Virtual Library (JVL) and to the Estonia Jewish Center (EJC).
From JVL I learn that:
"During the 1930s, a Fascist movement was formed in Estonia which launched an antisemitic propaganda campaign. The hardening anti-Jewish attitude was reflected in the decrease of the number of students at the University of Tartu, from 188 in 1926 to 96 in 1934."
(JVL continues)"After the annexation of Estonia to the Soviet Union in 1940, the Jewish institutions were liquidated and the political and social organizations disbanded. On the eve of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, some 500 communal leaders and affluent members of the congregation were arrested and deported to the Russian interior."
From the EJC, I see that Chabad is active in trying to revitalise Jewish life was destroyed in Europe by the Nazis and their collaborators.
So far, I find nothing the suggest that I should be relaxed about the fact that Estonia hosts an annual reunion of Waffen-SS veterans at Sinimäe.
Perhaps you are suggesting that the Stalinist USSR was a horrific regime, and the fact that it ultimately helped defeat the Nazis should not exonerate them from our revulsion. I agree with that. In fact, Stalin's worthy political progeny, Putin, is still actively brutalising Russia's neighbours...
So, thanks for your comments, but I'm still not sure what your point is. Yopu also haven't answered my original question to you: Do you agree with the Estonians holding an annual reunion of Waffen-SS veterans at Sinimäe, or not?
Also see http://www.antisemitism.org.il/eng/search/?country=23&id_category=®ion=
"During the 1930s, a Fascist movement was formed in Estonia which launched an antisemitic propaganda campaign. The hardening anti-Jewish attitude was reflected in the decrease of the number of students at the University of Tartu, from 188 in 1926 to 96 in 1934."
This movement (vapsid) was reflecting the emerging tendencies in the Europe. Unlike in other European countries it had no real support, was quickly suppressed and leaders were jailed in 1934.
But I can see that you ignored all the information that was not negative and filtered out possibly the only negative aspect that concerns non-occupied Estonia (and Estonians).
Who not turn you attention to the following aspects:
1925 Estonian government passed a law pertaining to the cultural autonomy of minority peoples. The cultural autonomy of minority peoples is an exceptional phenomenon in European cultural history.
or
In March 1988, the Jewish Cultural Society was established in Tallinn. It was the first of its kind in the entire Soviet Empire.
This is to respond to all (implicit) accusations of anti-semitism in Estonia.
To make my point more clear I googled some english-speaking Estonian/Finnish blogspace entries about the topic. Just to get the feeling how those things are understood and discussed:
http://iiviannamasso.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/helsinki-history-protests-and-lies/
http://www.estonianfreepress.com/2009/07/efraim-zuroff-nazism-and-communism-are-not-the-same-thing/
Do you agree with the Estonians holding an annual reunion of Waffen-SS veterans at Sinimäe, or not?
What I am trying to show is that those are not “Estonians” are holding and annual reunion of Waffen-SS veterans at Sinimäe but the veterans themselves. Whatever their nationality. How can I say how they should or should not commemorate their tragedy?
Many of the Estonians have families where grandfather was in one army and granduncle in the other. It happens when you happen to be in the middle of two conquering armies and ideologies you want to have nothing to do with. This is the ugly ambivalence that the western countries were spared.
I pity them as I pity those Estonians who had to fight on the soviet side.
Btw, I am one of those so-called Estonian Jews.
I found excellent article from the first blog I linked. It effectively summarizes also my opinion on the article by Efraim Zuroff :
http://iiviannamasso.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/there-is-no-contest-in-victimhood/
Sorry for multiple postings in a row.
Look, of course I "filtered" the items I quoted. Short of posting the entire article or a link, I will quote to illustrate my point ...as you do.
If I understand you now, you are objecting to any inference that Estonia is anti-Semitic, and are trying to tell me that Jewish life goes on there, just fine.
On the other hand I see many exmples of anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi sentiment to this day. (Once again, see http://www.antisemitism.org.il/eng/search/?country=23&id_category=®ion=). That's not to suggest that all Estonians are so, but to allow an SS Unit to glorify their murderous acts is not something I like to see, in fact I think it just incites hatred and a truly inclusive society would not allow it.
If some Estonians want to "commemorate their tragedy", they should do so alongside other Estonians who also suffered a great tragedy. The image of Waffen-SS marching in any street on Earth is despicable. If they are truly tolerant people, let them burn their hateful symbols and paraphenalia, and join with old Soviet soldiers and Jewish survivors to deplore all hatred and war...not, as they apparently do: yearn for the day that "their kind" will be victorious.
That's not to suggest that all Estonians are so, but to allow an SS Unit to glorify their murderous acts is not something I like to see /.../
The image of Waffen-SS marching in any street on Earth is despicable.
I have no idea where did the marching myth come from. Have never head about some kind of ss-marches in Estonia. Only gay pride and I’m not joking. I am pretty sure that if we start digging we’ll end up reading RIA Novosti or Itar-Tass as the primary source. The official newssources of the most anti-semitic country in the world today.
I couldn’t find anything that would support the claims made about it on antisemitism.org. The must have mixed up Estonia and Latvia (Tallinn and Riga) – I googled and couldn’t find any reliable source confirming it. I lived that time in Tallinn so I should know about it.
About this murdering Waffen SS. Quote from Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 22 (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/09-30-46.asp):
Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter the group composed of those persons who had been officially accepted as members of the SS as enumerated in the preceding paragraph who became or remained members of the organization with knowledge that it was being used for the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the Charter or who were personally implicated as members of the organization in the commission of such crimes, excluding, however, those who were drafted into membership by the State in such a way as to give them no choice in the matter, and who had committed no such crimes
United States point of view from 1950:
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 States.
I am not trying to say that there is no anti-Semitism in Estonia nor that there were no war crimes committed by Estonians. Nor am I trying to rehabilitate SS or concentration camps etc.
Only thing I am trying to point out is that sometimes things are much much much more complicated than they seem to be. I think we can be sure enough that 45 years of soviet occupation (and war trials) cleared Estonia of all the persons who committed (and also who didn’t commit) war crimes while fighting in the German army.
OK, but what about (quoting Zuroff): "SS veterans from other European countries, in which such gatherings are illegal, [who] were only too happy to join in the festivities ...foreign SS veterans who came to the reunion, as well as younger persons sympathetic to them, were welcome guests in Estonia."?
(Zuroff continues): "Foreign and even local anti-fascists who sought to demonstrate against the reunion, on the other hand, were treated very harshly ...protesters from Finland and Latvia were declared persona non grata and expelled from Estonia, whereas local anti-fascists were arrested when they sought to protest in concentration camp garb, while others were detained for no reason to make sure that they would not be able to register their legitimate protest."
you only need to look at http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=141506 to see the sort of rabble that is roused by these commemorations.
Please read the Ivi Masso article. (http://iiviannamasso.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/there-is-no-contest-in-victimhood/)
She is also discussing in her post those so called Finnish and Russian anti-fascist. And she quotes her sources and backs up her claims.
I'd like to thank the anonymous commentator to this posting for his/her passionate and apparently patriotic defence of Estonia's reputation.
I accept that issues aren't "black & white" but I'm still very wary that within the shades of grey, there is much reson to be vigilant for Nazi and anti-Semitic sentiments in Estonia, and for the motivation to whitewash Estonian culpibility in Jewish tragedy.
Dear Madis Metsala
Thank you for your comment, for providing information about the events of the War, and for the interesting links.
I understand from these that you wish to point out that Hitler's regime was bad, and that Stalin's regime was also bad.
...OK, you have no arguments from me.
However I fail to understand why you should suggest that I am have somehow shown any disrespect for the Estonian deportees to Siberia.
My mother's family was from the northeast of Poland and they were also in Siberia for most of the War. So I have some inkling from her about the horrific conditions. Her youngest brother was one of the children who "did worst" as you reminded us ...he died.
And so I am also puzzled by your demand for an apology. Apologise for what? You pointed out that you haven't read the comments, but I wonder if you have read the posting at all.
The posting is an excerpt from an article that points out that many Estonians consider the Nazis as the "lesser of two evils" compared to the Soviets.
Furthermore Estonia hosts an annual reunion of Waffen-SS veterans.
SS veterans from Estonia and other European countries, in which such gatherings are illegal, as well as younger persons sympathetic to them, are welcome guests in Estonia.
Are you trying to justify this annual celebration of Nazi nostalgia?
Well I say that both the Nazis and the Soviets should rot in hell, and that their modern-day successors and sympathisers should choke on their own hatred.
Interested readers should also see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3585272.stm (posted in 2004)
Tiit Madisson, the governor of the Lihula parish, is quoted as saying, at the unveiling of a Nazi war monument monument to honour those who fought with Nazi forces: "This monument is for people who had to choose between two evils, and they chose the less evil one..."
Also see http://ukraines.fr/spip.php?breve10 in which (in August 2007) it is reported:
QUOTE
Recalling its pro-German World War II past has been an annual tradition for Estonia since the republic seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Rene van der Linden, chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said Estonian efforts to whitewash its Nazi past would be high on the assembly’s agenda when it convenes Oct. 1 in Strasbourg.
During last week’s commemoration, in the small Estonian town of Sinimiae, elderly veterans from Estonia, Norway and Austria traveled three hours by charter bus from Tallinn, the Estonian capital. They were accompanied by dozens of young followers dressed in T-shirts with Nazi symbols, along with Estonian officials, including Parliament member Trivimi Velliste and Minister of Defense Jak Aaviksoo.
Speaking before the gathering, Aaviksoo reportedly called the former SS commandos “fighters for independence” and Velliste described the Soviet soldiers as “terrorists.”
UNQUOTE
Also see http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=35868 for dozens of "nostalgic photos of Estonian volunteers to the Nazi forces
and
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/estonia/3965268/Russians-protest-at-Estonia-SS-calendar.html where the publication of a nostalgic calendar featuring wartime SS recruitment posters in Estonia.
Dear Madis Metsala
Thank you again for your comments, and for the additional information and links.
I gladly accept that issues aren't simply black and white, and that it would be wrong to try to claim that all Estonians, or the nation as a whole, is sympathetic to Nazism or anti-Semitic.
As I explained to another anonymous commentator on this posting, I of course have sought out on-line reports that illustrate my point: that there is pro-Nazi activity in Estonia. However, please don't misunderstand my intention. I don't wish to malign or accuse the entire nation...
In fact, I am very glad to have patriotic and passionate Estonian commentators like you and "anonymous" who are clearly upset by these events too and don't wish to be associated with Nazism. At least you, like me, will be more vigilant, and the future can only be better for that.
Thank you also for your kind sympathy in relation to the losses in my mother's family during WW2. Regretfully, my father's family, who were from the south east of Poland, spent the War on the Nazi side of the front ...until they were worked to death or gassed at Belzecs. One uncle, and my father (who ened the war in the most horrific death-by-work camps in the Austrian Alps) were the only known survivors of the entire family. It's only in recent months that I discovered that six of my paternal grandmother's aunts and uncles emigrated to the USA before World War 1. They and their descendents are a branch of our family tree which was unknown to us until we were reunited these last few months, after a seperation that spans five generations... I regret that my father, who died almost ten years ago (may his memory be a blessing) didn't live to see them...
So, Madis Metsala, I hope you will understand my extreme sensitivity to any reports of modern Nazi sympathies or nostalgia...
All the best...
Well, let me start by saying my wife told me not to post anything.............
I am Canadian born to Estonian parents.
My mother was rounded up by the Russians on the island where she lived with her family and was being prepared to be shipped to Siberia. This was during the first Russian occupation from 1939 to 1941. As the Russian ship was coming in, a German dive bomber came in and sank the ship.
As the Germans entered the capital Tallinn, the anti Russian feeling was so high my father waited more than 8 hours to volunteer with the German army. In the end, the lineup was too long and he went home, which probably saved his life.
There is evidence, most notably from the Nurnberg trials, April 1950, that Estonian SS divisions did not have the "purpose, ideology, activities, and qualifications" as German ss divisions.
So why dont we accept this situation for what it is, a historical anomily that centers around a reviled uniform (and reviled rightly so). By all accounts, the Estonians would have fought the Russians in clown suits if asked. The Finns fought the same war as the Estonians along the same front, and their veterans have a march every year.
Now, Israel and Estonia have a lot in common. They both have tiny bits of land that they fight tooth and nail for. They both have a long and distinct cultural heritige rich in history. Often, in times of war, our enemies enemy is our friend, and that is pretty much the case here.
So lets let this mess die out on its own. I mean that both figurativly and literally. The veterans we are talking about will all be dead in a few years. Some saw war and hardship the likes of which we pray will never be repeated. Estonia's independence is a great news story, and to be judged on this issue alone would be akin to describing all the wonderful facets of Israel and Israelli life in the context of settlements in the west bank.
There are a lot of issues involved and its not that simple.
Rob
Thank you Robert, for your contribution to the discussion.
You are the third commentator with personal links to Estonia, who is keen to defend Estonia's honour and distance it from Nazi sympathies.
I'm glad that such commentators exist and are motivated to speak out. It gives me hope for better future.
It is entirely plausible that many Estonians wore the Nazi uniform in WW2 purely as a means to protect themselves from the brutalities of the Soviet regime.
However, current commemorations of German SS military campaigns risk inciting Nazi sympathies and can act as a magnet for neo-Nazis from near and far.
Can we all agree that at least we should be vigilant that Nazi ideology is not glorified nor perpetuated by any commemorative events in Estonia, or anywhere else?
Hi Steve (great topic)
You wrote about the Estonian's reversal of conventional historical wisdom, the most famous of which was the relocation of the monument honouring Soviet soldiers who liberated the country from the yoke of Nazi occupation.
You fail to mention, that it was the Soviet authorities that began the persecution of the jews during the first soviet occupation. According to Wilkpedia, "Cultural autonomy together with all its institutions was liquidated in July 1940. In July and August of the same year all organizations, associations, societies, and corporations were closed. The Jews' businesses were nationalized. A relativly large number of jews (350-450) about 10% of the toral Jewish population) were deported into prison camps in Russia by the Soviet authorities on June 14, 1941."
Estonians stand accused by you of rewriting history. Do you not do the same? Or do these particular persecutions and deportations of your people not matter. The only scenario that the relocation of the Soviet memorial could have been a "painful blow to the Estonian Jewish community", is to ignore these facts because they do not neatly fit in to the unique definition of the Shoah.
So, I guess, technically speaking, when you wrote "the annihilation in 1941 (of Jews) was orchestrated by the Nazis and there Estonian collaborators", you should have added......"which was begun by the Soviets during there first occupation". A small point, but the whole truth is not bits of the truth.
And thats estonian history........
Rob
Hi again Robert
If you'd like my agreement to the assertion that Soviet totalitariansim is horrific and deplorable, I give you that agreement without hesitation or reservation ...WE ARE IN AGREEMENT!!
If you are claiming that the Soviets were crueller to the Jews than the Nazis, or that Soviet totalitarianism is a greater evil than nazism ...then we are living on different planets...
Steve
One last thought.......
If Wilkpedia is correct, my grandfather fought side by side with approximatly 200 jews in the Estonian War of independence (1918-1920).
Wilkpedia also states of the cultural autonomy granted to the jews by Estonia in February 1925 "The cultural autonomy of minority peoples is an exceptional phenomenon in European cultural history. Therefore Jewish cultiral autonomy was of great interrest to global Jewish community. The Jewish National Endowment Keren Kaiamet presented the Estonian government with a certificate of gratitude for this achievement."
Before the arrival and annexation of Estonia by foreign totalitarian superpowers, it seems to me Estonians and jews got along just fine. Estonia may even have been a model of tolerence and cooperation.
So instead of focusing on who turned who in when the Russians invaded, or what unit fought where when the Nazis invaded, its time to move on.
Its 65 years ago the war ended and my mothers family abandoned there farm of an island in the west of Estonia. They rowed in a rowboat to Sweden to escape the Russians. Its 68 years ago my fathers brother died when he stepped on a land mine.
Do you want to keep fighting these battles? We can argue these points forever. No one comes out with clean hands in the killfest that was Estonia.
Now Efrains position is clear, that "commemorating Nazi and Communist victims together.... undermines the current status of the Shoah as a unique tragedy", but how else can we (our generation) get around this impasse?
Whats your opinion, Steve? What if we got Estonian and Russian soldiers together to lay a wreath for the victims......it would be a unique opportunity for you and I to become paraias in our respective communities! No self respecting skinhead would show up, thats for sure, so we are moving forward already.
Germans and French have no problems having knackwurst with wine together. Egypt and Israel have a relativly peaceful border. And I suspect Estonians and Jews will get along in the future eventually (I am not even sure they dont get along now).
So Efrain, Steve, step up to the plate. You have any better ideas, or do you want to rehash who killed who for the next ten years?
Rob
Rob
Thanks again for your input.
I most certainly don't wish to "keep fighting these battles..." In fact I don't think you and I have any substantial difference of opinion at all.
I agree with you that between the Soviets and the Nazis "No one comes out with clean hands in the killfest that was Estonia"
Nor do I wish to see such horrific acts repeated, and I'm sure you don't either.
I am also very confident that, as you suggest, Estonians and Jews can get along just fine.
But let me have one last word too. We cannot simply bury the past and pretend it never happened, because that is a recipe for repeating past mistakes.
As you suggest, we should remember and commemorate the past, not as a way to glorify either Nazism or Soviet totalitarianism, but to condemn both.
Let us recognise that we are all humans alike, and resolve to desist from unwarranted hatred of any other group.
"resolve to desist from unwarranted hatred of any other group".
Wise words and well put.
Thanks for the discussion, Steve, I learned a lot from your perspective.
Rob
I thank you too, Rob, for your participation and for considering my opinion.
You contribute to my optimism for a better world in future...
All the best.
Followers of this conversation thread will be interested in this new one: http://jiw.blogspot.com/2009/12/berlin-more-sympathetic-to-shoah-memory.html
The Nazi’s were more than evil... the Stalinists were “almost” as evil... but the Soviets hung around for 50 years with their creepy political system... I wish to give the Estonian’s a break as they had to deal with the illegal occupation of the Soviets and were exposed to the Soviet cruelty longer... some people may consider the germans that fought against the Soviets heros, and I can understand why... I can also understand why others think its not a good idea to host the “SS” anywhere!
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