Hundreds march with Nazi SS veterans in Latvia

Arutz Sheva ^ | 16/3/18

[Eleutheria5]

Police arrested a man for displaying a poster of soldiers killing Jews at the annual march by local veterans of two SS divisions that made up the Latvian Legion during World War II.

The man was arrested Friday morning on the margins of the annual march of the Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires — soldiers from the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (the 1st and 2nd Latvian, respectively.) A handful of veterans flanked by hundreds of supporters waving Latvian flags gathered around Freedom Monument for the march under heavy police guard.

The march in Latvia, a member of the NATO alliance and the European Union, is currently the only public event in Europe and beyond honoring people who fought under the SS banner. Occurring amid rising tensions with Russia, it is part of numerous expressions across Eastern Europe of admiration for people, including Holocaust perpetrators, who collaborated with Germany against the Soviet Union.

Several protesters from the “Latvia without Fascism” group demonstrated against the event by carrying signs reading “They fought for Hitler” and “if they looked as Nazi, and act with Nazi – they were Nazi.” None of those protesters were arrested.

.....

[Eleutheria5]

As noted, they subsequently became conscripts in the Latvian Legion. But this is a moot point, already addressed.

[MplsSteve]

“I see that the spirit of Howard Zinn lives on past the grave. Dresden was a major rail and communications center, had 110 factories and 50,000 workers in the city supporting the German war effort, and had a weapons depot. Dresden did have a military significance.”

You got there ahead of me. I was gonna post pretty much the same thing.

[Eleutheria5]

And the Germans helped by the Berlin Airlift were chopped liver?

[Zionist Conspirator]

Europe hasn't changed. And unfortunately, while Eastern Europe may be very conservative compared to Western Europe, this is European conservatism, which is very different from the American brand. The Eastern European nations have been very virulently anti-Jewish throughout history, including the Poles on whom so many American conservatives are now hanging their hopes.

Be careful whom you choose as friends.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Looks like somebody thinks we fought on the wrong side in World War II.

Do you take the same position on the Pacific Theater, or only the European Theater?

[Eleutheria5]

Europe has changed in the sense that it’s been invaded, and the invaders are no improvement. The great hope is that things will hit bottom there, and enough people will wake up and start thinking and then acting.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Zionists are not without blood on their hands either.

Ah, so now it comes out--one of Arafat's "Aryan" fans. And you have the unmitigated gall to feature a quote from the Hebrew Bible.

So, you think Zionism is actually a plot to rule the world via water fluoridation???

[TallahasseeConservative]

Yup, was waiting on that. ANY criticism of the Israeli state is equated with Antisemitism. I’ll ask a simple yes or no question. Did the Haganah and Irgun kill innocent men, women and children ever, in any operation? You and I both know they did. I have no issue with Zionism or Zionists. I was simply pointing that many political movements, have their fare share of blood on their hands.

[TallahasseeConservative]

I do not think we fought on the wrong side of the war. I was simply pointing out that not all Germans were Nazis and not all German or even SS soldiers for that matter, committed war crimes. I was also pointing out that the Americans and British looked the other way, as the Red Army raped their way across Germany.

[Eleutheria5]

“Did the Haganah and Irgun kill innocent men, women and children ever, in any operation? “

Why, yes. There was Deir Yassin, for example. But they were trying to secure an air strip, had announced their intentions on a sound truck in Arabic, and offered transportation and safe conduct to the Old City to any who wanted to be out of harm’s way. 200 civilians took them up on the offer. Unexpectedly, the joint Irgun, Hagana and Lehi forces encountered heavy resistance from Iraqi irregulars mixed in with the civilian population. Experienced urban fighters, but unaccustomed to being fired at in an open field from houses, the situation deteriorated into a free-for-all. At one point, they were accepting surrenders from women, and one woman happened to be a man with a sidearm, and he tried to use it. He was neutralized, but in the panicked firing that ensued, so were several actual women. Total killed at the end of the day were 110 civilians and 140 Iraqi irregulars.

The air strip was built, and vital supplies were flown in to relieve the siege of West Jerusalem. The Arabs who had been given safe passage to the Old City never returned, preferring to stay with relatives in the Old City. Deir Yassin’s site is now a bus terminal and mad house.

Compare that unintended cluster flop to the pre-meditated slaughter at Rumbula or Babi Yar, both carried out before the Wansee Conference, or the Gush Etzion massacres carried out by the Arab League under the supervision of British officers.

Many political movements do have their fair share of bloodshed. But you’re comparing apples to oranges. There’s a huge difference between an intentional program of world conquest and mass murder, and a political movement that’s shed some blood. There’s no going back from the former, and no comparing it to the latter. Latvia was mainly absorbed into the world conquest part of the Nazi program. To wear the SS uniform on parade after being used and dominated like that is shameful, even if every single Latvian League member was innocent of any genocidal act.

[Cronos]

you ask for comments on a link you posted.

The same link says clearly that The Latvian legions were not involved in the killing of Jews So the comment is simple -- your link corroborates what I said that "the LavianSS did not commit the crimes theGerman SS did"

So the LatvianSS was a purely anti-Soviet force. If they were celebrating the Aajs Kommando THEN I would say NO, this is wrong, the Arajs Kommando were murderers.

The Latvians wore the German uniforms as those were the ONLY uniforms they were allowed to wear. They were not as large or strong as Finland to define what they wore (note of course that the Finns did have theSwastika on their planes) - but they did not participate in the killing of innocents

They do NOT glorify the nutzi murders of millions of Russians, Jews, Poles, etc. but they pay respect to their own men who fought the soviets.

[Cronos]

The airlift was post war - in 1945 to 1950 the enemies changed.

[wardaddy]

Reason is why western civilization prevailed for several millineum

But today even on free republic emotion will prevail sadly

Waffen SS

Confederates

Crusaders

Boers

Serbs

All evil....no nuance allowed

Nice try though

[Cronos]

Sheesh, there have been lots of instances of American anti-semitism as well.

Furthermore, the presence of Jews in America has only been prominent for the past 150 years, so there is no calling for a sense of superiority over "Europe" -- in 1840, Jews constituted a tiny, but nonetheless stable, middle-class minority of about 15,000 out of the 17 million Americans counted by the U.S. Census.

ONLY from 1881-1920 with the surge in immigration from Eastern Europe did the number of Jews in America increase. So just about 100 to 140 years and yet there were the KKK and others who were anti-Jewish

Anti-semitism in the old world arose due to a number of reasons:

1. in the south-east due the Bar Kochkhba revolt in the 2nd century that had Jews killing non-Jews (wiping them out in Cyprus and Cyrene) causing the Roman empire to enact strident laws
2. Pushing of Jews away from owning land, so driving them to money-leending which led to the stereotypes of money-gravving Shylocks
3. The Black plague where Jews, due to ritual washing were spared in Germany, France and England (poland and to some extent Italy were spared the Black plague) causing those lands to cast out jews (England was the first to do so)
4. Jewish association with the Taifa rulers in Spain which meant that they were construed as collaborators and the Sephardic jews were kicked out in the 1500s
5. In the 1800s the intellectual who created communism, Karl Marx was part Jewish in origin (though he was born and baptised Lutheran)
6. the rise of nationalism in the 1800s

There is no moral superiority due to being a younger state.

[Cronos]

TallahasseeConservative only said that the Soviets were as evil as the Nutzis — do you agree with that or no?

[Eleutheria5]

And in such a short time the USAAF went from bomber of Colon to salvation of Germans in West Berlin. So the argument that the USAAF and RAF are somehow comparable to the SS or the Luftwaffe that carried out the Blitz is sophistry. The latter served conquest/terror/genocide only, and never had another function. The Latvian Legion’s SS uniforms were symbols of the conquered vassals’ yoke only.

[Eleutheria5]

I’ve repeated myself too often, but here’s one more time for good measure. The Latvian Legion wore the SS Uniform because their overlords gave them no choice. If they wanted to fight the Soviets, this was the uniform they had to wear. You said it yourself. “he Latvians wore the German uniforms as those were the ONLY uniforms they were allowed to wear.”

Whether or not they participated in genocide, and how many of the Aajs Kommando that participated in genocide later joined the Legion is a moot point and a side issue.

The Legion’s SS uniform itself was a symbol of servitude to Germany. To wear it now is to choose to celebrate and glorify that servitude. That is what’s shameful here. But if the Latvians themselves insist on going there, it’s their life. I’ve said all I have to say about it.

Hope they enjoy their next period of slavish vassalhood as much as they did the last. Maybe 70 years later, when Islamofascism is just a rapidly-fading bad memory, they’ll be wearing the kefiyah on parade, and the women the chadour or the burkha.

[Eleutheria5]

“...but they pay respect to their own men who fought the soviets.”

Americans pay greater respect to slave women in pancake commercials from the 1960s. Respect for the men who fought would be to parade them in an uniquely Latvian uniform, not a throwback to the Nazi occupation of Latvia. Enough said.

[Cronos]

The uniquely Latvian uniforms date from after the 1990s.

in the 1940s they wore different uniforms. It's like asking civil war re-enactors to wear WWII era uniforms.

[Cronos]

Its not a symbol of servitude. They were vassals to the Germans but not servants nor slaves.

Next you'll say you have a problem with the Buddhist Swastik