Whether or not the Latvian Legion was involved in war crimes is a matter of controversy. However, of note, particular to the Latvian Legion in Latvia, the last mass killing of Jews, gypsies, or people caught up in Nazi Germany's program of systematic genocide occurred in March 1942, a year before the formation of the Latvian Legion and was carried out by specially directed German SS units. The Latvian Legion was fighting for its freedom, swearing to fight against Bolshevism and the return of the communist regime into Latvia. Their concerns were far different from Hitler's national-social ideology. Latvian historians maintain that the Latvian Legion itself was a front line combat unit and did not participate in any war crimes. Moreover, the Latvian Legion, being an organization of conscripts, was exempt from the opinion rendered at Nuremberg trials,[5] consistent with findings by post-war Allied authorities. Nor has any Latvian ever been accused of any war crime while a member of the Latvian Legion.
However, as earlier members of the Latvian fascist movement Pērkonkrusts[26] and Holocaust participants such some 600 members of Arajs Kommando[27] later made it into the Legion,[8] the presence of these individuals as well as allegations against police battalions subsequent to the formation of the Legion[28] have been used by Soviet and later Russian authorities to denounce the entire Legion as war criminals
I ask for comments, and I get cut and paste. I read enough of the wikipedia article to note that it contradicts itself in several places. And the passage you quote is absurd. Latvia cannot be said to have been fighting for its freedom while under German occupation, and when the Latvian Legion was made up of conscripts. They were fighting against Soviet domination by submitting to Nazi domination.
This is not about who did and did not take part in the Rumbala Massacres. But since we’re on the subject, it’s noteworthy that 600 of the Latvian Legion conscripts were originally Arajs Kommando members, and that the Rumbala Massacres were carried out by the SS Einsatsgrupen A with the participation of members of the Arajs Kommando and other Latvian auxiliaries. But this is not my focus. If you want, say the Latvian Legion was only fighting at the front lines against Russia. Fine.
Bottom line is, the SS uniform and the Wehrmacht uniform were the mark of the German occupiers, and those Latvians who wore it were signifying their subservience to Germany. That is exactly what the Germans meant, and exactly how it was understood. To wear this uniform now is to glorify subservience. At the time it was an unfortunate sacrifice that Latvians made to get shut of the Soviets. To glorify it now is to glorify self-humiliation long after both the Nazi and Soviet oppressors are gone.