Latvia: Man holding poster of soldiers killing Jews arrested at Nazi SS march

Via Jerusalem Post:

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 those who fought under the banner of SS, Nazi Germany’s elite security force. Occurring amid rising tensions with Russia, it is part of numerous expressions across Eastern Europe of admiration for those, 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 like Nazis, and acted like Nazis – they were Nazi.” None of those protesters was arrested.

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Latvia: Jewish cemetery vandalized by drunk youth

Via CFCA:

Three teenagers were arrested for vandalizing the Jewish cemetery in Valdemārpils.  They say tehy were drunk and did not realize the severity of their actions.

Latvia: Lawmakers march alongside Nazi Waffen SS veterans

Via CJN:

Several hundred ultranationalists, including seven veterans of Nazi Germany’s Waffen SS, marched through Riga on the independence day of the Baltic nation of Latvia.

The march Wednesday, a controversial affair which is Europe’s only annual event by Waffen SS veterans, drew a handful of counter-protesters from Latvia’s Jewish community and about 40 anti-fascist activists, including 20 Germans, Efraim Zuroff, the Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, told JTA in by phone from Riga.

Latvian authorities detained five Germans who crossed over to the Baltic nation from Lithuania and prevented another one from boarding a plane bound for Latvia, Zuroff said. He added several Latvian lawmakers from the far right also participated in the march.

Noting an absence of pressure by leading EU countries to curb the Latvian Nazi marches,” Zuroff said they were “a stain on the EU record of confronting the glorification of perpetrators of the Holocaust.”

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Latvia: Government MP claims 'clever Jews' undermining national security

Vis LSM:

Kārlis Seržants, a high-ranking member of the Latvian parliament or Saeima and part of the ruling coalition, on Thursday delivered a remarkable interview on Latvian public radio's LR4 Russian-language channel in which he blamed "clever Jews" for some of the nation's main problems.

After beginning to talk about changes to Latvia's national security laws, Seržants - a member of the Greens and Farmers Union political grouping and a member of the Saeima's national security committee - then veered into unfortunate territory, as a transcript of his comments shows.

The former journalist and television presenter said people working to undermine the Latvian state were "mostly people of a very smart ethnicity with lawyers [among them]."

Asked if he was referring to Russians, Seržants replied:

    "No, I mean the Jewish ethnicity."

He then elaborated once again on these Jewish legal experts' particular skill in operating "on the edge" of the law.

Challenged by the interviewer over his statement, Seržants clumsily attempted to backtrack by praising the cleverness of Jews as a nationality:

"Well, no I'm not saying it's only [Jews], but Girs, Gaponenko... who else do we have... Zhdanoka, Koren [all prominent pro-Russia activists] -- they are Jews I believe. I am not a chauvinist, absolutely not, and that is exactly why I am telling that being of Jewish ethnicity means being very smart."

With the interviewer again intervening to point out that Latvians or Russians might be equally smart, Seržants responded:

    "Right, all of them are smart, but they are, let us say it this way, especially smart."

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Latvia: Highschool graduates choose Nazi ring as graduation present

 Via Express:

A picture of the questionable memento was made public by one of the future graduates.

Allegedly, the decision to use the swastika - arguably the most hated symbol of the 20th century - was unanimous among students.

But the tasteless tokens have sparked debate in the area with some suggesting local citizens believe that a swastika is an ancient Latvian symbol.

Others claim that for the last 25 years local officials have been trying to rehabilitate the idea of Nazism among the nation.

Once a year, volunteers who fought with the SS Latvian Legion against the Russians are honoured with a march through the streets of the capital Riga.

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Holocaust denial on the rise in Eastern Europe

Via Ynet News:

After Lithuania changed the definition of 'genocide' and Baltic countries have turned murderers of Jews into national heroes, Holocaust researchers are accusing the State of Israel of standing idly by as history is being re-written.

The testimonies are fading away, the memorial sites are turning into entertainment centers, and the historical story is seen as just another "Jewish narrative": If anyone thought that Holocaust denial was a marginal phenomenon among a few anti-Semites and Israel haters, evidence shows that is it a much wider, more well-established and dangerous phenomenon that is receiving reinforcement on the ground from eastern European countries.

In Lithuania, for example, people are doing everything to downplay the significance of the horrors of the war as a unique event in the history of mankind, and in Ukraine a famous mass murder site has turned into a thriving jogging spot.

(...)

Rabbi Avraham Krieger, head of the Shem Olam Institute for Holocaust education and research, believes the new Holocaust deniers are driven by a psychological motive, namely an attempt to dissolve the perception of the Holocaust as a unique phenomenon in favor of a historical description which will minimize the feelings of guilt among the countries which actively participated - or whose citizens actively participated - in the murder of Jews.

Dr. Zuroff sees it too. He says there is an attempt to conceal and blur the eastern Europeans' role in the massacre. "In Lithuania there was a systematic killing of Jews by the local population," he explained. "That is the reason why 96 percent of the Jews there did not survive and many communities were completely erased. The intentional goal is to conceal this fact.

"The mass murderers of Jews among the local population are perceived as national heroes because of their war against the communists, and streets, squares and governmental institutions have been named after them. How can anyone acknowledge their role in the annihilation if the murderers are considered heroes?"

Lithuania is not alone. According to the two researchers, "soft denial" is taking place in Baltic countries like Estonia and Latvia, as well as in Poland, Croatia and Hungary.

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With full European support, UNHRC backs Israel-bashing Gaza report

No wonder so many European citizens do not trust their politicians.

The Times of Israel reports:
 
EU nations lament lack of Hamas criticism but approve motion anyway; only US votes against resolution which Jerusalem calls an ‘anti-Israeli manifesto’

he UN Human Rights Council voted in favor of a resolution on Friday backing the Gaza Conflict Commission of Inquiry, which last week issued a report charging that Israel and Hamas may have committed war crimes during Operation Protective Edge last summer.

Forty-one of the 47 UNHRC council members voted in favor of the resolution, including the eight sitting European Union members: France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Latvia and Estonia. 

Only the US, which last week slammed the report as biased, voted against. Israeli officials thanked the US for its “principled” position.

The vote in Geneva coincided with the explosion of a rocket in southern Israel.

The resolution made no mention of Hamas or of its role in the conflict, though it stressed that all those responsible for human rights violations must be held to account and effective remedies should be given to all victims, including reparations.  It also recommends the UN General Assembly take on the matter “until it is satisfied that appropriate action” is taken to implement the report’s recommendations.

The decision by the council has no binding effect, but adds to pressure for war crimes prosecutions before the International Criminal Court.  More.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia: Jews in Baltics fear creep of anti-Semitism. EU indifferent.

Fox News reports:

Nazi paraphernalia sold in tourist shop in Tallinn, Estonia

Jews in the Baltics fear a series of disturbing events in the three-nation region of Eastern Europe may be signaling a revival of the Holocaust-era hatred that once nearly wiped out their numbers.  Across the countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Jewish leaders say their communities are feeling increasingly uncomfortable as anti-Semitism once again appears to be on the rise. An Estonian museum exhibition mocking the Holocaust, a stage musical celebrating the life of a notorious Latvian Nazi mass murderer and the repatriation of the remains of a Lithuanian leader  long linked to Nazis have all contributed to a climate of hate that has Jews on edge.

“We have to say that the support of Hitler and rewriting history to turn Hitler into a liberator of this area is not a western value,” Yiddish scholar Dovid Katz, founder of the DefendingHistory.com website, told FoxNews.com. “If you’re repatriating Nazi war criminals to be re-buried and honored as part of national history, that is not behavior compatible with western ethics and values.”

Katz has been amongst the most vocal objectors to a growing list of questionable events in the Baltics, including the 2012 repatriation from the U.S. to Lithuania of the body of wartime leader Juozas Ambrazevicius Brazaitis. He was re-buried with full honors, endorsed by the Lithuanian government, despite having been a Nazi puppet during his brief tenure. Brazaitis was accused of overseeing the establishment of a concentration camp, and also signed off on the establishment of the Kaunas ghetto. [...]

In Talinn, Estonia, a highly controversial Holocaust-themed exhibition caused outrage last month when, among its exhibits, was a picture showing the iconic Hollywood sign replaced by the word "Holocaust," which some perceived as a suggestion the genocide was an entertainment event. Another sick exhibit recreated a gas chamber and had 20 naked actors pretending to be Jews playing tag, seemingly suggesting there was humor in the gas chambers experience. The exhibits were eventually withdrawn.

In October 2014 a Latvian musical ‘Cukurs, Herbert Cukurs’ premiered celebrating the life of the ‘Butcher of Riga,’ Herbert Cukurs, who was tracked down and killed by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service in Montevideo, Uruguay, more than 20 years after he fled Europe. He had overseen the murder of many thousands of Jews in his native Latvia where he had been a pre-war national hero. He was witnessed personally shooting more than 500.  [...]

“The European Union… does not appear to be particularly perturbed by genuinely disturbing phenomena in the Baltic countries and elsewhere, which, of course, in no way would justify Russian aggression, but deserve to be handled seriously and promptly before they get out of hand,” Zuroff wrote in the International Business Times. More.

Lithuania: Harassment campaign against people who speak out against the legitimization of Nazism

Via JTA:

For Katz, 58, who moved to Lithuania in 1999 to take a professorship at Vilnius University, the incident was just the latest expression of hate he has endured since 2008, when he began to speak out against the country’s creeping legitimization of fascism.

“I came here in the euphoric post-independence years, when world peace was around the corner,” Katz said. “My own euphoria diminished with every neo-Nazi march after 2008 and attempt to justify and explain away the Holocaust, events that are becoming even more common and acceptable responses to Russian aggression.”

(...)

Since he began denouncing these phenomena, Katz, the author of numerous books in the field of Yiddish, lost his position at the Yiddish institute he founded at Vilnius University. He says it was political retribution, but his former bosses deny the claim.

Far-right activists often denounce Katz as a Russian agent. Some have published insulting caricatures of him and posted photographs of Katz at a cafe with a woman to the Facebook page of a far-right activist. Katz understands the latter move to be a reminder that he is being watched.

“I found out that anyone who will speak out against the legitimization of Nazism will be marginalized or threatened, or both,” said Katz, who now makes a living by lecturing internationally and from seminars in Vilnius for visiting groups from around the world. “Especially if they are single, a bit eccentric and of a certain weight and appearance.”

Katz is not the only anti-fascist activist complaining about persecution in the Baltics. In Latvia, authorities last year refused to renew the residency permit of Valery Engel, a Russian Jew with dual Israeli citizenship who lives in Riga with his Latvian wife and child. Earlier this month, Latvian officials considering his appeal to remain in the country demanded Engel prove that he informed Russian authorities of his Israeli citizenship.

“Since when does Latvia enforce Russia’s laws on nationality?” asked Joseph Koren, a Latvia-born Jew who with Engel runs the Latvian branch of the World Without Nazism group. “It’s an attempt to harass and to silence our opposition to the far right and the government’s support of it.”

Latvia: Holocaust exhibit nixed after Latvian protests

Children in the Salaspils concentration camp in Latvia during WWII

Riga officials said to object on grounds exposition on children in the Salaspils concentration camp would damage their country’s image.

The exposition, titled “Stolen childhood: Holocaust victims Seen by Child Inmates of Salaspils Nazi Concentration Camp,” was canceled following objections by Latvian officials to its scheduled opening on Sunday at the Paris seat of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a UNESCO spokesman told JTA on Wednesday.

The exposition’s curator, historian Alexander Dioukov, told RIA Novosti that Latvia’s chief delegate to UNESCO, Sanita Pavluta-Deslandes, said the exposition risked damaging her country’s image during its presidency of the European Union, which the Baltic country assumed on January 1 and will hold until July 1.

Salapils concentration camp

More: Times of Israel

Latvia: Holocaust memorial stolen

Via Izrus:

A 20 pound statue commemorating the synagogue of Liepaja was stolen New Year's Eve.  Vandals blew up the exhibit, which was inaugurated in mid-November, disconnecting the statue from its pedestal.

Police later found it nearby.

Latvia: Israel slams musical celebrating Nazi’s life

Nazi war criminal Herberts Cukurs is a
national hero in Latvia for standing up to 
Russian forces. (YouTube screenshot)

Israel’s Foreign Ministry slammed the production in Latvia of a show celebrating the life of Nazi war criminal Herbert Cukurs.

Titled “Cukurs, Herbert Cukurs,” the musical premiered earlier this month. The play is based on the life of the deputy commander of the Arajs Kommando force that participated in the near annihilation of Latvian Jewry after the Nazis invaded Latvia. Israel’s Mossad spy agency reportedly killed Cukurs in South America. The Latvian government has criticized but not banned the privately produced work.

According to Holocaust survivors’ testimonies, Cukurs personally killed and tortured Jews, [Efraim Zuroff, who heads the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center]  added. Many in the Baltic nations today view Nazi collaborators as national heroes because they fought the Russian army and Moscow’s grip on the region before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

More: Times of Israel

Latvia: "Jew-free" sign on kindergarten owned by MP

Via CFCA and Baltija:

"Jew-free" sign on Riga kindergarten owned by Imants Paradnieks, a parliament member for the right-wing National Alliance.

Two years ago the same kindergarten hosted two soldiers dressed as Waffen SS to teach the kids about patriotism.

Latvia, Lithuania: People beaten up because they look Jewish

British pop-culture monthly Uncut excited music fans this month with its review of what may be the world’s first Finnish-Jewish blues trio. Trouble was, the magazine got it wrong. Talmud Beach may have a Jewish name, but none of its players are members of the tribe. The band’s moniker, though, bears a Semitic connection. Bearded, hat-wearing guitarist Aleksi Lukander nearly got beaten for his “Jewish” looks, “and the experience led to the phrase Talmud Beach,” says their label’s website. 

(...) 

I didn’t think too much of it before in Riga and Kaunas some drunken men were quite offensive towards me and only because of how I looked. We also had to face one truly violent accident and our Esthonian friends got beaten up very badly by some Russian guys — it was also so clearly reminiscent of the complicated history of Russia and Esthonia.

More: Jewish Daily Forward

Latvia: WWI Memorial desecrated with Star of David

The World War I Freedom Fighters memorial in Riga was desecrated with a Star of David on November 9th (Kristallnacht anniversary).  A few days earlier a swastika was painted on a memorial to Janis Cakste, Latvia's first president.

More: NRA, TV-NET