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I don’t know about you, but I don’t like Nazis very much. Call me crazy, but all that Judenhass, genocide, invading other people’s countries, war, and Thousand Year Reich stuff… it’s just not for me. It’s kind of, y’ know, evil. Now, on the other hand, Latvians, they’re a different kettle of fish. They’re totally nuts for Nazis! No, really! It’s incredible! Is it the black leather and the skulls? The uniforms? The cool salute? The goose-stepping? The death camps? It’s difficult to say, but one thing’s for sure, in Latvia, the Swastika never goes out of style! You think I’m joking, that this is an unpardonable slur on the fine nation that gave us Henrijs Stolovs the famous… er… stamp dealer? Well, perhaps it is, in that not all Latvians love Nazis. I’m quite certain that many, if not most, of them realise that Hitler = bad man. However, there are quite a few who still think that fighting for Hitler = totally groovy. Every now and then, they like to come out in the street and celebrate.
Consider what happened last Friday in Bauska, a town in Southern Latvia that for many years was home to a thriving Jewish population… until they were all murdered, in 1941. Local lawmakers and officials gathered for the official unveiling of a monument dedicated not to these murdered Jews, but rather the members of Latvia’s Waffen-SS legion. Yes, that’s right the SS… y’ know, Heinrich Himmler’s pals, the ones with the death’s heads on their uniforms! They weren’t even subtle about their evil. If you look at photographs from the unveiling, it’s quite remarkable… there’s even a clergyman with a giant cross round his neck, marching along with flowers in his hands. Behind him… a bunch of SS-lovers. Somebody will have to remind me in which of the gospels Jesus instructs us to revere fascists because I’ve forgotten.
This isn’t the first time a bunch of Latvians gathered to weep over their fallen Nazi brethren. This March they had a nice little do in Riga to commemorate the awesomeness of the SS. They do it every year. It’s a nice day out, if you dig Nazis. These SS lovers say, “But wait, wait, the Latvian SS weren’t Nazis, they were, er, freedom fighters!” The argument, such as it is, goes like this… these soldiers were brave patriots who fought not for Hitler’s evil war machine, but rather to free their country from Stalin’s monstrous régime. The problem with this line of reasoning is as follows… they were fighting for Hitler’s evil war machine. Some of them were conscripts but at least 30 percent jumped right in there… they couldn’t wait to get stuck in! Didn’t they notice the little skulls on their uniforms? Didn’t they listen to all the stuff about Untermenschen? What? Were they so naïve that they thought Hitler would grant them independence once the war was over?
The apologists say, “But wait! These SS guys, they were non-racist SS guys! They didn’t kill any Jews! Hell, they probably loved bagels!” However, that’s because 90 percent of Latvia’s Jews were murdered two years before the SS units were formed. Naturally, the Waffen-SS recruited heavily from the Latvian Security Police units that had massacred those Jews, which had also done a spot of bonus Jew-killing in Belarus too, thank you very much. Unsurprisingly, these unlovely chaps were very quick to sign up for Uncle Adolf’s marching annihilation band. All very appalling, then. To me, however, perhaps, the most shocking thing about Latvian Nazi-nostalgia is the almost total lack of outrage it provokes among other member nations of the EU. When the Freedom Party… which included a rather unpleasant racist named Jörg Haider in its ranks… joined Austria’s government, the EU placed weird pseudo-sanctions on the country. I’d like to point out that even Jörg Haider NEVER LAID FLOWERS AT A MONUMENT TO SS KILLERS.
Meanwhile, if a solitary skinhead is caught in Chemnitz leafing through a copy of Mein Kampf in the street and mumbling to himself, “Ja, ja! Ich liebe es!” then, the international media will be all over the terrifying rise in neo-Nazi feeling in Germany. However, if a crowd of Latvian politicians, clergymen, and ACTUAL SS MEN whoop it up in front of a statue dedicated to Nazi troops, then it’s, eh, who cares? Why is this? Well, largely, because Latvia’s a small and not very important country that nobody much cares about. Even so, given all the stuff about human rights and solidarity and equality that flows out of Brussels you’d think somebody in Europe might say… Hang on, all this love for the SS … it’s a bit off. Let’s be clear here… the Latvians faced a terrible choice in World War II. It was basically fight for the devil or… fight for the devil. To be caught between two variants of Satan is an unenviable fate. It’s a tragedy, in fact. However, to pretend otherwise, to treat Nazi collaborators as heroes, is to take that tragedy and render it a travesty.
19 September 2012
Daniel Kalder
RIA-Novosti
2 October 2016. The More Things Change Department… Why Does the USA Support Neo-Nazis?
Tags: Baltic States, Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II, Croatia, Estonia, Galicia, Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galician, Galician nationalism, Galician Uniate, Great Patriotic War, Independent State of Croatia, Latvia, Latvian Legion, Lithuania, Nazi collaborators, political commentary, politics, right-wing, Russia, Russian, Russian history, Soviet Union, SS, traitor, Treason, Ukrainian, United States, USA, USSR, Ustaše, VOV, Waffen SS, war and conflict
Latvian SS VOLUNTEER… Balts flocked to the fascist cause and embraced Nazi racial theory willingly. Perhaps, that’s why they oppress Russian inhabitants of the Baltic states today… and why Galicians and Croats likewise oppress minorities. The USA supports such… spitting on all the World War II vets. All hail American-style “democracy!”
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The more things change, the more that they stay the same. The USA supports states in Europe that proudly parade their collaboration with the fascists in World War II. Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the Ukraine all glorify Nazi collaborators. The USA tells us how “democratic” these countries are. I say that such is a lie, a disgusting fiction… for “democracy” only exists for the favoured “race” in these countries… be a Russian in the Baltic states or the Ukraine or be a Serb in Croatia, and you’ll know what I mean. Let’s not be coy, the USA is cosying up to those who practise Nazi racial theory. That’s evil. I’ll tell you this… Clinton, Johnson, and Trump all slobber in glee over these present-day neo-Nazis. Only Dr Jill would end American support for such filth. Do vote accordingly…
BMD