Vilis HāznersDOJ INS Post-Trial Brief—Annotated

While Alfred Rosenberg was one of the ideologues of Nazism, his plan in this case was not of his own making. From the point Hitler issues his order to prepare for Operation Barbarossa, with the INS's passage highlighted within the Nuremberg records in context (with our emphasis)5:

On 18 December 19406 Hitler issued Directive Number 21, initialled by Keitel and Jodl, which called for the completion of all preparations connected with the realization of "Case Barbarossa" by 15 May 1941. This directive stated:

"The German Armed Forces must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign before the end of the war against England.... Great caution has to be exercised that the intention of an attack will not be recognized."

Before the directive of 18 December had been made, the Defendant Goering had informed General Thomas, Chief of the Office of War Economy of the OKW, of the plan, and General Thomas made surveys of the economic possibilities of the USSR including its raw materials, its power and transport system, and its capacity to produce arms.

In accordance with these surveys, an economic staff for the Eastern territories with many military-economic units (inspectorates, commandos, groups) was created under the supervision of the Defendant Goering. In conjunction with the military command, these units were to achieve the most complete and efficient economic exploitation of the occupied territories in the interest of Germany.

The framework of the future political and economic organization of the occupied territories was designed by the Defendant Rosenberg over a period of 3 months, after conferences with and assistance by the Defendants Keitel, Jodl, Raeder, Funk, Goering, Ribbentrop, and Frick or their representatives. It was made the subject of a most detailed report immediately after the invasion.

These plans outlined the destruction of the Soviet Union as an independent State, and its partition, the creation of so-called Reich Commissariats, and the conversion of Estonia, Latvia, Bielorussia and other territories into German colonies.

Rather than the product of a fanatical theorist, Rosenberg's plan was methodically prepared in response to Hitler's directive and represented the considered output of a committee of senior Nazi officials. It is disingenuous for the INS to represent it as an individual effort, breaking off their citation of the Nuremberg records in mid-sentence.

The INS's account also ignores that the USSR had already invaded and occupied the Baltics—the event which, according to Hitler, factored significantly in his decision to attack the USSR as a threat to Germany. Hitler's definition of "spheres of influence" did not grant Stalin carte blanche to invade and annex the Baltic states, parts of Romania, et al.

That Rosenberg was of Baltic German origin is immaterial to the case of the Latvians, for whom the Germans represented seven unbroken centuries of oppression and hegemony. It is disturbing that the INS

• portrays Rosenberg as the ideologue master planner fomenting for conquest incorporating the Baltics into a vastly expanded Greater Germany,
• then injects that Rosenberg shared his Baltic origins with Hāzners—as if the Baltics were some geographical well of Nazist moral turpitude.

Were the INS intending to portray Rosenberg as the Hitlerite re-imposition of the seven-centuries-long continuum of German hegemony which had subjugated the Latvian people until they declared independence in 1918, their wording would have surely been different. Instead, the INS insinuates Hāzners and Rosenberg shared a common mentality and unity in purpose.

The Red Army was retreating after a brutal year-long occupation which culminated in mass deportations just a week earlier. Of course the Latvians would pursue the Soviets with whatever weapons were abandoned in their wake. The INS seems to imply the Germans had to persuade the Latvians to "cooperate" to do so. Any "cooperation" was circumstantial—at that moment, the Germans were irrelevant.

Alan A. Ryan, Jr.'s insistence that the Department of Justice used only Soviet materials it received in response to specific requests proves false as the INS—an organ of the United States Justice Department—submits Soviet propaganda as history, contending:

• that in July 1941, there was a Latvian Self-Government—there was none; as soon as the Germans arrived, they disbanded whatever pašvaldības (the traditional form of parish administration which survives to this day in Latvia) the Latvians had cobbled together upon the Russian retreat—in more places than not, the Germans arrived to find no one in charge;
• that Dankers was its head—he was not, nor could he have been as he only arrived in Rīga in August.

The INS provides no support for its allegations. There was no Latvian-led administration under either the Soviet or Nazi occupations.

The INS introduces more historical fabrications, this time via witness hearsay, contending:

• that even before the [fictional] Dankers' Self-Government was established, Colonel Veiss was already broadcasting a call to all Latvians to launch ethnic and political cleansing—he did not.

Owing to the thoroughness of Hāzners's attorney's filings,9 we have traced the contention regarding the Veiss broadcast to Mendel Wulfowitz's testimony upon cross examination. This casts doubt on all Wulfowitz's testimony, as the alleged broadcast took place only in Soviet propaganda. As the witnesses appearing against Hāzners had all recently emigrated to Israel from the USSR, Wulfowitz would have experienced first-hand the domestic disinformation campaign conducted against and accusations levelled against Hāzners. That the INS directly and via Wulfowitz parroted Soviet propaganda into the official record exposes the INS's contempt for the "historical facts" it purported to venerate.

Nor can we let the INS's guilt-by-association slur pass without notice, Hāzners having mentioned his friendship with Veiss. Indeed, the INS will eventually close this brief denouncing all the Latvian witnesses as untrustworthy because they are all just Nazi collaborators covering up their crimes.