Vilis HāznersEpilogue

Soviet era "Latvians are Nazis" propaganda now available on DVD, "coincidentally" released several days before the annual commemoration of the Latvian Legion in 2013.

It was inevitable that the USSR would target Vilis Hāzners for a host of reasons: his staunch anti-Sovietism and work with Radio Free Europe—it would be naive to believe the Soviets were unaware of his role gathering intelligence for the CIA; his leadership role in the Latvian Legion veteran's association, Daugavas Vanagi; and his leadership role and political activism in the post-WW2 Latvian émigré community.

Reviewing the chronology of propaganda and charges against Hāzners:

Given today's Russia has done away with Soviet-era pretenses at diplomacy in its overt hybrid warfare against its neighbors, all of whom it denounces as resurgent fascist states, it is unsurprising that propagandist Soviet accusations live on long after the USSR and Hāzners have both passed into history.

Still, that Hāzners continues to draw the Kremlin's ire is a litmus test by which to judge that Russia is unrepentant in glorifying its Soviet past, never to atone for the atrocities the USSR visited upon its sovereign neighbors. Russia cannot contend it is the sovereign continuation of the USSR and simultaneously insist it bears no responsibility for the crimes of its predecessor—crimes it has continued to perpetrate in the post-Soviet era against Moldova (during Yeltsin's tenure), Georgia, and Ukraine.

Regimes change, but that Russia measures its self-worth by the size of the geopolitical pyramid it dominates—by whatever means necessary—remains constant.

If there were any doubt "Vilis Davovich Hazners aka Khazners"1 was "number one" on the Soviet hit list, twenty years after Daugavas Vanagi, Who are They? was published in the West, then Soviet ambassador-at-large Valerian Zorin lodged accusations against "Vilis Khazners" at the United Nations, as recorded in:

COMMISSION ON НUMAN RIGHTS
Thirty-ninth session
SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 29th MEETING
Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva,
on Monday, 21 February 1983, at 10 a.m.

Valerian Zorin (1902-1986)2

...

32. 1Some 5,000 nazi criminals, responsible for tens of thousands of deaths as recorded by the 2governments of the USSR, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic and other countries, had found a haven from retribution in the United States; some were even working in such places as the State Department and the Pentagon. Articles in United States periodicals on the Barbie case had revealed the names of a number of such criminals; one was a former torturer at Dachau, who had become the head of an air force medical research service in the United States.

33. Even when, occasionally, some of them appeared in court, appeals were made on their behalf on the grounds of justice and impartiality; one recent example was the case of a former chief of police in the 3occupied Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. A number of major war criminals had escaped secretly to the United States at the end of the Second World War and had obtained United States citizenship. Many of them were still working for "Radio Free Europe" and "Radio Freedom". One of them, 4Vilis Khazners, had been in Byelorussia and had "distinguished himself" on one occasion by herding Jews into a synagogue and burning it down. He was one of 300 war criminals still at large and able to conduct anti-Soviet propaganda.

...

Half a century had passed since Daugavas Vanagi, Who are They? was first published in the West, when Soviet propaganda enjoyed a re-release in 2013 on DVD and YouTube. We ran across a promotional article for it on the "Latvia's Russians" web site, registered to Miroslav Mitrofanov (Miroslavs Mitrofanovs), co-chairman of the pro-Kremlin "For Human Rights in United Latvia" party now Latvian Russian Union, and former Latvian parliament member.

Hāzners continues to receive special attention:

Publicist and deputy Nikolay Kabanov was the author of the film devoted to the Nazi occupation of Latvia.

"'I did not plan to release the film exactly on the eve of March 16 [annual commemoration day of the Latvian Legion]. That was [not! — Ed.] a coincidence. But it was more and more urgent for the facts presented in the film to be heard', says Nikolay Kabanov, who made his debut in the genre of documentary cinema.

The film 'Ostland. Night under the swastika.' tells the story of the 1,418 days of the Nazi occupation of Latvia. Noteworthy: the Nazis and their henchmen held out longest on the territory of the [Latvian] Federal Republic. Latvia was the only republic where fighting ('Cauldron of Kurzeme') continued up until the surrender of Germany May 9, 1945.

...

The film ends with a bitter acknowledgment: virtually none of the prominent Nazi collaborators have received retribution. Bangerskis, Veiss, Roberts Osis, Konrads Kalējs, Vilis Hāzners (in the beginning days of the Nazi occupation, he served first in auxiliary battalions of police and then in Riga Order Police) and other prominent war criminals fled first to Germany and then to the West and, as it's said, 'died peacefully in their sleep.'3 Only Arājs was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison in Hamburg, and another well-known member of the team executioner Arājs, Herberts Cukurs, was eliminated in Argentina. That ends the list of convicted torturers.4

Video captures and the film itself follow.

In seeking Russian information on Hāzners's fabricated show trial, we came across evidence that Russian "scholars" are now quoting Gertrude Schneider's allegations originating in Soviet propaganda

Those who follow Russian "defense" of history—meaning, the Soviet propagandist version—would be no stranger to Alexander Dyukov and his "Historical Memory" Foundation—more completely, the Historical Memory Foundation for Contemporary Historic Research supported by the Russian State Archive for Social and Political History. On their own web site, they describe themselves as the "Actual Historical Research Assistance Foundation 'Historical Memory'" and purport to be independent of any steady source of funding, operating on contributions. Dyukov has fashioned a career for himself denouncing the Baltic states, inventing new propaganda and recycling the old, from calling Estonians liars for contending Stalin deported them in cattle cars5 to creating a documentary film blaming Poland for starting World War II.6

Therefore, we were unsurprised to run across the Historical Memory Foundation's 2013 exposé of "archival" evidence against Latvians, including Hāzners: Secrets of Soviet Latvia From the Archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia, by Nikolai Kabanov—who, along with his "documentary" film, apparently had a very busy year.

Кстати, Хазнерс7 в годы войны был штур-мбаннфюрером и начальником Абренского уезда, награжден двумя Железными крестами. Германский историк еврейского происхож-дения Гертруда Шнайдер в книге «Путешествие в террор» назвала Хазнерса одним из организаторов сожжения хоральной синагоги на улице Гоголя, в которой было заперто 300 человек, 4 июля 1941 года.

Incidentally, during the war Hāzners was a 5Sturmbannführer and 6district chief of Abrene, and was 7awarded two Iron Crosses. German historian of Jewish descent 8Gertrude Schneider, in her book “Journey into Terror” named Hazners as one of the organizers of burning the synagogue on Gogol Street, in which 300 [Jews] were locked, on July 4, 1941.

There is no more telling measure of the immense task facing defenders of the Latvian Legion than Russia's regurgitation of KGB propaganda as historical truths after it has been laundered through Western scholars. We have limited our scope here to Schneider's allegations, at the epicenter of the hunt for Latvian Nazis and the baseless defamation of Vilis Hāzners as one of its first and most prominent victims. However, her role subsequent to bringing the propaganda home is merely symptomatic: tragically, for the hopes of any Latvian-Jewish reconciliation—Schneider is not the only scholar to put faith in Soviet lies, or in Nazi publicity constructs promulgating the "Germanless" Holocaust. While she was the right vehicle at the right place in the right time for the KGB, we suspect she was not the only such target identified in the Soviet plot to convey propaganda to the West which indicted Legionnaires and anti-Soviet activists as Nazi war criminals.

Nazi propaganda—often the foundation for Soviet propaganda—presents a similar challenge. Why scholars eagerly believe that eastern Europeans en masse gladly bludgeoned their neighbours to death, routinely smashing infants' skulls, but would dismiss as preposterous were it alleged that a western European did the same, unquestioningly accepting German propaganda that even Nazi officers recoiled in horror at the naked savagery of the Eastern Europeans, is a whole other discussion. That is, all Nazi propaganda is a lie, except all Nazi propaganda about the eastern Europeans and the Baltic states is true.

Alexander Dyukov returned in 2021 with report based on declassified CIA files of alleged Latvian Nazi collaborators who worked for the CIA in anti-Soviet activities. That Latvians worked with or for the CIA is not surprising, as Hāzners's own case demonstrates.

The full report is available at the History Memory Foundation site: Палачи на пенсии Нацистские преступники из Латвии на службе ЦРУ ("Retired Executioners, Nazi criminals from Latvia in the service of the CIA"). Below, its account regarding Hāzners — now 59 years since the KGB targeted him in the original Latvian edition of Daugavas Vanagi, Who are They? (Kas ir Daugavas Vanagi?), published in 1962.

Next to Cīrulis, second from the right in the second row [photograph appearing at the beginning of the report], is Vilis Hāzners. He is five years older and served earlier in the Latvian army, rising to the rank of captain. In the summer of 1941, after Latvia was occupied by the Nazis, Hāzners also joined the police service, but not as a rank-and-file executioner like Cīrulis. In August 1941 Hāzners was 9appointed chief of the “Order Police” in Riga, and a few months later, at the end of November, mass murders of Jews began in the outskirts of the city with the help of the “Order Police” and the “Arājs” team. 10Twenty-five thousand people, including women and young children, were 11murdered in the Rumbula Forest, and shootings continued later. In 1943 Hāzners was transferred to the 12Latvian SS Legion, and in 1944 he became a battalion commander in the 15th Latvian Division, but not in the 34th Regiment, like Cīrulis, but in the 32nd. His last rank in the Waffen SS was Sturmbannführer, which corresponds to a major. After the war Hāzners emigrated to the USA and from 1962 to 1969 was the head of the Daugavas Vanagi society. He also works for Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe, covering human rights violations in the USSR. Hāzners is pictured standing upright, as if in formation, but clasping his hands nervously. He has reason to be worried: the USSR has not forgotten his direct involvement in the mass murder of Jews in Riga and now liberals in the United States are trying to initiate an investigation:

Riga Jews on their way to the execution site in the Rumbula forest. 1941.[Friedrich Jeckeln's men, a squad of twelve, operating six at a time, did all the killing at Rumbula.]
Source: Latvian War Museum

 

Vilis Hāzners in SS uniform, 1944.
Source: wikipedia.org

  

Diagram of the murder in the Rumbula forest from the investigation file of the KGB of the USSR.
Source: Museum “Jews in Latvia”

 

writing in newspapers, making public statements. This is why he had to resign his leadership position at Daugavas Vanagi. Eight years later, in 1977, the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Special Investigations would bring Hāzners’ involvement in the Holocaust to trial — but fortunately for the veteran SS officer, there would be 13forces to derail the case.

That Hāzners had a relationship with the CIA, which it insultingly cut off (see cables of 18 July 1963 and 24 July 1963) as soon as they received copies of Daugavas Vanagi, Who are They? hot off the KGB presses in 1963, is not in dispute. Hāzners gathered information on events, digested news, interviewed visitors, and so on — essentially a low-level analyst. His role as a Holocaust perpetrator is pure KGB propaganda fiction.

Dyukov has upped the ante, contending a Daugavas Vanagi member, Jānis Cīrulis, participated in a Nazi-led genocide in the Soviet Union while a Legionnaire during World War II, naming him and nearly two dozen alleged Latvian criminals in his report. This is clearly intended as an attack against Latvians and the Daugavas Vanagi organization along a broad front both in Latvia and internationally, as demonstrated in calls which have been already made to, and by, Russian authorities.

The release of the report itself was evidently timed to inflame Russian emotions regarding the annual March 16th Latvian Legion commemoration. Events in Latvia and elsewhere were canceled in 2021 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thirty-four years since Hāzner's passing, his reputation among Latvians remains undimmed. No one was more indefatigable in caring for his fellow veterans or more politically active in defending the Latvian people against Soviet tyranny. The Daugavas Vanagi association he helped found has expanded its membership beyond veterans and their families to all who embrace their cultural heritage and support the welfare activities of the Vanagi.

It has been forty-two years since the judicial review of Hāzners's case was handed down, upholding the finding of insufficient evidence and denying Alan A. Ryan, Jr., Neal Sher, et al. the OSI's motion to appeal. Why rehash old news?

The lie that Hāzners got off on a technicality—"issues with pictures"—continues to live a life of its own, as does the Soviet propaganda which instigated the hunt for Latvian Nazis and painted a bulls-eye on Hāzners as the prize trophy. As much as it is obvious to anyone not mired in factless dogma that the U.S. Department of Justice knowingly victimized Hāzners, he was not the only one to suffer.

The INS and Israelis together shattered the hopes both of witnesses who believed in their mission to convict a "known" war criminal and of everyone following the trial, whether in the courtroom or the press, to watch an escaped Nazi finally face justice. Once Hāzners was vindicated, rather than seek the cause of the government's loss in the origin of the accusations against him and a blinding belief Hāzners was guilty, Alan A. Ryan, Jr.8 and others compounded the anguish and anger of the Jewish community by lying9 about the cause of the loss and publicly excoriating the INS for its ineptitude—prompting calls for mob justice. Jewish extremists bombing another Latvian against whom an INS deportation case failed for similar reasons.

The simple fact is that the INS and successor OSI trusted Soviet-originated "evidence" because it served their aims. And they continued to use Soviet evidence after Imants Lešinskis, the very KGB operative who delivered Daugavas Vanagi, Who are They? and Hāzners, by name, into the mainstream to become Nazi-hunting kindling, testified as a defense witness in deportation trials — against the OSI — that the Soviet materials in evidence were propaganda.

When we began our research into the Hāzners case, we knew only that it had originated in Soviet propaganda. But the truth of his prosecution ran deeper, starting with the CIA dropping Hāzners, an invaluable information source and analyst, like a hot potato as soon as they read their copy of Daugavas Vanagi, Who are They?.

U.S. authorities suppressed exonerating evidence and stonewalled Hāzners's defense's requests for records. When it became evident that the government's case would fail, DOJ INS attorney Mark Mendelsohn, present at the trial, expressed satisfaction that whatever the outcome, he had ruined Hāzners's life, that he would never again "feel safe." In their post-trial brief summarizing the Hāzners case, both signatories to the brief: INS attorneys Mark Mendelsohn and Robert Boylan, misrepresented documents and testimony and demonstrably lied on the record. Instead of the "Germanless Holocaust" they purported was described in a German report by cutting off a citation in mid-sentence, that report not only documented the German Einsatzkommando were in charge of Jewish extermination albeit with local collaborator assistance, it even complained to Berlin that the Latvian populace was disinterested in Nazi attempts to incite anti-Semitism. The INS buried Hāzners's exonerating war record provided by German authorities and instead attempted to convict Hāzners based on their implausible, convoluted, and syllogistic conjurings to explain his possible presence at the Rīga Prefecture and Rīga Ghetto when he was elsewhere — and contending that even if he was where he purported to be, he could always take a 15 minute cab ride into town to administer a quick Jew-beating.

Israeli investigators were equally at fault. Their sloppy witness solicitation process consisted of showing photographs to hundreds survivors of the Holocaust in Latvia; some 150-200 were shown Hāzners's photograph, described as a known war criminal, a member of Arājs Kommando. You should have seen this war criminal in Rīga at the Prefecture or at the Ghetto or committing atrocities in the street. Does he look at all familiar to you? We are seeking witnesses to bring this bacteria carrier of the fascist plague10 to justice. False identifications were bound to surface. They kept no record of how many individuals who had been in the Rīga ghetto who did not recognize Hāzners who should have, if he had been present where alleged. Nor had any of the witnesses known Hāzners before, nor did any recognize each other from the Rīga ghetto. Meanwhile, Hāzners had been denounced regularly in Soviet-occupied Latvia as a war criminal for at least a decade and a half prior to the witnesses emigration to Israel. It was impossible for recent Soviet émigrés to not have seen and heard those accusations. One of the former-Soviet-Israeli witnesses even had in their possession a collection of anti-Latvian Soviet propaganda booklets featuring Hāzners's "crimes" and photograph, propaganda which INS attorneys entered into evidence.

For their part, the INS argued that stress and adrenaline would have indelibly and accurately seared Hāzners's image into eyewitness' minds. On the contrary, eyewitness accounts are the principal contributor to misidentification of perpetrators.11

The INS and successor OSI bought into Elizabeth Holtzman's mantra: all Latvians are Nazis. They sought evidence to fit, willfully disregarded and withheld exculpatory records, and resorted to character assassination of Hāzners and defense witnesses when all else failed. The INS and OSI were not only incredibly naive in dealing with the Soviets but also demonstrably prejudiced, introducing propaganda and false statements into the record, driven by a self-righteous crusade to ruin Hāzners at any cost.

Soviet authorities demonstrably usurped the U.S. Department of Justice as a fifth column to persecute the leadership of their most troublesome émigré communities, creating a legacy poisoning Jewish-Latvian relations then, now, and—from all indications—for generations to come.