The Accused

There is no better measure of the persistence of accusations against Latvians than propaganda. Indeed, Vilis Hāzners features prominently in Soviet/Russian propaganda as a murderer of hundreds of Jews from 1961 through 2021 — a span of 60 years. Rogues' galleries such as the following, including Latvians, appear in Internet searches. As with all propaganda, lists of the accused feature both the guilty and the innocent.

Nazi criminals during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945: 1. Boleslavs Maikovskis, 2. Stasis Cenkus, 3. Kārlis Detlavs, 4. Vincentas Brizgis, 5. Karl Linnas, 6. Vilis Hāzners, 7. Edgar Laipenieks, 8. Cherim Soobtsokov, 9. Fyodor Fedorenko, 10. Mecis Paskevicius, 11. Talivāldis Kārkliņš (center). Reproduction of a photo. — caption per Sputnik (Kremlin) media

Prof. Andrew Ezergailis lists 13 US court cases brought against Latvians in his Holocaust in Latvia.1 However, it is only a starting point where Latvians are concerned. The ranks of the falsely accused frequently mentioned include Vilis Janums, Rūdolfs Bangerskis, Roberts Osis, Alfreds Jānis Bērziņš, the aforementioned Vilis Hāzners, Jānis Zēgners, Jānis Platais, Arvīds Oše, Arvīds Kripens, Oskars Perro, Pēteris Vītols, Voldemārs Zamuels, and many others.2 The attraction of that propaganda to Nazi hunters ought not be underestimated. For example, in 1986, pointedly on Latvia's Independence Day — November 18th, Simon Wiesenthal Center head Efraim Zuroff sent the names of Latvian Legionnaires named in discredited KGB propaganda materials from the 1960's to Sweden demanding all those living in Sweden be charged as war criminals. When Swedish declined to act, allegedly because the statute of limitations had expired, Zuroff publicly excoriated them — still grinding the proverbial ax in 2002.

"(Alleged positions)" are taken from Christoph Schiessel's similar list in Alleged Nazi Collaborators in the United States after World War II (link is to our book review and analysis). Annotations are primarily from Holocaust in Latvia.

• Bogdanovs, Boļeslavs (Arājs Kommando, SD). U.S. District Court of Hartford, Connecticut, 1983. Deceased. Unfinished. SD units operated without written orders wherever possible, but in one case, Bogdanovs signed for Jewish women to be released from a hospital.
• Detlavs, Kārlis (Arājs Kommando, SD). United States Immigration Court, Baltimore, Maryland, 1979. Acquitted. Deceased. Detlavs claimed he served in a police battalion, not the SD.
• Didrichsons, Valdis (Arājs Kommando, SD). U.S. District Court Seattle, Washington, 1988. Settled out of court. Deceased. Similarly to Detlavs, he claimed he served in a police battalion, not the SD.
• Hāzners, Vilis (Schutzmannschaft, actually Selbstschutz). United States Immigration Court, Albany, N.Y., 1977-81. Acquitted. Deceased. Hāzners was a prime target of Soviet propaganda and Israeli witnesses coached to identify him. His was the first case adjudicated against a "Latvian Nazi."
• Inde, Edgars (Arājs Kommando, SD). U.S. District Court of St. Paul, Minnesota, 1988. Unfinished. Deceased. We fond mention of Inde being No. 3. (anti-tank) Company commander in the Latvian Legion, 15. Division Waffen SS.
• Kalējs, Kondrāts (Arājs Kommando, SD). U.S. District Court, Chicago, Illinois, 1984. Found deportable and was deported to Australia.
• Kārkliņš, Tālivaldis (policeman and camp commandant). (1981) Unfinished. Deceased. He was accused of being the commandant of the Madona concentration camp where Latvian Jews were allegedly interned, starved, beaten, and killed. There was a camp in Madona, but it was not a concentration camp for Jews. (This also relates to the charges against Sproģis, following.) While not the commandant, Kārkliņš was an overseer at the camp. These charges date to 1963 and the Soviet anti-Latvian campaign.
• Kauls, Juris (deputy chief in series of camps). U.S. District Court, Phoenix, Arizona, 1988. Fled from the United States to Germany.
• Kiršteins, Miķelis (Arājs Kommando, SD). U.S. District Court, Second Circuit, New York, 1988. Out of court settlement. Deceased.
• Laipenieks, Edgars (political police). U.S. Immigration Court, San Diego, California, 1982-86. Acquitted. Like Hāzners, Laipenieks was prominently targeted in Soviet propaganda.
• Mačs, Edmunds. Lutheran pastor accused of killing Jews, died in U.S. in 1991; not in Ezergailis's list but Ezergailis does list him in his research as a Nazi German agent3
• Maikovskis, Boļeslavs (police chief). U.S. District Court, Second District New York, 1976. Found deportable in 1987. Fled to Germany. The Münster Landgericht, Germany, tried him but due to Maikovskis’ old age the case was discontinued in April 1994. Maikovsis was featured prominently in a Soviet show trial. The only anti-Jewish action we could find was that as police chief he had signed a list of confiscated goods. Accusations transmorgrified Maikovskis from a messenger to a perpetrator. Recall, Latvia was occupied. The Germans shot Latvians who failed to comply with orders.
• Sproģis, Elmārs (assistant police chief). New York District Court, Eastern District of New York, 1982-85. Acquitted. Deceased. Sproģis was another target of Soviet propaganda, in particular fashioning the camp in Madona to be a concentration camp of Jews and accusing Latvians involved there of killing Jews. Madona had a small Jewish population. Testimony established it was an SD unit from Rīga that killed approximately 100 of the town's Jews.
• Trucis, Arnolds (auxiliary police). United States Immigration Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1980. Unfinished. Deceased. Trucis had in fact served in the SD.

We investigate the case of Vilis Hāzners, the first "Nazi hunter"-originated case the US DOJ lodged against a Latvian.