We reviewed Lowenberg's letter regarding the March 16th commemoration in 2012, but have returned to her again this year in view of the 11-page packet of materials she posted with her exhortation to sign a new petition to stop the annual commemoration of the Latvian Legion.
The West Once Again Silent as Latvia Glorifies its Waffen SS[UPDATED. FIRST PUBLICATION 14 FEB. 2020 UNDER TITLE ‘WILL THE WEST REMAIN SILENT AS LATVIA PREPAREDS (sic.) TO GLORIFY ITS WARTIME WAFFEN SS?’]
By Monica Lowenberg
Since 1998, former Latvian SS have each and every year on the 16th of March been marching in the capital city of Riga to commemorate their fallen colleagues whom they perceive as war heroes. The marches have over the years increased in alarming numbers and have even been publicly condoned by Latvian officials. In the heart of NATO in Riga, more than 2,500 people, amongst them Latvian politicians, have been known to annually pay tribute to 1Latvians who fought on the side of Nazi Germany in Waffen SS detachments during World War II.
In 2012 the Latvian Prime Minister told local media he did not think March 16 had “any special significance.” Legionnaires’ Day is used by radicals on both sides, he said, “to confront each other”! However, we believe Latvia, the international community, the UK government, the European Union and NATO 2should condemn this pro-Nazi event, for which the center of an EU capital is annually gifted by authorities, in morally clear terms. 3Waffen SS veterans are not remotely regarded as legitimate “heroes” by the European Union, of which Latvia has been a full member since 2004.
Please add your voice to the international petition, and see our blogspot, earlier articles and papers available online, and reports on earlier marches in Defending History. A packet of background materials is attached in PDF format and provided below (please use handles at upper left to turn pages).
Examination
Latvians did not "side" with Nazi Germany other than to prevent Soviet re-occupation of Latvia — that is, while the Nazis were on the attack, Latvians were on the defensive. Thus, even in combat, Germans and Latvians had different objectives.
Had Churchill and Roosevelt not already handed Latvia over to Stalin, Latvians might have re-established independence free of both German and Russians in Courland, where the Legion held out until the end of the war.
There is nothing "pro-Nazi" in commemorating the Latvian Legion. Moreover, it is denunciations such as Lowenberg's, calling commemoration a "pro-Nazi" event glorifying murderers of Jews, which attracts the neo-Nazi extremists from outside Latvia to whom Lowenberg then points as "proof" of the commemoration's pro-Nazi roots. She is complicit in creating the very circumstances which provide the "proof" that Latvians are fascists at the "heartland"1 of the rise of neo-Nazism across Europe.
Clearly, the German Waffen-SS — that is,
- spotless Aryan pedigree back to 1800, 1750 for Waffen-SS officers
- cavity-free teeth
- 20/20 vision
- Nazi party members (by definition)2
should not be considered "heroes", nor should they be rehabilitated as many Germans are now striving to do. It is monumentally disingenuous to treat the wholly unrelated Latvian Legion/Waffen grenadier divisions "of the SS", which solely fought against the Red Army under the Wehrmacht and were blameless in the Holocaust, as nothing more than the "Latvian version" of the elite German Waffen-SS and then condemn Latvians for glorifying Nazis.
We continue with an excerpt and summary of Lowenberg's 2020 petition, followed by reviews of each section of Lowenberg's packet of background materials featuring denunciations from the individuals or organizations named and an analysis.
| 1 | For example, see, Efraim Zuroff, One man's journey to the heartland of fascism |
| 2 | These requirements were later relaxed, for example, allowing for several dental fillings and minor vision correction. |