UK MP GARETH THOMAS WRITES TO LATVIAN AMBASSADOR ... March 11, 2016
Lowenberg includes links to two separate correspondences. The first is Thomas's letter to the Latvian ambassador, Andris Teikmanis, retrieved and reproduced here for commentary.
Re: Legionnaire Remembrance Day events 11 March 2016
Ambassador Andris Teikmanis
Embassy of the Republic of Latvia
45 Nottingham Place
London
W1 U SLY11 March 2016
Your Excellency,
Re: Legionnaire Remembrance Day events
I am writing to you regarding the events planned to mark Legionnaire Remembrance Day on 16th March.
I understand there will be 1two pro-SS marches in Riga on 16th March, and it has been reported that a number of MPs from the National Alliance party plan to attend. It is disappointing that after an absence of two years, MPs have decided to resume their participation in these events which glorify the actions of the Waffen SS during World War II.
My constituent, Monica Lowenberg, has campaigned tirelessly having set up a 2petition in 2012 which was signed by more than 7,000 people worldwide to protest against these marches. Of Latvia's pre-war Jewish population, almost 90% — 70,000 people — were murdered. 3Ms Lowenberg's uncle, Paul Theodor Lowenberg was sent to the Riga Ghetto in October 1941 at the age of 19.
I share my constituents concern that by 4celebrating and glorifying the actions of those who joined the Latvian SS, whether they were 5forcibly conscripted or a minority who were enthusiastic volunteers, Nazism is honoured whilst the victims are dishonoured. Such celebrations also 6give credence to those who are seeking to use a false reading of history to create division, bitterness and hatred for their own ends today.
I would be grateful for your comments on the planned events to mark Legionnaire Remembrance Day on 16th March. Thank you for your assistance.
Yours sincerely
(signed)
Gareth Thomas MP
Harrow West
Examination
The Latvian Legion commemoration is a solemn procession, not some jack-booted goose-stepping march. Moreover, it is reprehensible to suggest the commemoration is "pro-SS" — that is, glorifies Hitler's criminal German SS.
Monica Lowenberg's 2012 petition has nothing to do with the Latvian Legion commemoration. Rather, Lowenberg lodges several complaints with Lithuanian authorities. Any association with the Legion is of Thomas's creation.
The Nazis created both Estonian and Latvian Waffen grenadier (infantry) divisions "of the SS", reporting to the Wehrmacht, but not Lithuanian.
Monica Lowenberg's ire is born of her own extended family's suffering at the hands of the Nazi Holocaust. Latvians who collaborated under the Nazis in the Holocaust will forever be a stain on the Latvian nation. However, the Latvian Legion had no role in that suffering, as Ephraim Zuroff himself affirmed unquestioningly in an interview in 2012.
What "actions" would those be? The Legion lay down their lives to prevent the loss of their homeland, holding out until the end of the war in Courland, continuing to appeal to the western Allies for support to save their homeland. Little did Latvians know that FDR had betrayed Latvia to Stalin before the Legion was even created — and had laughed at the possibility America would engage in armed conflict with the USSR over the matter of the sovereignty of a few still-fledgling Baltic countries.
No crimes are being glorified, only the sacrifice of Latvian lives in defense of one's homeland.
After a year of brutal occupation culminating in mass deportations only a week prior to the Nazi invasion, Latvians were eager to volunteer to pursue the retreating Red Army, particularly as mass graves of the Soviet's victims began to be exhumed. A desire to avenge the loss of loved ones is a normal human reaction. (The Nazi campaign to blame the Soviet's victims on Jewish Bolshevism largely failed. Reports to Berlin complained of Latvian apathy to the Nazis' incitements — Latvians knew who to hold responsible.)
When the Nazis needed more reinforcements on the front, they began illegally conscripting Latvians, the first pressed into service at the beginning of 1942, over a year before the Germans created the Legion.
What is the "false reading of history?" It is not denial that the Latvian Legion were guilty of war crimes — they committed no crime. It is not that the Nazis deserve to be glorified, not condemned. The false reading of history is Thomas's, deserving no credence whatsoever.
Thomas's letter is a masterful denouncement. Having made no actual accusation of criminal behavior, no living member of the Legion could sue him under Britain's stringent libel laws.