DOJ Hazners Brief

witnesses, said the following about the termination of the Self-Defense and the creation of its successor, the Kartibas Dienests:

...

yes, they [Self-Defense forces] were recalled; they had to give their records back and put down their uniforms and that was end of that part (i.e. the Self Defense] and after that there was battalions [Kartibas Dienests] organized. But you could make the distinction between the Self-Defense forces only a month or so and the next period when those groups [Kartibas Dienests] were organized and accepted by the Germans and supplied with weapons and so on.

(Voitkus dep. 161)

Meiers also alluded to the difference between the two organizations:

Q:		You say that the Latvian Self-Defense was working with the German Army?
A:		Under the Germany Army it was later ...
Q:		When you say later, when was that?
A:		It was month later; maybe 3 weeks later.
Q:		Maybe in late July?
A:		Late July it would be, yes.

(Meiers dep. 2.-222)

The existence of two separate entities explains an apparent conflict in the testimony of two of the respondent's Australian witnesses. Meiers, who worked for the Self-Defense from July 2, 1941 until mid-July said he was not paid (Meiers (dep. 15,163), but Sirants, who worked at Annas Street beginning in late July, was. (Sirants dep. 94) In fact, Sirants said that the money came from German sources and the manner of payment (an allotment to the family and one to a savings account) was modeled on that of the German military. Id.

Examination

Commencing on the prior page, the INS expends considerable effort building its collective guilt case:

constructing organizational history;
contending it is therefore "expected" for Hāzners to deny that organizational history because
it confirms his organizational guilt5
1. and the organizational guilt of his associates,
2. who are therefore "expected" to lie to exonerate their cohort in war crimes Hāzners;
thereby confirming Hāzners's personal guilt.

1	Testimony of Verness Voitkus, 2-November-1978, deposition.
2	Testimony of Janis Meiers, 1-November-1978, deposition.
3	Testimony of Janis Meiers, 1-November-1978, deposition.
4	Testimony of Valentins Sirants, 1-November-1978, deposition.
5	e.g., the INS's repeated allegation that Latvians ran Hitler's concentration camps

Updated: September, 2023

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Vilis HāznersDOJ INS Post-Trial Brief—Annotated

Examination