Arajs Kommando
Arajs Kommando | |
---|---|
German: Sonderkommando Arajs Latvian: Arāja komanda | |
Active | 1941—1944 |
Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
Branch | Sicherheitsdienst |
Size | from >100 (July 1941) to 1200 (1943) |
War crimes | The Holocaust in Latvia The Holocaust in Belarus |
Commanders | |
Commander | Viktors Arājs |
Deputy commander | Herberts Cukurs |
The Arajs Kommando (also: Sonderkommando Arajs;
Formation
After the entry of the
Activities
The Arajs Kommando unit actively participated in a variety of Nazi atrocities, including the killing of
As can be seen in contemporary Nazi newsreels, part of a campaign to create the perception that the Holocaust in the Baltics was local, and not Nazi-directed, the Arajs Kommando figured prominently in the
The unit numbered about 300–500 men during the period that it participated in the killings of Latvian Jews, and up to 1,500 members at its peak at the height of its involvement in
Prosecution
A total of 356 Arajs Kommando members have been identified. Between 1944 and 1966, 352 of them were prosecuted by the Soviets, albeit one case was later suspended.[7]
Sentence | Number of those sentenced |
---|---|
Death | 44 (30 executed) |
25 years imprisonment with hard labor | 156 |
20 years imprisonment with hard labor | 36 |
15–18 years imprisonment with hard labor | 43 |
15 years imprisonment with hard labor | 10 |
10 years imprisonment with hard labor | 76 |
Fourteen of the death sentences were never carried out since the Soviets temporarily abolished capital punishment between 1947 and 1949, thus saving the lives of those tried and condemned during that time period. The most frequently imposed sentence was 25 years in prison with hard labor, and forfeiture of civil rights for five years, plus forfeiture of all property. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Latvian courts rehabilitated more than 40 of those convicted despite overwhelming evidence in virtually all of the cases.[7][8]
After successfully hiding in West Germany for several decades after the war under an assumed name, Viktors Arājs was eventually identified by a former colleague, arrested, tried, and imprisoned for his crimes. Arājs died in prison in 1988.
Herberts Cukurs, a deputy commander of the Arajs Kommado, was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad in 1965. While living in Brazil, Cukurs was befriended by a German-speaking Mossad agent, who lured him to Uruguay, where Cukurs was ambushed, restrained, and summarily executed.[9]
More recently, the governments of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia were involved in attempts to extradite Konrāds Kalējs, a former officer of the Arajs Kommando,[10] to Latvia for trial on charges of genocide. Kalējs died in 2001 in Australia before the extradition could proceed, maintaining his innocence to the end, stating that he was fighting Russia on the Eastern Front or studying at university when the slaughter of Jews took place in 1941. Historian of the Latvian Holocaust Andrew Ezergailis claimed that about a third of the Arājs Kommando, 500 out of a maximum of around 1,500 total members, actively participated in the killings of Jews, and pointed out that one cannot be convicted of crimes against humanity based solely on membership in an organization.[11]
References
- S2CID 159733077.
- ^ a b c Ruth Bettina Birn and Volker Riess. "Revising the Holocaust". The Historical Journal, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Mar., 1997), pp. 195-215. Published by: Cambridge University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020959
- ISBN 9781845456085.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8232-2627-6.
- OCLC 33403580.
- ISSN 1407-6330.
- ^ ISBN 9984601927.
- ^ "BBC News | EUROPE | Latvia killers rehabilitated". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
- ^ Kinstler, Linda (24 May 2022). "Nazi or KGB agent? My search for my grandfather's hidden past". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
- ^ "Konrad Kalejs: Target for Nazi hunters". BBC News. 3 January 2000.
- ^ Kalejs Not Necessarily Implicated, Reuters News Service, filed January 13, 2000, Canberra
Further reading
- Lumans, Valdis O. (2006). Latvia in World War II. World War II—The Global, Human, and Ethical Dimension 11. New York: Fordham University Press. OCLC 64595899.
- Angrick, Andrej; Klein, Peter (2006). Die "Endlösung" in Riga: Ausbeutung und Vernichtung 1941–1944 (in German). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. OCLC 69983159.
- Foreign Ministry of Latvia: The Holocaust in German-Occupied Latvia