European Court in favour of Latvia against Soviet Partisan

[Darth Hoth]

Latvia Welcomes European Court Ruling On Kononov Case

May 17, 2010
Latvia today welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that upholds its war crimes conviction of former Soviet partisan fighter Vasily Kononov, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

The ruling, released today by the Strasbourg-based court, says Latvia did not violate Kononov's human rights by prosecuting him six decades after the end of World War II.

A Latvian court convicted Latvian-born Kononov in 2004 over a 1944 raid by Soviet partisans on a village in which nine civilians, including a pregnant woman, were shot dead.

Latvian prosecutors said the victims were peaceful citizens, but Kononov claimed they had collaborated with Nazi Germany.

with agency reports

I cannot say I have been following this too closely, but from what I gather the Partisans murdered those people because they suspected them of having informed on them to the Germans. Now, if any German unit had done that to local civilians, it would obviously have been considered a war crime. So, assuming that the information is correct, I have nothing in principle against sentencing the people behind it. Certainly putting them to trial would not violate their human rights.

So, what are your thoughts?

[CJvR]

Latvian prosecutors said the victims were peaceful citizens, but Kononov claimed they had collaborated with Nazi Germany.

Just because you fight one of the vilest regimes in history doesnt give you a license to act like scum your self. Particulary not if your side can compete with your enemy in vileness. If the Latvians have a case go for it.

[K. A. Pital]

Partisans often killed collaborators or suspected collaborators without any trial. *shrugs* If Latvia so wants to make a political point, by all means, let them do it.

I fear, however, with SS-men marching down their streets, that point will not be very well understood.

Unlike Germany or other East European nations, no one trusts the Baltic nationalists to handle these affairs in a neutral fashion.

[PeZook]

Partisans often killed collaborators or suspected collaborators without any trial. *shrugs* If Latvia so wants to make a political point, by all means, let them do it.

Lots of others didn't, though. There were a lot of shady gray areas in WWII, but in general I agree with CJvR: some collaborators didn't really have a choice, and murdering them for being forced at gunpoint to reveal information is just wrong. Not to mention that this kind of approach is counterproductive, as it makes people less likely to collaborate with the partisans.

It's the same reason why nobody thinks a partisan fighter who cracked under torture is a traitor.

I fear, however, with SS-men marching down their streets, that point will not be very well understood.

I wouldn't be so sure: the Home Army managed to run an underground court system, and "official" executions (that is, those carried out by soldiers of the underground state) were always ordered only after a trial.

[K. A. Pital]

I fear, however, with SS-men marching down their streets, that point will not be very well understood.

I wouldn't be so sure: the Home Army managed to run an underground court system, and "official" executions (that is, those carried out by soldiers of the underground state) were always ordered only after a trial.

My point was that if it was Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia etc. who did a trial of partisans, it would be different. The Baltic nations have a history of rehabilitating Nazi collaborators, and their impartiality is in question.

[PeZook]

My point was that if it was Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia etc. who did a trial of partisans, it would be different. The Baltic nations have a history of rehabilitating Nazi collaborators, and their impartiality is in question.

Ah, you were referring to the (puzzling) resurgence of modern-day neo nazi movements in the baltic states as "SS men marching through the streets"?

If that's the case, then I misunderstood you.

[CJvR]

In clarification of the Baltic sometimes odd view of the SS it needs to be remembered that the Baltic states were conquered by the Soviets and then "liberated" by the nazis. Needless to say there were quite a few Balts who were willing to fight not to end up under the Soviets again and they ended up in the SS (or one of the SS related subcategories), as did most foreign volunteers in German service.

[fgalkin]

My point was that if it was Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia etc. who did a trial of partisans, it would be different. The Baltic nations have a history of rehabilitating Nazi collaborators, and their impartiality is in question.

Ah, you were referring to the (puzzling) resurgence of modern-day neo nazi movements in the baltic states as "SS men marching through the streets"?

If that's the case, then I misunderstood you.

No, I think he's referring to things like this. If you try Soviet partisans for war crimes, yet allow memorial parades of Waffen SS veterans in your own capital, what kind of message are you sending?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[PeZook]

No, I think he's referring to things like this. If you try Soviet partisans for war crimes, yet allow memorial parades of Waffen SS veterans in your own capital, what kind of message are you sending?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Hooooooooly shit...fuck! I didn't know about that!

[Kane Starkiller]

As I understand it that is the Latvian Legion Day commemorating Latvian soldiers within Waffen SS primarily from the perspective of their fight against USSR occupation rather than glorifying Third Reich or antisemitic policies.

[Tiriol]

As I understand it that is the Latvian Legion Day commemorating Latvian soldiers within Waffen SS primarily from the perspective of their fight against USSR occupation rather than glorifying Third Reich or antisemitic policies.

That's how I've understood it as well. They don't necessarily consider the SS and the Nazi regime to be good or even decent, but they happen to think that their fight against Soviet occupiers was just, or at least those who joined the ranks of the Waffen-SS did so to protect their homeland against the invading force.

[Molyneux]

As I understand it that is the Latvian Legion Day commemorating Latvian soldiers within Waffen SS primarily from the perspective of their fight against USSR occupation rather than glorifying Third Reich or antisemitic policies.

That definitely seems to be the focus of the article mentioned a few posts above.

Conscripted by both sides, and forced to fight...fuck, I hate people sometimes.

[MarshalPurnell]

The original declaration at Nuremburg criminalizing the Waffen-SS excepted those individuals conscripted into the SS after January 1943. This was because the Estonian and Latvian SS divisions were filled out with conscripts rather than volunteers, and were not furnished with the extensive political indoctrination of earlier formations. They were presented as the only concession allowed by Nazi Germany to the desire to form a national army to defend the Baltic States, and as such were considered by the Western Allies as a corpus separatum from the rest of the SS. This was reiterated by the US High Commission in Germany and the US Displaced Persons Committee in 1950, which indicated the Baltic Legions were not to be considered a movement hostile to the United States, unlike the rest of the SS.

Collaboration by Soviet citizens with the German authorities deserves the utmost scorn. The Balts, however, were not Soviet citizens, having been illegally occupied and annexed against their will by the Soviet Union only a year before the German invasion. That they would choose to side with the Germans is a measure of how deeply (and justifiably) the Latvians and Estonians hated the Russian occupation, as well as the comparative mildness of Nazi rule over the area. The complicity of Latvians and Estonians in eliminating their Jewish populations on the other hand should be a matter for considerable national reflection, just as it should be for the other peoples of Eastern Europe. The stridently critical, if not openly irredentist, attitude of ethnic Russians both domestic and external toward the nationhood of the Baltic states, is an obvious obstacle to open reflection on the past. Hostility from a traditional enemy only causes peoples to cling more tightly to romanticized historical myths and national heroes. In any case it is overwhelmingly obvious that most Estonians and Latvians (like the Finns) went to war over legitimate grievances about Soviet aggression rather than any fanatical adherence to Nazi ideology.

[K. A. Pital]

There's a problem with rehabilitating any units of the Waffen-SS, including the Baltic ones, because they often included police battalions which executed the Nazi genocide in the East; for example, the Arajs commando, etc.

That's not the only problem as well - the Baltic nations have been piss poor at prosecuting Nazi collaborators and war criminals.

Why “Operation: Last Chance” Is Being Launched in the Baltics?

There are numerous reasons why the Baltics were chosen as the initial place to implement “Operation: Last Chance.” While several relate to the specific nature of the events of the Holocaust in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, others are a product of practical and technical considerations. The most important are the following:

1. These countries had the highest victimology rate in Europe during the Holocaust. Not only were the local Jewish communities almost completely annihilated but many thousands of Jews from other countries (Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and France) were deported to the Baltics and murdered in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
2. The extremely large number of local collaborators who actively participated in the mass murder of the local Jewish communities and Jews deported to these countries.
3. The fact that local police units from each of the Baltic countries were sent abroad, where they actively participated in the mass murder of Jews (especially in Belarus and Poland.)
4. Following the occupation of the Baltics by the Soviet Union in 1944, many Nazi war criminals were prosecuted and convicted by the Soviet authorities. These individuals can testify regarding crimes committed during the Holocaust that they personally witnessed without fear of prosecution
5. The fact that there has not been a single prosecution of a local Nazi war criminal – in which the defendant was healthy enough to attend the trial and bear punishment if convicted – in any of the three Baltic countries makes the efforts to bring the guilty to justice of unique significance for Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian society.