This week, seventy years ago, for the second time in less than twenty-five years, German soldiers occupied Latvia. It was the second time in a year that a foreign army had occupied the country. Only a year had elapsed since the Red Army had gobbled-up the three Baltic Countries of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
    On October 5, 1939, Latvia, with the Red Army at its borders, and the German Wehrmacht and the Red Army having just divided Poland between them, executed an agreement with the U.S.S.R., allowing it to station troops within Latvian borders. Similar agreements were reached with the two other Baltic countries of Lithuania and Estonia. Knowing what lay ahead for Latvia, Hitler arranged for the repatriation of all ethnic Germans from Latvia and the other Baltic countries. By early 1940, 51,000 had been relocated from Latvia to the German Reich. Most were resettled in areas recently incorporated into the Reich from Poland, and given homes that had been “vacated” by their Polish owners.
    On March 25, 1940, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov observed that, “...the execution of the pacts progressed satisfactorily and created conditions favorable for a further improvement of the relations between the Soviet Union and these States.”
    In June 1940, Molotov accused the Baltic states of conspiring against the Soviet Union. As the world’s attention was focused on the fall of France and the sound of German jackboots goose stepping down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in the French capital, hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops occupied the three countries, in, “...a further improvement of the relations between the Soviet Union and these States.” Elections were held on July 14, with the results announced, in Moscow, twelve hours before the polls closed! On July 21, 1940, the Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian Soviet Socialist Republics were formed and “requested” admission into the U.S.S.R. They became the 13th, 14th and 15th members, respectively, of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, during the first week of August 1940. Immediately, young men were conscripted into the Red Army, skilled workers were taken to work in Russian factories and the educated were shipped to gulags in Siberia. During the first year of the Soviet system, 35,000 Latvians were relocated - one way or the other.
    Not all ethnic Germans had accepted the Reich’s earlier offer of resettlement. But when a second offer was made, this time with no promises of compensation, 10,500 accepted, after experiencing first-hand the new Soviet system.
    On July 1, 1941, elements of Army Group North, commanded by Field Marshal Baron Wilhelm von Leeb, entered the Latvian capital of Riga. Latvians who had been conscripted into the Red Army deserted in droves, with many turning on their erstwhile comrades and capturing various Latvian villages, ahead of the Germans.
    Behind the Wehrmacht came the Einsatzgruppen. Einsatzgruppe A was attached to Army Group North and was led by Franz Walter Stahlecker. Its mission was to kill Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and undesirable Slavs. Einsatzgruppe A was the most successful of the four Einsatzgruppen. In Latvia, it was assisted by the Arajas Kommando, which was composed of Latvian volunteers and was led by Viktors Arajas.
    At that time there were about forty thousand Jews living in Riga. Within three months more than six thousand had been killed. Many more were confined to Concentration Camps. On July 2nd, Latvian Armuse, wearing red and white armbands, went about the city dragging Jews out of their homes and arresting them. Two days later, the Great Choral Synagogue on Gogol Street was burned with three hundred Jews locked in the basement. This is the date which is now observed in Latvia as the Holocaust Memorial Day.
    The Wehrmacht occupied all of Latvia by July 10. By the end of July, the German Administration was imposing typical German anti-Jewish restrictions on the Jewish Community in Latvia, and in particular, Riga. On July 21st construction of the Riga Ghetto began. That month 4000 Riga Jews were murdered in Bikernieku Forest. By October 25, 1941 thirty-thousand Jews had been concentrated in a small area known as the Moscow Forshpat.
    On July 27th the new Reich’s Commissioner for the Baltic States, Heinrich Lohse, was told that the residents of the Ghettos were to receive, “...only the amount of food that the rest of the population can spare and, in no case, more than is sufficient to sustain life.”  These minimal rations were to continue, “...until such time as more intensive measures for the ‘Final Solution’ can be put into effect.”
    Twenty-four thousand Jews were marched out of the Ghetto on November 30 and December 8, 1941 and shot in the nearby forest of Rumbula. An additional 1000 German Jews were transported from Berlin by train to Riga. After arrival, on November 29, they were kept in the locked trains overnight. At 8:15 A.M they were marched to the forest, where they, too, were shot.
    The 7000 Jews of Liepaja were destroyed, beginning  with the first murders on July 7, 1941. The killings continued almost daily until December 15, when over the course of three days, 2732 more were murdered by the Germans and their Latvian accomplices. Today, the Baltic port of Liepaja is the country’s third largest city, with a population of 83,000.
    In all, 70,000 Latvian Jews and 2000 Gypsies were murdered during the German occupation. Of the number, 26,000 were murdered by the Latvian Arajs Kommando. On December 21, 1979, Viktors Arajs was convicted of his participation in the murders in Rumbula Forest and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1988. Stahlecker was killed on March 23, 1942, by Soviet partisans.
    By the end of 1941, Einsatzgruppe A had been so successful that it had little to keep it occupied, so it switched some of its efforts and resources to Belarus, to assist Einsatzgruppe B.
    Even after the German conquerors had revealed their true selves, Latvia supplied two SS divisions - the 15th and 19th SS Grenadier Divisions, commanded by Herbert von Obwurzer and Bruno Streckenbach, respectively. Latvian men of military age were given a choice of volunteering for the SS and fighting against the Soviets, serving as laborers with the German army, or going to Germany to work in the Reich’s factories.
    The two divisions saw their first major action together on March 16, 1944 on the Velikaya River. March 16 is now celebrated in Latvia as “Latvian Legion Day.” In August 1944, the two Latvian SS divisions, were part of the III SS Panzerkorps, commanded by Felix Steiner, which fought like tigers at the Battle of Narva. The other two divisions in the Panzerkorps were the Estonian SS Grenadier Division, commanded by Franz Augsberger, and the 11th SS Nordland Panzergrenadier Division, which included a regiment of Danes and one of Norwegians, commanded by Joachim Ziegler. The Latvians and Estonians knew the stakes should the Red Army triumph and reoccupy their countries and reincorporate them into the U.S.S.R. In fact, it was the German units which gave way, forcing the Panzerkorps to fall back!
    The 15th SS Grenadier Division ended the war defending Berlin. The 19th SS Grenadier Division ended the war trapped in the Courland Pocket, in Latvia, and was surrendered to the Red Army on May 9, 1945. Most were executed as traitors, since Latvia had been a part of the U.S.S.R.
    Between the people who left, the people who were deported and the people who were killed, Latvia’s population decreased by 25 percent from its pre-war total.

NEXT WEEK: SMOLENSK

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.