The occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany

Latvian-German relations

Immediately after the occupation began, German authorities in early July 1941 launched a campaign to exterminate the Jewish and Gypsy population. The main massacres took place in Rumbula (the outskirts of Riga). The killings were committed by Einsatzgruppe A and the Wehrmacht . Latvian collaborators , including 500-1500 members of the Arays team (who alone killed about 26 thousand Jews ^[1] ) and other Latvian SD units, also took part in these actions ^{[2] [3]} . By the end of 1941, almost the entire Jewish population in Latvia was exterminated. In addition, about 25 thousand Jews were brought from Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, of which about 20 thousand were killed.

In total, over the years of the Nazi occupation in Latvia , 90 thousand people were killed, including about 70 thousand Jews and 2 thousand Gypsies, who were destroyed as part of the Nazi "racial theory". The remaining victims were mainly civilians, whose political views and activities were unacceptable to the new government.

Resistance to occupation could take many forms. Starting in the fall of 1941, the production of illegal newspapers and leaflets began (the newspaper of the Latvian National Union Tautas Balss (Voice of the People, Ch. Ed. Arthurs Kaminskis), the newspaper of the Perkonkrusts leader Gustavs Tselmins Vestijums (published in the summer of 1943) ), soon renamed Latvju raksti. Brīvā Latvija ("Latvian Articles. Free Latvia"), leaflets of Daugavas Vanagi ("Daugava Hawks"), distributed by the same underground organization, leaflets of the youth group Latvijas Vanagu Organizācija ("Organization of Latvian earlier hawks Melabis Vanags - “Black Hawk”) and others.) In these C MI drew parallels between the Soviet and Nazi regimes, published calls for a boycott of service in occupation institutions, auxiliary police and departure for work in Germany, published appeals aimed at increasing national identity, published materials from Das Schwarze Korps and BBC . Only for the production and distribution of the Voice of the People, from November 1942 to April 1943, 102 people were arrested and 73 were detained; Tselmins in the spring of 1944 was arrested and sent to the concentration camp Flossenbürg , and then Dachau , where he remained until the end of the war. The Nazis considered the youth organization Jaunpulki ("New Squad"), created in early April 1942 by Martins Jansons from young people aged 15-18, to be the most dangerous youth group. Their proclamations called for not to trust the promises of the Nazis (who, according to them, planned to destroy the Latvian nation), not to cooperate with them and to prepare for the struggle “for free Latvia for Latvians”. In June 1942, 7 leading members of the organization, including Jansons, were arrested.

Since the end of 1941, the underground began to organize. One of the first was a group of more than 300 people led by a member of the Democratic Party of the Center, Konstantins акakste, operating in Riga, Jelgava, Liepaja, Ventspils and rural areas. They informed the governments of Western countries and Latvian diplomats abroad about what was happening in Latvia, believing in the victory of the Western Allies in the war. In parallel, in February 1942, the Latvian Social Democratic Labor Party , led by Pauls and Bruno Kalnins , illegally resumed its work, counting on the restoration of independent Latvia on the basis of the 1922 Constitution. The party maintained contacts with the Social Democrats of Estonia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden. On August 13, 1943, a meeting was held between Cakste, Kalnins, as well as representatives of the legal Peasant Union and the Party of Christian Farmers and Catholics of Latgale , at which the Latvian Central Council, the coordinating body of the Latvian resistance, was created. The Council stood on a platform of free and democratic Latvia, independent of Germany and the USSR, hoping for the support of the United States and Great Britain. This body was divided into seven commissions - foreign affairs, military, legal, economic, information (informing Western countries about the situation in Latvia), collective resources and maintaining contacts; the last two were involved in the evacuation of the population from Kurzeme (on May 17, 1945, 4,559 people arrived from Latvia to Sweden). Council members drafted a memorandum to the Western Allies, collecting 190 signatures; Rudolf Bangerskis was invited to sign it, but he refused. Soon, however, the Nazis learned of the memorandum; Alfred Rosenberg even planned to issue signatories to the Communists. In April 1944, many members of the Council, including Chakste, were arrested; On July 12, Bruno Kalnins was also arrested, after which the Council was headed by General Werners Tepfers. The last meeting of the Council took place on September 8, 1944 in Riga. At this meeting, Pauls Kalnins signed a declaration on the restoration of independence of Latvia; the interim government proclaimed the Latvian Central Council. The very next day, however, Kalnins was forced to emigrate.

The Council’s military commission was active, led by General Janis Kurelis and his chief of staff Captain Kristaps Upelnieks . In July 1944, using the order of the head of the SS in the Reichskommissariat Ostland Friedrich Eckeln to form four Aizsarg battalions in Riga , Skriveri , Sloka and Dole, the members of the military commission of the Council convinced the Aizsargs command, and then Eckeln himself, to cede the leadership of the Kurelis battalions. So, in the summer of 1944 in Kurzeme it was possible to form a detachment of several thousand soldiers, to which deserters from the Latvian SS Legion and auxiliary police also joined. The detachment took the oath of allegiance to Latvia and the Latvian constitution; Germany and Hitler were not mentioned in the oath. However, Kurelis and Upelnieks did not take active steps, waiting for a convenient moment, as a result of which on November 12, 1944, the Nazis surrounded, disarmed and arrested members of the detachment. Kurelis was fired and deported to Germany; eight officers led by Upelnieks were shot in Liepaja; three more were sent to the Stutthof concentration camp . Only the battalion of Lieutenant Rubenis survived , but on December 5-9, as a result of battles with the Nazis, he was defeated. The soldiers of the Kurelis group, who managed to avoid arrest, were scattered between the SS troops, Soviet partisans and future "forest brothers"; at the beginning of 1945, according to the Nazis, there were about 400 former "kurelieši" and other soldiers in the forests; in a broadcast of the Central Council of Latvia in February 1945, it was about “two thousand partisans” ^[4] .

There were also Latvians who were engaged in saving Jews from extermination; So, Janis Lipke , risking his life, saved more than 50 Jews.

• Non-aggression pact between Germany and Latvia (June, 1939)
• Non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union (August, 1939)
• The entry of Soviet troops in Latvia
• 15th SS Grenadier Division (1st Latvian)
• 19th SS Grenadier Division (2nd Latvian)
• Occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany

• Zunda A. Vācu okupācijas varas politika Latvijā: nostādnes vēstures literatūrā // LVKR, 3, 186. — 207. lpp.
• Zunda A. “Vācu laiks” Latvijā (1941. — 1945.): Izvērtējums historiogrāfijā // LV, 2003, 3. nr., 107. — 115. lpp.
• Zunda A. Vācijas okupācijas politika Latvijā (1941-1945): vērtējums historiogrāfijā // LVKR, 11, 17. — 29. lpp.
• Evarts E. Nacistu ekonomiskā politika okupētajā Latvijā: historiogrāfisks apskats // LVKR, 10, 352. — 370. lpp.
• Zunda A. Kolaborācija vācu okupētajā Latvijā: nostādnes vēstures literatūrā // LVKR, 7, 141. — 164. lpp.
• Feldmanis I. Nacistu okupācijas politika Latvijā (1941-1945): pētniecības problēmas, iespējamie risinājumi un varianti // Latvijas Vēsture, 2005, 5. nr., 87. — 89. lpp.
• Heinrihs Strods. Latvijas pirmās padomju okupācijas aktīvistu vajāšanas (1941. gada 23. jūnijs - 1945. gads). // LVKR, 16, 106. — 190. lpp.
• Strods H. Zem melnbrūnā zobena. - Riga, 1994.

• LCP deklarācija Sabiedroto nācijām sakarā ar Latvijas okupāciju Latvijas Centrālā padome 1943. gada augustā
• Antonijs Zunda. Latvija nacistu varā (1941-1945)
• Rīkojums par Rīgas pilsētas ielu, laukumu un parku pārdēvēšanu (04.16.1942.)
• A Soviet civilian about to be executed at Preili, Latvia
• Konrad Kalejs
• Saviours and the Saved
• The Holocaust in German-Occupied Latvia
• map of Riga ghetto
• Latvia Under German Occupation in 1943, Latvian Legation, 1944