Posted on March 16, 2010 - by Venik

Riga remembrance sparks Nazi controversy at home and abroad

March in tribute to Latvian units of SS causes anger in Russia and a political headache for David Cameron

The annual commemoration of the Latvian units of the Nazi Waffen-SS does not provoke controversy only in Latvia.

The For Fatherland and Freedom party’s support for the 16 March event will inevitably cause problems for the Conservatives following David Cameron’s decision to ally his party in Europe with the Latvian nationalists.

The march is held by veterans of the Latvian Legion – the name given to the ethnic Latvian formation of the Waffen-SS – to commemorate a three-day battle that took place on the eastern shore of the River Velikaya from 16 March 1944, when the two Latvian SS divisions successfully defended a strategically important hill from Soviet forces.

The date has been marked as symbolic by Latvian nationalists, and a march held every year since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – to the anger of Russia and the Russian-leaning Latvian political parties.

However, there is some dispute in Latvia and abroad over the role played by the Latvian Legion when they fought for the Nazis.

Supporters of the march, including For Fatherland and Freedom, claim the legion veterans were fighting for the independence of Latvia from the Soviets, and that the soldiers fought alongside the Nazis either because they were forced to or because they believed that was the best way to save Latvia from the red army.

However, others claim some Legion soldiers were involved in the slaughter of Jews and other Latvians before joining the Waffen SS.

A significant number of legion soldiers came from the Latvian police, who are alleged to have been responsible for the murder of more than 100,000 Jews before the legion was established in 1943.

It is the annual attendance of the For Fatherland and Freedom party, a relatively small political grouping in Latvia, that has led to Cameron being criticised for his decision to ally the Tories with the party under the banner of the European People’s party.

The foreign secretary, David Miliband, whose mother is a Polish Jew from a family that lost 80 people in the Holocaust said in a speech in October that the Tories joining a group containing the party made him “sick”.

However, his comments were criticised by the Conservatives and the Freedom party insisted they were not Nazi sympathisers.

Original article

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