What do you think?
Rate this book
The Latvian Legion According to Independent Observers
71 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
4 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 21, 2014
This small volume is written in order to free the Latvian Legion, which fought alongside the Germans in and outside of Latvia during the Second World War, from accusations of having been Nazis and/or committed war crimes.
Some observations:
The members of the Latvian Legion were to a great extent conscripts rather than volunteers (which was the official German version).
They fought for Latvian independence rather than for the German war objectives.
They were considered with a rather suspicious eye by the German commanders, who know that, should the tide turn, they would not hesitate to turn their weapons against them in order to free Latvia of every occupier.
Nazi Germany had no intention of ever permitting an independent Latvian state.
The members of the Latvian Legion were not Nazis. They were not even allowed to be Nazis, according to Nazi race policy.
Not a single Latvian legionnaire has ever been accused of war crimes outside of the Soviet Union.
The motivation to fight against the Soviet forces originated from the terror experienced by Latvians during the first year of Soviet occupation 1940–1941.
Western allied forces in July, 1945, adopted a policy of not repatriating prisoners of war who were Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish citizens.
Shamefully enough, Sweden did not adopt that same policy, but deported military personal from the Baltic States to the Soviet Union in 1946. This is however not mentioned in this book.
Some observations:
The members of the Latvian Legion were to a great extent conscripts rather than volunteers (which was the official German version).
They fought for Latvian independence rather than for the German war objectives.
They were considered with a rather suspicious eye by the German commanders, who know that, should the tide turn, they would not hesitate to turn their weapons against them in order to free Latvia of every occupier.
Nazi Germany had no intention of ever permitting an independent Latvian state.
The members of the Latvian Legion were not Nazis. They were not even allowed to be Nazis, according to Nazi race policy.
Not a single Latvian legionnaire has ever been accused of war crimes outside of the Soviet Union.
The motivation to fight against the Soviet forces originated from the terror experienced by Latvians during the first year of Soviet occupation 1940–1941.
Western allied forces in July, 1945, adopted a policy of not repatriating prisoners of war who were Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish citizens.
Shamefully enough, Sweden did not adopt that same policy, but deported military personal from the Baltic States to the Soviet Union in 1946. This is however not mentioned in this book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review