{"id":38,"date":"2022-04-24T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latvians.com\/blog\/?p=38"},"modified":"2024-12-07T20:49:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-08T01:49:02","slug":"latvian-legion-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latvians.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/24\/latvian-legion-redux\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvian Legion redux"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The charges that the Latvian Legion were Nazis, that those who commemorate them are part of the rise of neo-Nazis who glorify the Holocaust, have been unremitting for the past two decades ever since the Kremlin launched its successful hijacking of the anti-Nazi cause and declared Latvians &#8220;Nazis.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"488\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/latvians.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/spiegel-riga.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-39 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/latvians.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/spiegel-riga.jpg 488w, https:\/\/latvians.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/spiegel-riga-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Carefully cropped photograph published in&nbsp;<em>Der Spiegel<\/em>&nbsp;purports to portray Nazis marching in R\u012bga. It is actually a photo of the annual Latvian Legion commemoration procession having arrived at the Freedom Monument (not visible) at the heart of R\u012bga and witnessing the changing of the guard at the monument.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Unsurprisingly the topic came up in conversation on&nbsp;<strong>Twitter<\/strong>&nbsp;that originated with &#8220;Ukrainians are Nazis.&#8221; A 2018&nbsp;<em>Haaretz<\/em>&nbsp;article was cited in conversation as typical of the ubiquitous coverage regarding Latvian Nazis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response, the&nbsp;<em>Haaretz<\/em>&nbsp;article was subsequently reviewed in detail, rebutting its contentions and providing additional historical background, on&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/latvianlegion.org\/index.php?en\/coverage\/level-096-2018haaretz.ssi\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">latvianlegion.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contentions rebutted and key content include (links active):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/latvianlegion.org\/index.php?en\/coverage\/level-096-2018haaretz.ssi#TOC_H_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lie #1\u2009\u2014\u2009The Latvian Legion were part of Hitler&#8217;s genocidal elite Nazi SS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/latvianlegion.org\/index.php?en\/coverage\/level-096-2018haaretz.ssi#TOC_H_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lie #2\u2009\u2014\u2009\u2009The annual Legion commemoration is fully intended to glorify the murder of Jews.<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/latvianlegion.org\/index.php?en\/coverage\/level-096-2018haaretz.ssi#TOC_H_3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lie #3\u2009\u2014\u2009Even were we to believe that the Legion was blameless in the Holocaust, they nevertheless fought against the Red Army, and therefore fought for Nazi victory and the end of Western civilization.<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/latvianlegion.org\/index.php?en\/coverage\/level-096-2018haaretz.ssi#TOC_H_4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lie #4\u2009\u2014\u2009The Legion was involved in war crimes and the Holocaust.<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/latvianlegion.org\/index.php?en\/coverage\/level-096-2018haaretz.ssi#TOC_H_5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Failure to prosecute<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/latvianlegion.org\/index.php?en\/coverage\/level-096-2018haaretz.ssi#TOC_H_6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Additional reading<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The charges that the Latvian Legion were Nazis, that those who commemorate them are part of the rise of neo-Nazis who glorify the Holocaust, have been unremitting for the past two decades ever since the Kremlin launched its successful hijacking of the anti-Nazi cause and declared Latvians &#8220;Nazis.&#8221; Carefully cropped photograph published in&nbsp;Der Spiegel&nbsp;purports to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Latvian Legion redux - Balticum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/latvians.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/24\/latvian-legion-redux\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Latvian Legion redux - Balticum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The charges that the Latvian Legion were Nazis, that those who commemorate them are part of the rise of neo-Nazis who glorify the Holocaust, have been unremitting for the past two decades ever since the Kremlin launched its successful hijacking of the anti-Nazi cause and declared Latvians &#8220;Nazis.&#8221; 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