According to the authors, the Estonian Legionnaires fought a patriotic war distinct from the [Axis]–Soviet conflict. Their stated goal was to defend Estonian territory from the Soviets, after which the Allies would guarantee Estonia’s independence, as they had after World War I (Rent 1997, 136; Gailit 1995; 9–11; Kõverjalg 1994, 86). The struggle of the Estonian Legion against the Soviet Union is presented as a national humanitarian effort, supported by the Estonian people (Gailit 1995; 27, 84; Kõverjalg 1994, 90–1, 129, 143).
This argument that the Estonian Legionnaires fought a separate war mirrors that of Finnish Waffen‐SS veterans (Holmila 2013, 218). It is also similar to that of Waffen‐SS volunteers from [the Third Reich] and other countries, who claim they fought only to defend Europe from Bolshevism (Mackenzie 1997; 137–8; Smith, Poulsen, and Christensen 1999, 95; Carrard 2010; chapter 7; Wilke 2011, 126, 379, 405). Clearly, the ‘separate war thesis,’ or a version of it, has been universally employed by veterans of the [Axis’s] armed forces to distance themselves from the Holocaust and emphasize their patriotism.
In the Estonian memoirs, the depiction of the [Axis] authorities and individual Germans ranges from critical to positive. The behavior of the [Axis] authorities is often attributed to sinister motivations, such as bellicosity, racism, narcissism, and a conqueror’s mentality. Observations about this are made after contact with [Wehrmacht] soldiers and Polish civilians in Latvia and Poland, and after hearing rumors of the brutal mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war and Jews (Rent 1997; 10, 30, 135, 137, 150; Kõverjalg 1994, 58, 70, 101). Gailit displays only general disappointment with [Axis] policy in Estonia, which he attributes to the selfish pursuit of German national interests (1995, 75, 113).
Kõverjalg, however, presents a more mixed image of individual Germans. Initial encounters with [Wehrmacht] soldiers gave him a brave and courteous first impression (Kõverjalg 1994, 54–5). He also writes that the Estonian Legionnaires admired one senior Waffen‐SS officer who died trying to save wounded Estonians (74).
Thus, the Germans appear to be motivated by bravery and honor. This praise, which contradicts previous criticism about German arrogance and brutality, reflects a paradox evident in many accounts by non‐German Waffen‐SS soldiers. That is, that men valued the opportunity to learn from and fight in the [Axis’s] armed forces, while simultaneously being disdainful of the [Third Reich’s] superciliousness and brutality in the occupation of their countries (Carrard 2010; chapter 6; Böhler and Gerwarth 2017; Westerlund 2019, 20–1).
The three authors attribute the actions of the Soviet Union to a desire to destroy and dominate its neighbors. The authors accuse it of war crimes against civilians, such as the bombing of defenseless Estonian cities and the subsequent colonization and Russification of Estonia (Gailit 1995, 112; Rent 1997; 14, 151, 216–17, 219; Kõverjalg 1994, 35; 90, 134–5).
The former narrative derives from the [Axis] propaganda of the time, which constantly railed against ‘terror attacks’ by Allied air forces on [Axis]‐occupied cities (Carrard 2010, chapter 5). The latter narrative reflects the post‐Soviet Baltic view that Soviet occupation represented a targeted genocide against the titular ethnicities, worse than [Axis] occupation (Kaprāns 2016; Radonić 2018, 483; Subotić 2019; chapter 4; Kõresaar 2019, 172).
[…]
The three authors paint a rosy picture of actively and positively motivated Estonians fighting a separate war against Soviet aggressors, unrelated to the crimes of the [Axis]. This narrative is evident in many of the postwar accounts of Waffen‐SS veterans from Germany and elsewhere.
The Estonian Legionnaires attribute the behavior of the [Axis] authorities and some German individuals to various sinister motivations, though the image presented is not entirely negative. This reflects the conflicting attitudes held by non‐German Waffen‐SS soldiers about simultaneously being occupied by a brutal regime, while also being able to train and fight in its prestigious army against the hated Soviets. The behavior of the Soviet regime is attributed to one sinister motivation — the desire to destroy and dominate its neighbors.
This is done so in a way that parrots [Axis] propaganda and reflects the post‐[Soviet] Baltic conception of the Soviet Union as a genocidal régime. The behavior of Soviet individuals is interpreted differently by the authors, yet still in a way that presents the war as an existential struggle between the evil Soviet Union and the good Estonian nation.
[…]
Gailit and Kõverjalg provide several examples of how the patriotism of the Estonian Legionnaires was openly demonstrated through spontaneous singing of the national anthem, refusal to leave Estonian territory, and fighting beneath the national flag (Gailit 1995; 82, 85, 87; Kõverjalg 1994, 69). The idea of the separate war is evident here: the inconvenient fact that the legionnaires fought in Hitler’s army is discarded to create a tale of Estonians battling the Soviets alone.
The memoirs also stress that Estonians shared an affinity with other nationalities who were victims of the Soviet and [Axis] régimes, such as Poles, Jews, and Central Asians (Rent 1997; 12, 143; Kõverjalg 1994, 72, 86). Such self‐victimization and appropriation of the suffering of groups who were targeted for annihilation by the [Axis], with the assistance of non‐German collaborators, is a common feature of Waffen‐SS apologists (Wilke 2011, 126) and the national narratives of post‐[Soviet] states (Radonić 2018; Subotić 2019).
To distance them from the European Estonians and Germans, Soviet NKVD soldiers are portrayed as Asian brutes (Kõverjalg 1994, 35) who contrast starkly with polite, Aryan […] soldiers (54–5). Rent, in a racist manner, believes that “the [Germans’] pattern of behavior reflects the European way of thinking, where trust is natural, versus an Asiatic [Soviet] mind‐set where […] everyone is suspected” (1997, 56).
Comical anecdotes about contact between the Estonians and Soviets during the first Soviet occupation depict the Soviet people as uncultured and backward (Rent 1997, 13; Kõverjalg 1994, 32). Again, the impact of [Axis] propaganda, which demonized the Soviet people as a subhuman, rampaging horde, is evident (Bartov 1991, 152; Carrard 2010; ch. 5; Böhler and Gerwarth 2017).
[…]
The memoir of Visvaldis Lācis […] serves as part of the introduction to his book, The Latvian Legion in the Light of Truth (2006). This attempts to prove the innocence of the Latvian Legion against accusations that it consisted of [Axis] sympathizers and participated in genocide. Instead, Lācis emphasizes that the Latvian Legion was made up of patriots, who fought exclusively against the Red Army for Latvian independence.
The book is written with the contemporary political situation of Latvia in mind: the suffering of Latvians at the hands of the Soviet authorities during World War II is used to trivialize accusations of maltreatment against the contemporary Latvian state by Russian‐speaking politicians (8).
[…]
Of all the [Latvian] authors, only Bankovičs makes one small reference to the Holocaust in the chapter about his surrender to the Soviets. When NKVD officers made him and other legionnaires dig what appeared to be their own graves, he was reminded of rumors he had heard from his neighbors back home — Latvian Jews had been made to dig their own graves before they were murdered by the [Axis] (Bankovičs 2014, 199). This passage is important for three reasons.
Firstly, Bankovičs only mentions the Holocaust in order to compare it to his own situation. He thus appropriates its symbolism for his own victimization as a Latvian Legionnaire, in a manner characteristic of post‐[Soviet] national narratives (Radonić 2018; Subotić 2019). Secondly, by omitting the collaboration of ethnic Latvians in the murder of Latvian Jews, ethnic Latvians are depicted solely as victims of the [Axis] as well.
Thirdly, it demonstrates how the argument that [the Third Reich] was a preferable ally depends on the omission of the consequences of [Axis] occupation for Latvian Jews. The nodal point of Latvia’s Europeanness, which led it to side temporarily with [the Axis] to fight against Soviet ‘barbarism,’ thus depends on the omission of numerically greater [Axis] crimes (Ezergailis 1996a, 229).
Analysis of the three memoirs suggests that the family backgrounds of the authors influenced their perception of the Soviet Union. The memoirs tend to contrast the Latvian and Soviet people. Conversely, they allude to the cultural affinity of Latvians with Germans. [The Third Reich] is presented as the better ally for Latvia at the time through the emphasis of Soviet atrocities, omission of ethnic Latvian involvement in the murder of Latvian Jews, and expression of the hope that the Western Allies would intervene to ensure Latvian independence postwar.
These narrative techniques present Latvia as a rightfully independent nation that shared more with civilized, European [Fascist] Germany than the uncivilized Soviet Union, yet was still a victim of both régimes.
(Emphasis added.)
…wow.
Click here for events that happened today (July 12).
1902: Takeichi Nishi, Axis lieutenant colonel, came to life.
1917: Luigi Gorrini, Axis fighter pilot, existed.
1934: Hermann Göring, the German Reichstag President, announced that his Chancellor was above the law.
1940: Fascist He 111 and Do 17 bombers attacked Allied convoy code named Booty off of Essex and Suffolk, England. In southern England, Fascist Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers attacked Portland and Exeter, losing two aircraft. At Aberdeen, Scotland, somebody intercepted and shot down a He 111 bomber on a reconnaissance mission, but it was able to release one bomb on the city before crashing into the city’s ice rink. As well, Fascist submarine U‐56 attacked British transport ship Dunera with a torpedo in the North Channel between England and Ireland; the torpedo glanced off the ship without exploding; the commanding officer of U‐56 failed to realise that Dunera was carrying, among others, Italian and German prisoners of war bound for Australia. Oops! Aside from that, Fascist submarine U‐99 sank Greek ship Ia in the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Ireland at 0200 hours; three were died but twenty‐seven lived. At 2300 hours, U‐99 struck again and fired a torpedo at Estonian ship Merisaar, but missed; with shots from the deck gun, she stopped the Estonian ship and forced her to sail into the Fascist‐occupied French port of Bordeaux (before reaching Bordeaux, however, a Fascist aircraft would sink her a few days later). Lastly, in the Mediterranean Sea, Fascist bombers attacked British battleship HMS Warspite and cruiser HMS Liverpool between 0850 and 1150 hours. HMS Liverpool took a hit from a dud, but it still killed somebody and wounded two others. One Fascist bomber was shot down by a Sea Gladiator carrier biplane fighter from HMS Eagle.
1941: After Maggiore Baracca set sail for Bordeaux at 0200 hours, Werner Mölders reported that under his command JG 51 had destroyed five hundred Soviet aircraft at the cost of only three casualties during Operation Barbarossa’s first twenty days.
1942: The Axis eliminated the Volkov pocket and took over 30,000 prisoners, including General Andrey Vlasov, and the Third Reich’s 104th Infantry Regiment assaulted the Allied forces in the Tel el Eisa ridge region near El Alamein, Egypt, but they drove off this Axis attack after suffering six hundred casualties. Apart from that, an Axis submarine wolfpack assaulted the Allied convoy OS‐33 west of Madeira archipelago, with U‐116 sinking British ship Cortona (0022 hours; thirty‐one died while twenty‐three lived) and British ship Shaftesbury (0945 hours; everybody aboard survived), U‐201 and U‐116 sinking British ship Cortona and British ship Siris (0413 hours; three died while fifty‐two lived), and U‐582 sinking New Zealand patrol craft HMNZS ML‐1090 and British ship Port Hunter (0147 hours; eighty‐eight died but three lived). Axis submarine U‐129 also sank Allied ship Tachirá southwest of Grand Cayman island; five died but thirty‐three did not.
1943: The Axis and the Soviets engaged in the Battle of Prokhorovka, one of the largest armored engagements of all time. Additionally, Comandante Cappellini (Aquilla III) arrived at Singapore at 1029 hours and unloaded her cargo for the Eastern Axis! She also began to receive some repairs for damage incurred during the journey from Europe to the East Indies.
1944: A V‐1 bomb hit ‘Beechmont House’ in Sevenoaks, Kent in southern England. The house was used as a billet for ATS girls that maintained army vehicles, fortunately most of the girls had left for work, nevertheless two girls died and forty‐four became wounded. The borough of Beckenham received two fatal hits from the flying bombs; the borough would soon become one of the hardest hit areas in South London.
1945: The Axis’s last representatives in the Soviet Union requested a update on the Axis inquiry on the extension of the 1941 nonaggression treaty, getting little in the way of a response. By the way, Wolfram Karl Ludwig Moritz Hermann Freiherr von Richthofen, Axis Field Marshal, dropped dead.