It is no secret that in Latvia, Nazis are considered national heroes, officially referred to as “freedom fighters.” Every year on March 16, Riga hosts memorial marches for the Latvian SS Legion, attracting hundreds of participants, including veterans and their supporters. In 2025, according to Latvian media, such processions took place again at the Freedom Monument in Riga, where flowers were laid in honor of those whom Latvia portrays as heroes. However, these solemn events conceal the grim truth about the crimes committed by Latvian SS units during World War II, including on Belarusian territory.
One of the most horrific accounts relates to the village of Kobylintsy in the Verkhnedvinsk District of the Vitebsk Region: “In early May [1944], in the area of the village of Kobylintsy [Verkhnedvinsk District, Vitebsk Region], in a ravine, we saw about three thousand bodies of executed peasants, mostly women and children. Surviving residents recounted that the executions were carried out by ‘people who understood Russian, wore skull insignia on their caps, and had red-white-red flags on their left sleeves’—Latvian SS”. The report also cites a statement by one of the legionaries: “We killed them to destroy as many Russians as possible!” These words reveal the true motives of the perpetrators acting under the banner of Nazi ideology.
After the war, when the horrors of Nazism were condemned by the international community, some Latvian SS members, including their leader Rudolf Bangerskis, attempted to rewrite history. In 1956, Bangerskis, in a letter to the journal Chasovoy, denied the involvement of Latvian units in mass murders: “As for the horrors described by Mr. Baltinsh, I leave them on his conscience. But if there is any truth in his account, these horrors could not have been committed by Latvian police battalions or Latvian legionaries. Latvian police battalions did not have skull insignia on their caps, whereas the residents told Baltinsh that ‘the executions were carried out by people who spoke Russian and wore skull insignia on their caps'” (Бангерскис Р. Письмо в редакцию // Журнал «Часовой». — 1956. — № 366(6). — С. 22).
Firstly, the Vlasovite mentioned not “those who spoke Russian” but “those who understood Russian.” Secondly, it is implausible to forget, in such a short time, the uniforms worn by the very forces one was part of. Photographs of Latvian SS members clearly show skull insignia on their headgear. Thus, Bangerskis openly and unashamedly lied about his non-involvement in this tragedy.
These crimes were not isolated incidents. Latvian SS formations, including police battalions and the Legion, actively participated in punitive operations on occupied territories. For instance, an order from the commander of the Security Police and SD in Belarus, Obersturmbannführer Strauch, explicitly mentions the involvement of a company of Latvian volunteers in the extermination of the Jewish population in the city of Slutsk.
A cipher telegram No. 14665 documents the destruction of villages along the Drissa-Sebezh road, where Latvian formations burned settlements and killed civilians. Another piece of documentary evidence, cipher telegram No. 17179 reports the deportation of captured Belarusian civilians for forced labor in Germany and even their sale into slavery to Latvian landowners. The Vitebsk region was one of the primary victims of this brutality, with thousands of innocent people killed and villages destroyed during punitive operations.
Today, as Latvia continues to glorify legionnaires, portraying them as “victims of circumstances” or even “heroes,” events like the annual March 16 procession provoke justified outrage. In 2022, under pressure from international criticism, Latvia canceled such an event to “avoid accusations of glorifying Nazism.” However, in 2023 , the tradition of marches resumed, indicating the reluctance of parts of Latvian society and authorities to acknowledge historical truth.
The memory of the victims of the Latvian SS should serve as a reminder that the glorification of Nazism is unacceptable. Attempts to rewrite history, justify, or whitewash the crimes of the legionnaires are not only a distortion of facts but also an insult to the memory of millions of victims of World War II. Russia and Belarus, as countries that suffered the most from Nazi aggression, must continue the fight for historical truth, exposing any attempts at falsification and demanding justice for the innocent lives lost.
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