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Herberts Cukurs

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Herberts Cukurs
Cukurs in 1934
Born(1900-05-17)17 May 1900
Liepāja, Courland Governorate, Russian Empire
Died23 February 1965(1965-02-23) (aged 64)
Shangrilá, Uruguay
Cause of deathExtrajudicially executed by the Mossad
Other namesThe Hangman of Riga
OccupationAviator
Known forWar criminal
Pioneer aviator
Involvement in killing of Latvian Jews during the Holocaust
Criminal statusExecuted
SpouseMilda Cukura (née Bērzupe)
ChildrenGunārs, Antinea Dolores, Herberts
Parent(s)Jānis, Anna
MotiveNazism
Conviction(s)N/A
Criminal penaltyN/A
Details
Span of crimes
1941–1945
CountryLatvian Soviet Socialist Republic
Target(s)Jews

Herberts Cukurs, "The Butcher of Latvia" (17 May 1900 – 23 February 1965) was a Latvian aviator[1] and deputy commander of the Arajs Kommando, the Latvian Auxiliary Police Unit founded by Viktors Arājs, which carried out the worst mass murders of Latvian Jews in the Holocaust.[2] Although Cukurs never stood trial (due to fleeing to Brazil and changing his name), multiple Holocaust survivors' accounts, including the testimony of Zelma Shepshelovitz, credibly link him to war crimes and crimes against humanity.[3][4][5] After being identified by a local Holocaust survivor in Brazil, who tried to alert authorities after seeing Cukurs' face on the cover a Brazilian magazine, Cukurs was investigated and ultimately assassinated in 1965 during capture by Nazi hunter operatives from Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.[6][7] One of the Mossad agents who killed Cukurs, "Künzle," and a journalist, Gad Shimron, authored a book on the experience, The Execution of the Hangman of Riga, in which they referred to Cukurs as the "Butcher of Latvia." The term was later picked up by several sources.[8][9][10][11][12]

Aviation career

As a pioneering long-distance pilot, Cukurs won national acclaim for his international solo flights in the 1930s (Latvia-Gambia and Riga-Tokyo).[7] He was awarded the Harmon Trophy for Latvia in 1933, and was considered a national hero, in analogous fashion to Charles Lindbergh.[13]

Cukurs built at least three aircraft of his own design. In 1937 he made a 45,000-kilometre (24,000 nmi; 28,000 mi) tour visiting Japan, China, Indochina and India, flying the C 6 wooden monoplane "Trīs zvaigznes" (registration YL-ABA) of his own creation. The aircraft was powered by a De Havilland Gipsy engine.[14]

Cukurs also designed the Cukurs C-6bis prototype dive bomber in 1940.[15]

Cukurs in Gambia, 1933

Participation in the Arajs Kommando

See also: Burning of the Riga synagogues and Rumbula massacre

During the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941, Cukurs became deputy commander of the newly renamed Latvian Auxiliary Police unit, the Arajs Kommando, which was responsible for carrying out some of the most brutal crimes against humanity in history. The Antisemitic unit already existed prior to World War II, as did walled Jewish ghettos in Latvia, but under the command of Viktors Arājs, and with the full backing of the Sicherheitsdienst(SD), the Nazi security and intelligence service, they launched an organized campaign to liquidate Latvia's large Jewish population. Latvia remained a sovereign nation until 1943, with leadership collaborating with the Third Reich.[7]

In his book The Holocaust in Latvia, 1941-1945, Latvian historian Andrew Ezergailis writes that Cukurs played a leading role in the atrocities that were committed in the Riga ghetto in conjunction with the Rumbula massacre on 30 November 1941.[16] After the war, surviving witnesses reported that Cukurs had been present during the ghetto clearance and fired into the mass of Jewish civilians.

According to eyewitness sources, Cukurs was the most recognizable Latvian SD man at the scene of the Rumbula massacre. Ezergailis states that "although Arājs' men were not the only ones on the ghetto end of the operation, to the degree they participated in the atrocities there, the chief responsibility rests on Herberts Cukurs' shoulders."[17] Cukurs was described as follows:

The Latvian murderer Cukurs got out of a car wearing a pistol (Nagant) in a leather holster at his side. He went to the Latvian guards to give them various instructions. He had certainly been informed in detail about the great catastrophe that awaited us.[5]

Later, Ezergailis retracted these interpretations, saying that in light of new documents, it would be wrong to claim that Cukurs had participated in the Rumbula shooting or the burning of the Riga synagogue.[18] During interviews with the press, Ezergailis stated that there is no evidence that Cukurs had been at the pits at Rumbula, and that it has not been proven that Cukurs was "the most eager shooter of Jews in Latvia".[19]

According to another account, Cukurs also participated in the Burning of the Riga synagogues. According to Bernard Press in his book The Murder of the Jews in Latvia, Cukurs burned the synagogue on Stabu Street, but only after dragging Jews out of the neighboring houses and locking them inside:

Eyewitnesses heard the people who were locked inside screaming for help and saw them breaking the synagogue's windows from inside and trying, like living torches, to get outside. Cukurs shot them with his revolver.[20]

Time magazine reported at the time of Cukurs' death in 1965, his crimes included setting the Riga synagogue fire, executing over 1,200 Jewish civilians (including infants) forced to stand over a lake (so victims fell into the water) in just one of many massacres he carried out, kidnapping and raping Jewish girls and young women at the Arajs Kommando Headquarters, and his participation in the 30 November 1941 murder of 28,000 Jewish people in a forest near Riga.[21] Multiple eyewitnesses said they saw Cukurs snatching infants from the arms of their mothers and shooting them.[22]

Postwar flight and assassination

File:Herbert Cukurs.jpg
Cukurs in 1965, shortly before his death

Cukurs retreated to Germany with German forces.[21] After the war, Cukurs fled to Brazil via the ratlines, to evade justice for his war crimes and genocide. The Brazilian Consulate in Marseille issued the visa for permanent residency on 18 December 1945. The visa did not list the name of the Latvian Jewish woman Cukurs kidnapped and pretended was his wife, but it identified three minor children: Gunārs, Antinea and Herberts.[23]

Once in Brazil, Cukurs established a business in São Paulo, flying Republic RC-3 Seabees on scenic flights. While living in South America, he neither hid nor tried to conceal his identity.[7]

Cukurs is now known to have been assassinated by Nazi hunter Mossad agents,[24] who persuaded him to travel to Uruguay[7] under the pretense of starting an aviation business,[25] after it was learned that he would not stand trial for his participation in the Holocaust. An acquaintance named "Anton Künzle",[24] in reality the disguised Mossad agent Yaakov Meidad who had taken part in the capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960,[26] cabled Cukurs from Montevideo. He was invited to a house in a remote suburb of the city that had just been rented by a man from Vienna. Inside, he was ambushed by a group of men.

Cukurs fought back violently against his attackers. One man later said, "He fought like a lion." At one point, Cukurs bit the finger of one of the hitmen so hard it was nearly severed. Ultimately, however, Cukurs was overwhelmed.[27] He was subdued after one of the men hit him in the head with a hammer. Now helpless, Cukurs started pleading with the men to let him speak before they did anything else. He got no response, and was promptly shot in the head twice with a suppressed automatic pistol, killing him instantly.[21][22] His body, found in a trunk on 6 March, had several gunshot wounds elsewhere, and his skull was shattered. Next to his body, several documents were left pertaining to his involvement in the murder of Jews in the Riga Ghetto.[1]

Media outlets in South America and Germany received a note stating:

Taking into consideration the gravity of the charge leveled against the accused, namely that he personally supervised the killing of more than 30,000 men, women and children, and considering the extreme display of cruelty which the subject showed when carrying out his tasks, the accused Herberts Cukurs is hereby sentenced to death. Accused was executed by those who can never forget, on the 23rd of February, 1965. His body can be found at Casa Cubertini Calle Colombia, Séptima Sección del Departamento de Canelones, Montevideo, Uruguay.[21]

The note was initially dismissed as a prank, but then police were notified and the body was discovered.[21]

One of the main motives of Cukurs's assassination was to deter West Germany from allowing the statute of limitations to expire on Nazi war crimes.[28]

Legacy and controversy

American-born Israeli historian and Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff has pointed out that the fact that Cukurs was not prosecuted has allowed for what he believes are "attempts by right-wing nationalists and his family to totally exonerate Cukurs and by other Latvians to question or diminish his individual culpability" and "to restore him to hero status in Latvia and whitewash his massive guilt".[29]

In 2004 postal envelopes with the image of Cukurs were issued and distributed by National Power Unity, a far-right nationalist political party in Latvia.[30] The act was condemned by Yad Vashem,[31] as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Artis Pabriks in a statement saying that "those who produced such envelopes in Latvia evidently do not understand the tragic history of World War II in Latvia or in Europe". The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Cukurs was "guilty of war crimes", and that he "took part in the activities of the notorious Arajs Kommando, which participated in the Holocaust and was responsible for the killing of innocent civilians. The General Prosecutor's Office of Latvia has twice rejected the exoneration of Herberts Cukurs".[32]

In summer of 2005, an exhibition titled "Herberts Cukurs: The Presumption of Innocence" took place in Liepāja; "organized by K@2, a culture and art NGO run by Swedish documentary director Carl Biorsmark." It consisted of three rooms. First room presented photos of Cukurs' travels as a pilot (pre-WWII), the second featured testimony and witness accounts allegedly "both accusing Cukurs and exonerating him," while the last room displayed only three photos: a portrait of Cukurs, a photo of the man accused of killing him, Anton Künzle, and a gruesome image of a dead body alleged to be Cukurs. Biorsmark, the Swedish-born creator, commented on his own exhibit stating, "This is what artists have to do – stay in the middle and raise question marks," calling his subject, Cukurs, the man recognized throughout the Baltics as responsible for the mass murder of 26,000 people -- "a hot potato." The exhibit faced heavy criticism, and ultimately "led to [a] political scandal involving Aleksandrs Kirsteins, the ultra-nationalist head of Parliament's foreign affairs committee." Per the creator, his controversial gallery exhibit and 52-minute documentary, were based on inexplicable skepticism after allegedly reading a Latvian translation of the book, Execution of the Hangman of Riga. Biorsmark "wanted to know what the other side of the story was - what Cukurs had to say about accusations of his complicity in murder and genocide" -- despite Cukurs being dead for 40 years.[33] Various media commentators, historical societies, and Holocaust Museum leadership and researchers from around the world denounced the Holocaust denial and historical revisionism on display.

The Baltic Times reported that the Simon Wiesenthal Center published evidence against Cukurs in response to the exhibit:

In an editorial that first appeared in the leading daily Diena, Efraim Zuroff, head of the Jerusalem branch of the Simon Wisenthal Center, an organization dedicated to the pursuit of Nazi war criminals, cited testimonies from Israeli archives detailing Cukurs participating in crimes against Jews during the Holocaust in Latvia.[34]

After a letter from the Latvian Jewish community called Biorsmark's exhibit "an attempt to rehabilitate a war criminal," and made mention of Latvian MP, Kirsteins, for his tacit support of the controversial exhibit; he responded with threats "[warning] the Jewish community not to act as it did in 1940 when it 'welcomed' the state's enemies," and espoused further Antisemitic conspiracy theories, stating "Latvia's Jews should rid their ranks of former KGB agents." In response to Kirsteins' public comments, he was expelled from his own Political party (the People's Party), and Parliament attempted to remove him, but without success. After Margers Vestermanis, a Holocaust survivor and researcher and Director of the Jewish Museum, viewed the exhibit -- he wasn't impressed. Vestermanis found that the overall message of the show was, "Jews killed our hero."[35]

Episode 1 of National Geographic's 2009 series Nazi Hunters recreated Mossad's assassination operation of Cukurs.[36]

On 11 October 2014, a musical Cukurs. Herberts Cukurs, produced by Juris Millers, premiered in Liepāja.[37] "We are not Herbert Cukurs' advocates and we are not his judges," Millers said at the premiere, "I hope this performance will make you think."[38] Another performance initially scheduled for 17 March, the day after the Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires, was postponed in fear of "serious provocations".[39] The musical was criticised by Zuroff[40] tweeting he was "utterly disgusted" by it,[41] Russian President Vladimir Putin called the musical a "vivid example" of open manifestations of neo-Nazism that he alleged had become "routine" in Latvia and other Baltic countries. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs said the production “is not in good taste” and "cannot, in any way, be supported", but defended the producer's right to free speech.[42]

In 2020, Stephan Talty published an account of the Mossad's hunt for Cukurs, titled The Good Assassin: How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia.[43]

Notes

  1. ^ a b MONTERO, MIGUEL ÁLVAREZ. "Medio siglo de dos historias de sangre que conmovieron al país". El País. El País. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  2. ^ Stephan Talty (2 April 2021). "Good Assassins". website (Podcast). Diversion Audio & iHeartPodcasts. Retrieved 25 September 2022., Season 1, Episode 1: The Spy & The Murderer
  3. ^ Stephan Talty (2 April 2021). "Good Assassins". website (Podcast). Diversion Audio & iHeartPodcasts. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  4. ^ "Latviannews.lv". Archived from the original on 9 April 2019.
  5. ^ a b Kaufmann, The Destruction of the Latvian Jews, at 81
  6. ^ Aderet, Ofer (1 July 2012). "Mossad agent who helped abduct Eichmann dies at 93". Haaretz. (registration required)
  7. ^ a b c d e Kinstler, Linda (24 May 2022). "Nazi or KGB agent? My search for my grandfather's hidden past". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  8. ^ Press, The Murder of the Jews of Latvia, at pages 69 to 70.
  9. ^ Künzle and Shimron, The Execution of the Hangman of Riga, at page 127.
  10. ^ Lumans, Latvia in World War II, at page 240.
  11. ^ Eksteins, Walking Since Daybreak, at page 150.
  12. ^ Michelson, Max, City of Life, City of Death, at 103.
  13. ^ Operation Last Chance: One Man's Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice, by Efraim Zuroff, Macmillan, Nov 10, 2009 p. 117
  14. ^ "Herberts Cukurs - "the most famous Latvian"". The Apricity Forum: A European Cultural Community. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  15. ^ "Cukurs C-6bis". Airwar.ru. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  16. ^ Ezergailis, Andrievs (1999). Holokausts vācu okupētajā Latvijā 1941–1944 (in Latvian). Riga: Latvijas vēstures institūta apgāds. pp. 222, 230. ISBN 978-9984-601-02-1. OCLC 44502624. Also available in English as: Andrew Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, 1941–1944: The Missing Center (1996), ISBN 9984-9054-3-8.
  17. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at pages 192 and 267, n.55
  18. ^ Andrievs Ezergails (17 October 2014). "Jāmeklē patiesība par Herbertu Cukuru". Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  19. ^ Zuroff, Efraim (25 July 2005). "The Mass Murderer As Hero". Operation Last Chance. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  20. ^ The Murder of the Jews in Latvia, at page 46
  21. ^ a b c d e "Uruguay: Man in the Icebox". Time. 19 March 1965. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2010. (subscription required)
  22. ^ a b Herberts Cukurs: The Assassination Of The Notorious 'Butcher Of Riga' | Nazi Hunters | Timeline, retrieved 18 July 2022
  23. ^ Visa number 42575 issued by Brazilian Consulate in Marseilles France on 18 December 1945.
  24. ^ a b Talty, Stephan (21 April 2020). "How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia". CrimeReads. CrimeReads. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  25. ^ Kuenzle, Anton; Shimron, Gad (2004). The Execution of the Hangman of Riga: The Only Execution of a Nazi War Criminal by the Mossad. London: Vallentine Mitchell. ISBN 978-0-85303-525-1. OCLC 53389986. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  26. ^ Aderet, Ofer (1 July 2012). "Mossad Agent Who Helped Abduct Eichmann Dies at 93". Haaretz. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  27. ^ Shimoni, Mor (30 July 2022). "Yoske Yariv: The Israeli James Bond". Ynetnews. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  28. ^ "Executing the hangman". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  29. ^ Zuroff, Efraim (7 June 2005). "Herberts Cukurs: Certainly Guilty". Simon Wiesenthal Center. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  30. ^ "Yad Vashem Condemns Distribution of Envelope Commemorating Latvian Nazi War Criminal". Yad Vashem. 28 October 2004. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  31. ^ "Yad Vashem Condemns Distribution of Envelope Commemorating Latvian Nazi War Criminal". Yad Vashem. 28 October 2004. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  32. ^ "Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs condemns the issuance of postal envelopes dedicated to Herberts Cukurs". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia. 30 September 2004. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  33. ^ Eglitis, Aaron (15 June 2005). "Artistic quest ignites historic fire". The Baltic Times. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  34. ^ Eglitis, Aaron (15 June 2005). "Artistic quest ignites historic fire". The Baltic Times. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  35. ^ Eglitis, Aaron (15 June 2005). "Artistic quest ignites historic fire". The Baltic Times. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  36. ^ "About Nazi Hunters Show". National Geographic. 15 June 2005. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  37. ^ "Controversial 'war crimes' musical set for premiere". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 1 October 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  38. ^ Collier, Mike (12 October 2014). "Review: Cukurs, Herberts Cukurs". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  39. ^ "Touchy musical postponed to avoid 'serious provocations'". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  40. ^ "Zuroff criticizes Latvian musical about Herberts Cukurs". The Baltic Course. 8 October 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  41. ^ "Nazi-hunter Zuroff condemns Cukurs musical". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 8 October 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  42. ^ "Putin blasts 'Nazi' Latvia against backdrop of controversial musical". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  43. ^ Talty, Stephan (2020). The Good Assassin: How a Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down the Butcher of Latvia. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-1328613080.

References

  • Angrick, Angrej, and Klein, Peter, The "Final Solution" in Riga: Exploitation and Annihilation, 1941-1944, Berghahn Books, 2009 ISBN 978-1-84545-608-5; originally published as (in German) Die „Endlösung“ in Riga., Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-19149-8
  • Ezergailis, Andrew, The Holocaust in Latvia 1941-1944—The Missing Center, Historical Institute of Latvia (in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) Riga 1996 ISBN 9984-9054-3-8
  • Goñi, Uki. The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Perón's Argentina, Granta, New York 2002 ISBN 1-86207-581-6
  • Kaufmann, Max, Die Vernichtung des Judens Lettlands (The Destruction of the Jews of Latvia), Munich, 1947, English translation by Laimdota Mazzarins available on-line as Churbn Lettland -- The Destruction of the Jews of Latvia (all references in this article are to page numbers in the on-line edition)
  • Künzle, Anton, Shimron, Gad, and Massad, Uriel, The Execution of the Hangman of Riga: The Only Execution of a Nazi War Criminal by the Mossad, Mitchell, Valentine & Co., 2004 ISBN 0-85303-525-3
  • Michelson, Max, City of Life, City of Death: Memories of Riga, University Press of Colorado (2001) ISBN 978-0-87081-642-0
  • Press, Bernard, The Murder of the Jews in Latvia, Northwestern University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-8101-1729-0
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