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The Holocaust in Estonia

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Holocaust in Estonia are the Nazi crimes during the Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany. Round-ups and killings of Jews began immediately following the arrival of the first German troops in July 7, 1941, who were closely followed by the extermination squad Einsatzkommando (Sonderkommando) 1A under Martin Sandberger, part of Einsatzgruppe A led by Walter Stahlecker. Arrests and executions continued as the Germans, with the assistance of local collaborators, advanced through Estonia. Unlike German forces, some support apparently existed among an undefined segment of the Estonian population for anti-Jewish actions on the political level. The standard form used for the cleansing operations was arrest 'because of communist activity'. Estonia became a part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland. A Sicherheitspolizei (Estonian Security Police) was established for internal security under the leadership of Ain-Ervin Mere in 1942. Estonia was declared Judenfrei quite early by the German occupation regime at the Wannsee Conference. [1]

Jaanilinn, Estonia (now Russia).

Jews that had remained in Estonia (921 according to Martin Sandberger, 929 according to Evgenia Goorin-Loov and 963 according to Walter Stahlecker) were killed. [2] Fewer than a dozen Estonian Jews are known to have survived the war in Estonia. The Nazi regime also established 22 concentration and labor camps on occupied Estonian territory for foreign Jews. The largest, Vaivara concentration camp housed 1,300 prisoners at a time. These prisoners were mainly Jews, with smaller groups of Russians, Dutch, and Estonians.[3] Several thousand foreign Jews were killed at the Kalevi-Liiva camp. [1] Four Estonians most responsible for the murders at Kalevi-Liiva were accused at war crimes trials in 1961. Two were later executed, while the Soviet occupation authorities were unable to press charges against two who lived in exile. About 75% of Estonia's Jewish community, aware of the fate that otherwise awaited them, managed to escape to the Soviet Union; virtually all the remainder (between 950 and 1,000 people) were killed by Einsatzgruppe A and local collaborators before the end of 1941.[4] There were, prior to the war, approximately 4,300 Estonian Jews. After the Soviet occupation many Jewish people were deported to Siberia along with other Estonians. It is estimated that 500 Jews suffered this fate. With the invasion of the Baltics, it was the intention of the Nazi government to use the Baltics countries as their main area of mass genocide. Consequently, Jews from countries outside the Baltics were shipped there to be exterminated. [5] and an estimated 10,000 Jews were killed in Estonia after having been deported to camps there from elsewhere in Eastern Europe. [6] There have been knowingly 7 ethnic Estonians: Ralf Gerrets, Ain-Ervin Mere, Jaan Viik, Juhan Jüriste, Karl Linnas, Aleksander Laak and Ervin Viks who have faced trials for crimes against humanity committed during the Nazi occupation in Estonia. The accused were charged with murdering up to 5000 German and Czechoslovakian Jews and Romani people near the Kalevi-Liiva concentration camp in 1942-1943. Ain-Ervin Mere, commander of the Estonian Security Police (Group B of the Sicherheitspolizei) under the Estonian Self-Administration, was tried in absentia.

Map titled "Jewish Executions Carried Out by Einsatzgruppe A" from the December 1941 Jager Report by the commander of a Nazi death squad. Marked "Secret Reich Matter," the map shows the number of Jews shot in Ostland, and reads at the bottom: "the estimated number of Jews still on hand is 128,000". Estonia is marked as judenfrei.

Before the trial he was an active member of the Estonian community in England, contributing to Estonian language publications.[7] At the time of the trial he was however held in captivity, accused of murder. He was never deported[8] and died a free man in England in 1969. Ralf Gerrets, the deputy commandant at the Jägala camp. Jaan Viik, (Jan Wijk, Ian Viik), a guard at the Jägala labor camp was singled out for prosecution out of the hundreds of Estonian camp guards and police for his particular brutality.[9] He was testified as throwing small children into the air and shooting them. He did not deny the charge.[10] A fourth accused, camp commandant, Aleksander Laak (Alexander Laak) was discovered in Canada but committed suicide. According to testimony of the survivors, at least two transports with about 2,100-2,150 people[11], arrived at the railway station at Raasiku, one from Theresienstadt (Terezin) with Czechoslovakian Jews and one from Berlin with German citizens. Around 1,700-1,750 people, mainly Jews, not selected for work at the Jägala camp were taken to Kalevi-Liiva and shot.[11] Transport Be 1.9.1942 from Theresienstadt arrived at the Raasiku station on September 5, 1942, after a five day trip.[12][13] According to testimony by one of the accused, Gerrets, eight busloads of Estonian auxiliary police had arrived from Tallinn[13]. A selection process was supervised by Ain-Ervin Mere, chief of Sicherheitspolizei in Estonia; those not selected for slave labor were sent by bus to an execution site near the camp. Later the police[13] in teams of 6 to 8 men[11] would execute the Jews by machine gun fire, on other hand, during later investigation some guards of camp denied participation of police and said that execution was done by camp personnel[11]. On the first day a total of 900 people were murdered in this way.[13][11] Gerrets told that he had fired a pistol at a victim who was still making noises in the pile of bodies.[13][10] The whole operation was directed by Obersturmführer Heinrich Bergmann and Oberscharführer J. Geese.[11][13] Few witnesses pointed out Heinrich Bergmann as the key figure behind the extermination of Estonian gypsies. Usually able bodied men were selected to work on the oil shale mines in northeastern Estonia. Women, children, and old people would be executed on arrival. In the case Be 1.9.1942 however, the only ones chosen for labor and to survive the war were a small group of young women who were taken through concentration camps in Estonia, Poland and Germany to Bergen-Belsen, where they were liberated.[14] Camp commandant Laak used the women as sex slaves, killing at least one who refused to comply.[15] According to an article published by the journal "Contemporary European History" in 2001,

"In 1942, transports of Jews from other countries arrived, and their murder and incarceration in slave labour camps was organised and supervised by German and Estonian officials (including Mere and the German head of A-IV). The final act of liquidating the Klooga concentration camp, which involved the mass-shooting of roughly 2,000 prisoners, were committed by Estonians under German command, that is by units of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) and (presumably) the Schutzmannschaftsbataillon of the KdS. Survivors report that, during this period when Jewish slave labourers were visible, the Estonian population in part attempted to help the Jews by providing food and so on."[16][17]

File:Klooga.jpg
Corpses of inmates from Klooga concentration camp stacked for burning.

A number of foreign witnesses were heard at the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia, including five women, who had been transported on Be 1.9.1942 from Theresienstadt.[13]

"The accused Mere, Gerrets and Viik actively participated in crimes and mass killings that were perpetrated by the Nazi invaders on the territory of the Estonian SSR. In accordance with the Nazi racial theory, the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst were instructed to exterminate the Jews and Gypsies. For that end in August-September 1941 Mere and his collaborators set up a death camp at Jägala, 30 km from Tallinn. Mere put Aleksander Laak in charge of the camp; Ralf Gerrets was appointed his deputy. On 5 September 1942 a train with approximately 1,500 Czechoslovak citizens arrived to the Raasiku railway station. Mere, Laak and Gerrets personally selected who of them should be executed and who should be moved to the Jägala death camp. More than 1,000 people, mostly children, the old, and the infirm, were translocated to a wasteland at Kalevi-Liiva where they were monstrously executed in a special pit. In mid-September the second troop train with 1,500 prisoners arrived to the railway station from Germany. Mere, Laak, and Gerrets selected another thousand victims that were condemned by them to extermination. This group of prisoners, which included nursing women and their new-born babies, were transported to Kalevi-Liiva where they were killed. In March 1943 the personnel of the Kalevi-Liiva camp executed about fifty Gypsies, half of which were under 5 years of age. Also were executed 60 Gypsy children of school age..."[9]

Eesti Omakaitse (Estonian Selbstschutz; approximately between 1000 and 1200 men) were directly involved in criminal acts, taking part in the round-up (and possibly killing) of 200 Roma people and 950 Jews.[18] 15,000 Soviet POW died in Estonia because of hard living, or were executed.[18] Units of Estonian auxiliary police participated in the extermination of the Jews in Estonia and Pskov region of Russia and provided guards for concentration camps for Jews and Soviet POWs (Jägala, Vaivara, Klooga, Lagedi), where the prisoners were killed - despite the criminal activities in which numbers of policemen were engaged.[18] All members of Police Department B-IV did participate in such crimes. From 1941 to 1943 Karl Linnas had commanded a Nazi concentration camp at Tartu, Estonia, where he directed and personally took part in the murder of thousands of men, women, and children who were herded into anti-tank ditches. Batallion Narwa was formed from the first 800 men of the Legion to have finished their training at Dębica (Heidelager in 1943), being sent in April 1943 to join the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division Wiking in Reichskommissariat Ukraine. On May 5, 1943 the 3rd Estonian Waffen-SS brigade was formed and sent to front near Nevel. The Estonian military and police units made a significant war contribution fighting for the German Armed Forces.[19] The Estonian Government in Exile and its precedent National Committee lead by Jüri Uluots, the acting Head of State pursuant to the Constitution of Estonia supported the illegal conscription of Estonian citizens to the German forces. Jüri Uluots, the last constitutional prime minister of the Republic of Estonia,[20] the leader of the Estonian underground government delivered a radio address on February 7 that implored all able-bodied men born from 1904 through 1923 to report for military service. Since the reestablishment of the Estonian independence markers were put in place for the 60th anniversary of the mass executions that were carried out at the Lagedi, Vaivara and Klooga (Kalevi-Liiva) camps in September 1944. [21] On February 5 1945 in Berlin, Ain-Ervin Mere founded the Eesti Vabadusliit together with SS-Obersturmbannführer Harald Riipalu.[22] He was sentenced to the capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia but was not extradited by Great Britain and died there in peace. As Estonian prosecutors have closed the case of WWII crime suspect Harry Männil now resident in Venezuela, on basis of insufficient evidence linking Männil to crimes against humanity. Estonia's security police had opened a criminal case in March 2001 on the basis of Efraim Zuroff's petition to investigate whether Männil was connected with the persecution and killing of civilians in 1941-42 when he worked as an assistant with the wartime political police in Tallinn.[23] In 2002 the Government of the Republic of Estonia decided to officially commemorate the Holocaust. In the same year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center had provided the Estonian government with information on alleged Estonian war criminals, all former members of the 36th Estonian Police Battalion.

Holocaust memorial at the site of the former Klooga concentration camp, opened on 24th July 2005

References

  1. ^ a b Museum of Tolerance Multimedia Learning Center
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Vaivara
  4. ^ Max Jakobson Commission Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity, "[2] Report"
  5. ^ The Holocaust in the Baltics at University of Washington
  6. ^ Estonia at Jewish Virtual Library
  7. ^ Estonian State Archives of the Former Estonian KGB (State Security Committee) records relating to war crime investigations and trials in Estonia, 1940-1987 (manuscript RG-06.026) - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - document available on-line through this query page using document id RG-06.026 - Also available at Axis History Forum - This list includes the evidence presented at the trial. It list as evidence several articles by Mere in Estonian language newspapers published in London
  8. ^ Masses and Mainstream, 1963
  9. ^ a b Weiss-Wendt, Anton (2003). Extermination of the Gypsies in Estonia during World War II: Popular Images and Official Policies. Holocaust and Genocide Studies 17.1, 31-61.
  10. ^ a b Estonian policemen stand trial for war crimes - Video footage at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  11. ^ a b c d e f Jägala laager ja juutide hukkamine Kalevi-Liival - Eesti Päevaleht March 30, 2006 Template:Et icon
  12. ^ The Genocide of the Czech Jews
  13. ^ a b c d e f g De dödsdömda vittnar (Transport Be 1.9.1942) Template:Sv icon
  14. ^ From Ghetto Terezin to Lithuania and Estonia
  15. ^ Omakaitse omakohus - JERUUSALEMMA SÕNUMID Template:Et icon
  16. ^ Birn, Ruth Bettina (2001), Collaboration with Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe: the Case of the Estonian Security Police. Contemporary European History 10.2, 181-198. P. 190-191.
  17. ^ Conclusions of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity
  18. ^ a b c Conclusions of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity
  19. ^ Carlos Jurado, Nigel Thomas, Darko Pavlovic (2002). Germany's Eastern Front Allies. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ Jüri Uluots at president.ee
  21. ^ Holocaust Markers, Estonia
  22. ^ Veebruari sündmused Template:Et icon
  23. ^ Estonian prosecutors close case of WWII crime suspect at estemb.se
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