RIGA, Latvia—Nearly 1,500
Latvians paid tribute on Friday to soldiers who fought in Nazi Germany's
Waffen SS divisions, while nearby Russians held a counterprotest to
recall war crimes committed against Jews and other minorities.
For
many Latvians the annual procession from a Lutheran cathedral to the
Freedom Monument in downtown Riga, the capital, is a memorial event for
Latvian SS soldiers, known as Legionnaires, who fought for independence
during World War II.
However,
Latvia's minority Russians, who make up about one-third of the nation's
2.1 million people, consider the ceremony an insult to the millions who
fought and died in the struggle against Nazi Germany.
This
year about 100 Russians held their counterprotest about 30 yards
(meters) from the Freedom Monument. Though quiet, the demonstrators hung
large photographs of harrowing Holocaust scenes on wooden poles
resembling gallows.
More than 1,000 policemen were mobilized to ensure the two groups didn't clash.
"The
only possibility to fight for the restoration of Latvia's independence
was in the Legion," said Alriks Vebers, 44, a Latvian who came to lay
flowers in honor of a great uncle who fought in the Waffen SS. "And the
Latvians didn't have a choice in the division's name."
Latvia,
which gained its independence after World War I, was occupied by the
Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany a year later, and again by
the Soviets in 1944. The country restored its independence in 1991 after
the Soviet Union collapsed.
About 250,000 Latvians fought alongside either the Germans or the Soviets -- and some 150,000 Latvians died in the fighting.
Nearly
80,000 Jews, or 90 percent of Latvia's prewar Jewish population, were
killed in 1941-42, two years before the formation of the Latvian Waffen
SS unit -- which some Latvians claim shows the unit could not have
played a role in the Holocaust.
Today,
Latvia's government distances itself from the ceremony, but many see it
as a sign that Latvia has failed to acknowledge a dark page in its
history.
"This is a
state-sponsored legitimization of fascism," said Dovid Katz, a Yiddish
scholar based in Vilnius, Lithuania, pointing to some lawmakers' support
of the ceremony. "The worst of European history is being glorified
here.
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