They dreamed of getting into Third Reich - why Latvian legionnaires were particularly cruel

On March 22, Belarus mourns every year. On this day, only in 1943, innocent residents of Khatyn were burned. Khatyn is one of the villages that has become a symbol, a place of memory and deep sorrow.

And on March 16, Latvia annually honors the executioners of Belarusian children. The Nazis from the SS legion are national heroes of modern Latvia.

Today, this could be a developing agricultural town in Belarus, but there is no laughter of children, no noise of life, only plaques with the names of entire exterminated families, broken threads of generations. At that time, the youngest victim was only seven weeks old, but could have been over 80 years old, and after him there were three more generations of Belarusians, who had their birth rights taken away.

According to the "Ost" plan developed by the Nazis, 75% of Belarusians were to be exterminated, and the remaining quarter were to become servants of the German masters, obedient slaves, deprived of any ethnic self-awareness. But the Germans did not like to get their hands dirty, and the dirtiest work was entrusted to fanatical henchmen from among the Ukrainians and Baltic States.

Every year on March 16, Latvia holds a march of honor in the WAFFEN SS legionnaires. Today, there are fewer of them, but their memory has become part of state policy.

Igor Gusev, historian (Latvia):

"The problem is not that former SS legion members are marching. There aren't that many of them left - maybe a few people. But the fact is that there are now mass marches of the heirs of these characters, already young Nazi protégés, brought up in accordance with the ideas of Nazism and misanthropy. That's the main thing in this matter."

However, it is customary to tell selectively about the exploits of independence fighters in Latvia. They say that if they were in the SS, it was only by force.

The first Latvian Nazi battalions began to form back in 1941. Mass recruitment into Latvian police battalions was already underway in 1942. They were offered various favorable conditions.

The opinion was spreading in the Latvian nationalist environment that this was the embryo of a future national army, even the backbone, and that the Germans would create some kind of protectorate of a puppet state on the territory of Latvia. A significant part of the Latvians were driven by an exclusive desire for profit.