According to the documents, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania took part in the murders of Jews, writes the Jerusalem Post.
The Russian Federal Security Service has released new documents on the activities of the Baltic states during the Holocaust, according to a report by RIA (Russian state media) on Thursday.
The documents were released as part of the No Statute of Limitations project.
The document details the murder of "tens of thousands of Jews" in 1941, during the Nazi occupation, by both the residents of the states and the occupying forces. The states detailed in the report are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, countries that have since joined Ukraine in light of the Russian invasion.
Lithuania
The report claimed that the Nazis were impressed by the cruelty with which the Lithuanians absorbed anti-Semitic ideology and the cruelty to which they were willing.
"When the German troops entered the territory of Lithuania, the Lithuanians' hatred of Jews led to effective pogroms ... As a result of the pogroms, which were nevertheless carried out with significant actions by the security police and the SD, the Lithuanians liquidated 3,800 Jews in Kaunas and about 1,200 Jews in small towns"
RIA quotes the report.
According to reports, the teams of up to eight men were initially tasked with murdering every Jewish person in the prison. Eventually, the killings extended to all Jews living in Lithuania. According to the report, this was carried out "systematically, county by county".
"A total of 136,421 people were liquidated as a result of many unique operations"
the report states, although this number likely includes non-Jewish groups who were also targets of Nazi ideology.
Some Jews were kept alive and placed in ghettos to be used as slave labor. According to the report, 15,000 Jews were detained in Kaunas and Vilna, and another 4,500 in Siauliai. According to RIA, these Jews were forced to work at the local airport, performing tasks related to "earthworks and other works".
Estonia
According to the report, 2,000 Jews lived in Estonia before the war, although this number is disputed, and after the war none remained. According to data from the World Jewish Congress (WJC), there are currently 1,971 Jews living in Estonia.
The report goes on to explain that in 1942 Hitler raised an Estonian SS Legion. According to the report, this legion was involved in the massacre of civilians in Belarus, which is considered an ally of Russia.
The SS Legion, the RIA report continues, was responsible for the killing of Jews in the Minsk region.
In September 1943, the report continues, the 30th Estonian Schutzmannschraft Battalion took part in Aktion 1005, during which civilians and prisoners of war were killed en masse.
The report contradicts current historical ideas about Estonian Jewry.
There is evidence that in Estonia in the XIV. Jews have been living there since the 19th century, but a permanent Jewish community only emerged in the 19th century. was formed in the middle of the century, explained the WJC.
When the Nazis invaded Estonia, the Soviet Union deported about 500 Jews as they were considered a "dangerous social element".
The WJC claimed that contrary to the report
"almost all the remaining Jews - about 3,000 people - were able to escape from Estonia because it took so long for the Germans to finally occupy Estonia".
The WJC added that 1,000 Jews were murdered by the Estonian police in collaboration with the Nazis.
Latvia
According to the report, the killing of the Jews of Latvia was carried out as part of an operation called "widespread cleansing".
The killing of Latvian Jews was "carried out by special forces with the help of the elite forces of the Latvian Auxiliary Police".
RIA added that on November 9, 1941, 11,000 Jews were executed by Latvian and Nazi forces. In December, SS officers and a police chief issued orders that led to the execution of 27,800 Jews in Riga. A few days later, another 2,350 Jews were murdered in Lihau.
"The systematic work aimed at cleansing the East, in accordance with the main orders, aimed at the complete possible liquidation of the Jews. This goal was basically achieved"
the report emphasized.
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