Jewish Warfare on the Shores of the River of Daugava: Zionist Combatants of the Latvian Military Formations of the Red Army Remember World War II (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mortal threat: Latvian Jews at the Dawn of Nazi Occupation
Nationalities Papers, 2017
In late June 1941, Nazi Germany stormed the borders of the Soviet Union, occupying the three Baltic republics within weeks. By the end of 1941, a significant proportion of the Jewish population had been murdered by German forces and local collaborators. In the days before full Nazi occupation of the territory, Latvia’s Jews confronted the question of whether to flee into the Russian interior or stay in their communities. History shows that this would be a critical choice. Testimonies and memoirs of Jewish survivors illuminate the competing motivations to leave or to remain. This article highlights the key factors that figured into these calculations and the interaction between individual agency and structural opportunities and obstacles in determining where Latvia's Jews were when the Holocaust in their their homeland began.
Holocaust and WWII: Jews in the Red Army
International Journal of Social Science Studies, 2015
This paper focuses on the role of Jews in the Red Army in general and during WWII in particular. Historians estimate that a relatively high number of Jews (1.5 to 1.7 million) fought in the combined Allied Forces during WWII. At the same time, the fact that about 500,000 Jews enlisted or were conscripted into the Red Army has been largely ignored. After the demise of Communist regimes in the 1990s, however, the role of Jews serving in the Red Army began to be mentioned in cultural narratives. Today, especially in Israel, the increased focus on Jewish identity is often rooted in military and armed resistance during WWII. One author has termed this cultural phenomenon as “the migrating past.” Citing examples from established scholarship and examining some previously unpublished documents, this paper sheds light on the heroic aspect of Jewish history during the war. This aspect of heroism, which has not always been recognized, today has moved into the mainstream cultural narrative of Russian Jews, affecting their Jewish identity.
The Latvian Jewish Courier. Vol. 35, N 2 (August, 2021), p.3-5 & Vol. 35, N 3 (December, 2021), p.9-11, 2021
This is the second lecture in the series of two organized as a part of a partnership project between Claims Conference and the University of Latvia. Last week, we discussed the Holocaust: its origins, course of the events, causes, and outcomes. Today, only the word Latvia has been added to the title of the lecture, but it makes the task more difficult as it typically makes the topic more personal and emotional. But we will strive for the best. I thank you for your interest and enriching discussion a week ago and look forward to the likely one today. I should also mention that I am not a historian, but a sociologist by training. My main interest in the Holocaust thus is sociological: how we as a society come to understand this phenomenon of the Holocaust: how it is inscribed in the language we speak and in the way we act in our everyday life?
International Journal of Social Science Studies, 2015
This paper focuses on the role of Jews in the Red Army in general and during WWII in particular. Historians estimate that a relatively high number of Jews (1.5 to 1.7 million) fought in the combined Allied Forces during WWII. At the same time, the fact that about 500,000 Jews enlisted or were conscripted into the Red Army has been largely ignored. After the demise of Communist regimes in the 1990s, however, the role of Jews serving in the Red Army began to be mentioned in cultural narratives. Today, especially in Israel, the increased focus on Jewish identity is often rooted in military and armed resistance during WWII. One author has termed this cultural phenomenon as "the migrating past." 1 Citing examples from established scholarship and examining some previously unpublished documents, this paper sheds light on the heroic aspect of Jewish history during the war. This aspect of heroism, which has not always been recognized, today has moved into the mainstream cultural narrative of Russian Jews, affecting their Jewish identity.
in: Вестник Санкт-Петербургского Государственного Университета, 2018
In both World Wars of the 20th century a significant proportion of the male population of Latvia participated in special Latvian units in warfare — the Latvian Riflemen in World War I and the SS-Legionnaires in World War II. The article attempts to compare the representation of these units in Latvian memorial culture, with a special focus on the historiography. Although both units played an integral part in Latvian History in the 20th century, a comparable approach hasn’t been undertaken yet, which seems to be indispensable because perceived together they almost perfectly reflect radical turns in Latvian History in the previous century. Firstly, and naturally for a military unit, there is a narrative of brave and bold fighters for a national cause best exemplified in the issues of the Christmas Battles or the Volkhov Battles. Secondly, and to a certain extent contrary to the first aspect, there is an issue of traitors and collaborators, such as Red Riflemen or German cannon fodder. Finally, they represent an extraordinarily sharp and rapid shift from the Latvians depicted as anti-German and leftwing socialist Revolutionaries at the beginning of the century to Nazi rightwing henchmen during the second half of the century until today.
Chapter 3. Jews at War: Diaries from the Front
Soviet Jews in World War II, 2019
Translated by Dariia Kabanova The title of this article refers to the relatively unknown bimonthly magazine of Jews at War, published for a short time in the beginning of World War I. 2 The journal narrated the military feats of Jewish soldiers in the Russian Army. Of course, according to state policy, there could be no Jewish officers in the Army at that time. The magazine grew out of the Jewish community's concerns over the fact that the military valor of Jews was underappreciated, or worse, unknown to the general public. A quarter of a century later, during World War II, the number of Jews who served in the Red Army was comparable to the number of Jews who used to serve in the Imperial Russian Army-more than four hundred thousand men. During World War II, there were thousands of officers among them, and nearly three hundred generals and admirals. 3 And, again, the Soviet Jewish community was concerned that the military feats of the Jewish soldiers on the fronts of Great Patriotic War remained virtually unknown. Ilʹia Ehrenburg addressed this issue at the plenary session of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in March 1943: In order for the Jewish soldiers and officers to continue performing their duty, it is our responsibility to speak about Jews fighting at the front. Not to brag, of course, but in the interests of our common cause-in order to eradicate Fascism as soon as we can. In order to do this, it is our responsibility to create a book, and, in it, to demonstrate convincingly the role of Jews in the war. Statistics alone would not be enough. We need real stories, we need vivid portraits. We need a collection about Jewish heroes who participate in the Great Patriotic War. We must tell the truth, the whole truth. And this truth will be enough. 4
Latvijas Vēstures Institūta Žurnāls, 2022
Jānis Tomaševskis Mg. hist., PhD candidate; historian, Latvian War Museum Research interests: Latvian military units in German and Soviet armed forces, collaboration and resistance to occupation regimes, changes in Latvia's cultural and industrial heritage caused by the Second World War, the development of the idea of Latvia's independence and its continuity in the 20 th century The article examines the attitude of irregular Latvian military units active in the territory of Latvia at the onset of the Germany-USSR war-national partisans and self-defence fighters-towards the Soviet and German occupation rules. Views on the relevant topic expressed in historiography are analysed, to help in understanding the notions of resistance and collaboration/collaborationism in the context of these military units. The article raises a topical research problem and suggests possible solutions with regard to the research of these issues.
Latvian SS-Legion: Past and Present. Some Issues Regarding the Modern Glorification of Nazism
Criminal Law Forum, 2016
Each year on March 16, former soldiers of the so-called Latvian SS- Legion take part in processions on the streets of Riga to commemorate the day when in 1944, during World War II, Latvian SS units participated in combat operations against the advancing Soviet troops. The Latvian authorities consider March 16 the day of the Latvian Legion, in connection with which various public events, including processions of former legionaries paying tribute to the memory of defenders of the fatherland, have been taking place since the year 1998. These processions are organized each year, which generates great controversy and mixed opinions not only in the Latvian society and in the international community, but also in academic circles. Defenders of the processions of ex-legionaries highlight the fact that despite the SS being acknowledged as a criminal organisation by the Nuremberg Tribunal, Latvian Waffen SS units were excluded from the list of criminal organisations be- cause conscription into these forces was imposed on a compulsory basis, in violation of the Hague Convention of 1907, and these units were not involved in war crimes or crimes against humanity. The main aim of this article is to show that although the position of the defenders is gaining more and more ground, the Latvian SS-Legion does in fact possess all the features attributed to a criminal organisation by the Nuremberg Tribunal and that its glorification is a form of glorification of Nazism, which poses a threat to compliance with the principles of international law.DOI 10.1007/s10609-016-9286-3, Criminal Law Forum. http://link.springer.com/journal/10609/27/3/page/1