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Nazi Collaborators on Trial During the Cold War: the Cases Against Viktors Ar Ājs and the Latvian Auxiliary Security Police

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Nazi Collaborators on Trial During the Cold War: the Cases Against Viktors Ar Ājs and the Latvian Auxiliary Security Police View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository NAZI COLLABORATORS ON TRIAL DURING THE COLD WAR: THE CASES AGAINST VIKTORS AR ĀJS AND THE LATVIAN AUXILIARY SECURITY POLICE Richards Plavnieks A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: Christopher Browning Chad Bryant Konrad Jarausch Wayne Lee Donald Reid ABSTRACT RICHARDS PLAVNIEKS: Nazi Collaborators on Trial during the Cold War: The Cases against Viktors Ar ājs and the Latvian Auxiliary Security Police (Under the direction of Christopher Browning) The Latvian Auxiliary Security Police, informally known as the Arajs Kommando after its founder and commander, Viktors Ar ājs, was a unique unit among the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Composed of a total of about 1,200 volunteers, it participated in all quintessential aspects of the “Holocaust by Bullets” in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union including raiding and looting homes; clearing ghettos; engaging in mass-shootings, anti- partisan operations, and reprisal actions; and the rest. The direct deaths of at least 26,000 Jews in Latvia may be laid at its boots, although this number does not reflect the unknown but considerable death toll the Kommando inflicted in the course of occupation duty in Nazi- controlled Belarus nor the assistance it rendered in other Actions such as providing the screen at Rumbula – the second largest mass shooting at the time behind Babi Yar. The defeat of Nazi Germany scattered the men of the Kommando who were not among the many who fell in combat during the Reich’s desperate death throes. The subsequent decades would see a variety of polities attempt to deliver justice to these criminals and discover the truth about their complicity in the Holocaust as a whole. All told, nearly a third of the unit’s personnel faced some type of formal judgment and were subject to various penalties. The Soviet Union handled by far the largest number of cases, while both East and West Germany and the United States took up the rest. ii Each of these judicial systems – both Communist and liberal-democratic – involved in the prosecutions was unique, undertook the task at different times, and treated the defendants differently. This study seeks to view these legal systems through the prism of this one specific perpetrator unit with special awareness that the processes took place at different times and in the context of the ongoing Cold War. The explicitly comparative assessment of their relative merits and demerits is based not only upon the justice meted out to the criminals and how vigorously they were pursued, also but the volume of reliable historical data bequeathed to posterity by the investigations and the adequacy of the attempts to educate the public on the findings. iii Acknowledgements I first wish to thank my advisor, Christopher Browning, as well as the other members of my dissertation committee: Chad Bryant, Konrad Jarausch, Wayne Lee, and Donald Reid. For this study, I was fortunate to obtain funding for two full years of research in Hamburg, Ludwigsburg, R īga, Jerusalem, and Washington, DC, with the support of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. In Israel, I had the privilege of meeting and learning from Yehuda Bauer, David Caeserani, Konrad Kwiet, Wendy Lower, Dan Michman, Alexander Prusin, and David Silberklang. Later, as a Fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, I had the honor of working alongside such scholars as Martin Dean, Jürgen Matthäus, and Mark Roseman. Besides long-term research in six different archives, I was also able to meet some of the people involved in the events about which I am writing. Steven Rogers, retired historian at the Office of Special Investigations, very generously met with me on a variety of occasions to talk with me about his experiences. I was also helped by the gracious and urbane Hauptregierungsdirektor JVA Kassel I, Georg-Uwe Meister, who allowed me to tour the facility that once imprisoned Viktors Ar ājs. Likewise, the American Latvian defense attorney, Ivars B ērzi Ħš, deserves much thanks for his courtesy and candor. Finally, I was also kindly welcomed into the home of Andrew Ezergailis from whom I have learned so much. Tremendous thanks should also be extended to Eric Kurlander, who set me on my iv course to graduate school and ultimately, therefore, to writing this dissertation. His impact on my life has been literally inestimable. Finally, I wish to mention my closest companions during this project: Andrew Haeberlin, Brandon Hunziker, Waitman Beorn, Patrick Tobin, and Jen Lynn. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION: THE LATVIAN AUXILIARY SECURITY POLICE AND COLD WAR JUSTICE ............................................................................................ 1 II. WARTIME LATVIA: VIKTORS AR ĀJS, HELL’S PLOWMAN ...................... 16 Overview ............................................................................................................... 16 The Background .................................................................................................... 16 The Analysis .......................................................................................................... 57 Summary ................................................................................................................ 86 III. THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS: PROPAGANDA ALONGSIDE JUSTICE ........................................................................................ 94 Overview ............................................................................................................... 94 The Extraordinary State Commission and the Early Trials ................................... 99 The “Show Trials” and International Agitation in the 1960s .............................. 122 Summary .............................................................................................................. 128 IV. WEST GERMANY: THE PURSUIT, PROSECUTION, AND PUNISHMENT OF “THE CHIEF” HIMSELF ................................................. 130 Overview ............................................................................................................. 130 The Fugitive ......................................................................................................... 132 The Trial .............................................................................................................. 160 Summary .............................................................................................................. 187 V. EAST GERMANY: AN ELABORATELY SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITY .................................................................................................. 194 Overview ............................................................................................................. 194 The Case .............................................................................................................. 200 Summary .............................................................................................................. 253 vi VI. THE UNITED STATES: PERJURY, THE PUBLIC, AND THE PASSPORT .......................................................................................................... 257 Overview ............................................................................................................. 257 The American Latvian Minority and the Mainstream Public .............................. 265 The Opening of the Investigations ...................................................................... 276 Summary .............................................................................................................. 309 VII. CONCLUSION: JUSTICE FOR SOME, THE TRUTH FOR ALL OF US ...... 314 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 320 vii ABBREVIATIONS ALA American Latvian Association. Umbrella group constituted by the American Latvian community to represent their interests ATF United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Now the ATFE: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives BaB Bundesarchiv-Berlin, German Federal Archive in Berlin, Germany BaL Bundesarchiv-Ludwigsburg, German Federal Archive in Ludwigsburg, Germany BaMa Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv. German Federal Military Archive in Freiburg, Germany BdO Befehlshaber der Ordnungspolizei, or “Commander of the Order Police” for regions such as the Ostland BdS Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei, or “Commander of the Security Police,” the stationary successor to the mobile Einsatzgruppen and commander of the Security Police for regions such as the Ostland BRD Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or “Federal Republic of Germany.” The official name of West Germany BStU the Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or “The Federal Mandatory for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic” CFL Committee for a Free Latvia. A fairly inconsequential postwar American Latvian lobbying group in the United States funded by the CIA CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union DDR Deutsche Demokratische Republik,
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