Arajs Commando

The Arajs ''Kommando'' (; ) was a paramilitary unit of the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) active in German-occupied Latvia from 1941 to 1943. It was led by SS commander and Nazi collaborator Viktors Arājs and composed of ethnic Latvian volunteers recruited by Arājs.

The Arajs Kommando was a notorious death squad and one of the main perpetrators of the Holocaust in Latvia. The unit was involved in the mass killing of Jews in Latvia until 1942 when it was used in anti-partisan operations in Belarus and Russia. It was disbanded and merged into the Latvian Legion in 1943.

Formation

In July 1941, Nazi Germany began its military occupation of Latvia, already occupied by the Soviet Union at the time, shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. One of earliest and most enthusiastic Latvian collaborators was Viktors Arājs, a former policeman and Latvian Army soldier. On 1 July, after the entry of the Germans into Riga, Arājs made contact with SS-''Brigadeführer'' Walter Stahlecker through the help of Hans Dressler, a close friend and translator. Stahlecker was head of the ''Einsatzgruppe A'' and the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD), the intelligence agency of the SS, in ''Reichskommissariat Ostland''. Stahlecker was impressed by Arājs and instructed him to set up a temporary paramilitary unit to be used against "undesirables" in Latvia. The following day, on 2 July, Stahlecker told Arājs that his commando group was to unleash a pogrom against Latvian Jews that looked spontaneous. On 4 July, Arājs issued a recruitment advertisement in ''Tēvija'', a collaboratist newspaper published in Riga, but it receive little response. Instead, Arājs relied on his connections at the University of Riga, as well as the former Latvian police and army which had been disbanded by the Soviets. By 5 July, the unit had acquired a headquarters at 19 Krišjāņa Valdemāra Street in Riga.

All members were ethnic Latvian volunteers, free to leave at any time, composed of mostly students and former policemen and soldiers recruited by Arājs. Initially they used civilian clothing, but soon began to wear Latvian Army and Aizsargi uniforms with green armbands featuring the SD insignia. By the end of July, the size of the unit was no greater than 100 men, though it began to increase over time.

Activity

Latvia

The Arajs Kommando immediately began to participate in Nazi atrocities, including the killing of Jews, Roma, Soviet collaborators, mental patients, as well as punitive actions and massacres of civilians along Latvia's border with the Soviet Union. Their first order from Stahlecker was to forcibly search the homes of Riga Jews and arrest male residents — the purpose of the order was to provoke Jews to riot but this did not occur. On the night of 4 July, the Arajs Kommando were one of main participants in the burning of Riga's synagogues. Men of the unit did not allow the firefighters to save the synagogues, ordering them to only prevent the fires from spreading to neighbouring buildings. During the chaos in Riga, members were involved in the looting of Jewish houses. As can be seen in contemporary Nazi newsreels, these attacks were part of a campaign to create the perception that the Holocaust in the Baltics was local, and not Nazi-directed. Commemoration of this event has been chosen for marking Holocaust Memorial Day in present-day Latvia.

The Arajs Kommando subsequently took part in increasingly violent events such as the Liepāja massacres, as well as the liquidation of Jews from the Riga Ghetto and several thousand German Jews deported from Central Europe. They served as guards at the Rumbula massacre of 30 November and 8 December 1941, although the actual killing was carried out by 12 German personnel assigned to the operation. Some of its men also served as guards at the Jungfernhof and Salaspils concentration camps. A squad of 10 men from the Arajs Kommando served as executioners during the Dünamünde Action in Riga on 15 and 26 March 1942.

Belarus and Russia

By mid-1942, as the number of Jews and other "undesirables" in Latvia had dwindled, the Arajs Kommando was repurposed with anti-partisan operations in German-occupied parts of Belarus and Russia. Its first actions outside of Latvia were in the Pskov-Velikiye Luki region across the border from Latvia. During the latter half of 1942, it participated in a number of German anti-partisan and forced labour operations which involved mass killings. From February to March 1943, the unit played a major role in Operation Winterzauber, where it was involved in the execution of nearly 4,000 partisans or those suspected of supporting them.

The Arajs Kommando numbered about 300 to 500 men during the period that it participated in the killings of Latvian Jews, and up to 1,500 members at its peak at the height of its involvement in anti-partisan operations. In late 1943, the Arajs Kommando was disbanded as part of a reorganisation of the Latvian SD and its personnel transferred to the Latvian Legion, with Arajs being placed in charge of the III Battalion. It is estimated to have killed around 26,000 Jews during its existence.

Prosecution

A total of 356 Arajs Kommando members have been identified. Between 1944 and 1966, 352 of them were prosecuted by the Soviets, albeit one case was later suspended.

Fourteen of the death sentences were never carried out since the Soviets temporarily abolished capital punishment between 1947 and 1949, thus saving the lives of those tried and condemned during that time period. The most frequently imposed sentence was 25 years in prison with hard labor, and forfeiture of civil rights for five years, plus forfeiture of all property. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Latvian courts rehabilitated more than 40 of those convicted despite overwhelming evidence in virtually all of the cases.

After successfully hiding in West Germany for several decades after the war under an assumed name, Viktors Arājs was eventually identified by a former colleague, arrested, tried, and imprisoned for his crimes. Arājs died in prison in 1988.

Herberts Cukurs, a deputy commander of the Arajs Kommado, was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad in 1965. While living in Brazil, Cukurs was befriended by a German-speaking Mossad agent, who lured him to Uruguay, where Cukurs was ambushed, restrained, and summarily executed.

More recently, the governments of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia were involved in attempts to extradite Konrāds Kalējs, a former officer of the Arajs Kommando, to Latvia for trial on charges of genocide. Kalējs died in 2001 in Australia before the extradition could proceed, maintaining his innocence to the end, stating that he was fighting Russia on the Eastern Front or studying at university when the slaughter of Jews took place in 1941. Historian of the Latvian Holocaust Andrew Ezergailis claimed that about a third of the Arājs Kommando, 500 out of a maximum of around 1,500 total members, actively participated in the killings of Jews, and pointed out that one cannot be convicted of crimes against humanity based solely on membership in an organization.''Kalejs Not Necessarily Implicated'', Reuters News Service, filed January 13, 2000, Canberra

References

Further reading

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Foreign Ministry of Latvia: The Holocaust in German-Occupied Latvia

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Nazi SS
Latvian collaborators with Nazi Germany
The Holocaust in Latvia
Local participation in the Holocaust
Einsatzgruppen
Generalbezirk Lettland