1. too many clueless idiots here
2. Whine whine whine. What about the 40 000 latvians cowardly jewish bolsheviks murdered? Oh right they are goy.
3. Vācieši bija malači!
4. They only greeted them as liberators because they faced one year of soviet occupation, a terror and deportations to Siberia. They hoped that Germany will give them back their independence. This has nothing to do with Jew hate. Yes there was Jewish killings but it was not Latvian majority. Germans betrayed Latvians since the very start.
5. 0:52 this is a movie shot by the Latvian filmmaker who also appears in the Deutsche Wochenschau (search for the video '1941 Riga Captured') and is filmed by the German film crew himself. It seems like the Latvians welcomed their liberators, not?
6. Nowadays we learn that it was the other way around. Latvia deserved to be a country on its own as their citizens wanted, and because of their stubborness to fight the soviets, the revenge was awful by the soviets. The Legion capability to fight was impressive with the help of the Germans, because as you know only volunteers were accepted in the Waffen SS, and whose says otherwise is liying. One million served in the Waffen SS, half were Germans, & the rest came from more than 25 nationalities.
7. The Liepaja Mass Murder of Jews was credited originally to the Germans, when in fact were NKVD officers.You have to check the uniforms, which are not the same. But again, you have to judge what happened during WWII, not with a today's reasoning but according to tose years; also you have to know that the results from the Versailles Treaty were catatrophic for Germany mainly, and the seed of revenge that created WWII. The Ukranians, Poles, Hungarians, etc.. killed jews, but credited to the German.
8. Existent*, below. At the most we can state there were different reasons for assisting the Nazis and include the anti-Marxism or the anti-Russia phenomenon in them but I mean it was such an extensive process and it happened in so many different (all) places that we can hardly say the "fear of the Russians" was the main cause, whichever the nation we might look upon. One hug, and I am sorry for all these comments my friend. Feel free to delete them.
9. Especially between 1939 and 1941 the Nazism was a source of fascination for many of the occupied. The Arajs Kommando in Latvia, Laval and Pétain in France, the Rexists in Belgium and even in Poland (much less than in the other occupied nations but neverthelss existant), everywhere the Nazis found colaborators and followers. Will of power, necessity to survive by joining the occupants and of course: acknowledgment in the share of the same ideological (Anti-Semetic) conceptions.
10. That´s why I don´t see association in: - Colaborating with the Nazis and, - Welcome them as result of a dreadful fear over Russia, or the Russians. I don´t say that fear did not exist, I´m sure it did but, what I´m saying is: that is not why so many Latvian Jews were murdered in Latvia by other Latvians. The reasons for the colaboration with the Nazis were others and we can testify to them everywhere.
11. And what did it mean having French colaborators in France helping the Nazis getting hold of the Jews in France? It meant French were killling other French because the Jews in France were French, the same way the Jews in Poland were Polish and in Germany were Germans. This colaboration happened in all Europe and given such I have problems buying the notion that somehow the Latvian people welcomed the Nazis. Just that.
12. I don´t say that did not happen. My point was really a different one: the rejection of the idea that the killing of Jews in Latvia meant some kind of association between Latvian people and Nazism. This is what I reject as this idea exists and it´s a very unfair and wrong one. The problem is: it happened all over Europe. France, Poland, Latvia, Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands and all over the occupied countries.
13. Yes, specially in Soviet occupied nations, as we can see in this video, they celebrated the German invasion and called Hitler as the Great Liberator.
14. In my opinion, most citizens from Soviet Union , who where the mostly collaborators of Nazis, helped Nazis not just for being anti Semitic, they helped them just for Nazi oposition to Bolshevik power.
15. Nazi Germans let doing this executions by Latvians, because they wanted to demostrate that not only Jews were hated only by Germans, but all Europeans. Germans took lot of photos of Latvians executing Jews (search Liepaja or Rumbula massacre photo on web) just to demostrate and keep proof of this.
16. Even outside the very own Nazi universe, in all of the occupied territories there were many non-Nazis that in "simple" colaboration with the Nazis murdered many fellow-compatriots. And Jews. But yes, in Latvia, because of Viktors Arjs and the Arajs Kommando all of this was done with special touches of wickedness. Joy and evilness, both combined. A shame. But not exception. It happened in all occupied Europe.
17. The question therefore has little to do with the Russians. Being a Nazi was not being anti-Marxist but, anti-Semitic. French killed Jews, Polish killed Jews, Belgians killed Jews and many Jews ... killed Jews. And they were all Nazis. More than 20 of Hitler´s Generals were "Mischling" (half or quarter Jews) as there were hundred of thousands of Germans who despite being German (mostly Catholics) were aimed by the Nazis´ Nuremberg laws. Very strange, and grotesque.
18. Please check, this video: Liepaja Mass Murder of Jews. If I did not fault in the year 1984 the soldier that made the film gave a interview where he describes the execution and declare that German and Latvians execute with a shotting in the neck to the people, who he can see the Yellow Star of David on their clothes.
19. There're many fakes in photos & videos showing German soldiers executing civilians, since this "art" started during the Spanish Civil war. Perhaps you could enlight us with the name of that film and if it's available in Internet, to have a look. Normally the Kriegmarine soldiers didn't intervene in other duties that the marine ones. Maybe in 1945 this changed, but I doubted since with a ratio of 20:1 and unlimited quantity of hardware either you stayed to defend the city or ran for your life.
20. Obviamente que los letones desde 1940 tenian varias razones por las cuales unirse a pelear junto a los alemanes contra los sovieticos, eso me parece muy bien, ya que al fin y a cabo estaban defendiendo su tierra. Lo que me parece mal es que varios letones ayudaron a la campaña de exterminio de los alemanes contra grupo etnicos menores, eso lo condeno profundamento. Hay una filmacion de un soldado de la kriegsmarine en la cual alemanes junto a letones ejecutan gente, lamentable.
21. @kriegsmarine We have to differentiate between the SS and the Waffen SS; the Legion fought ferociously to defend their homeland, side by side with the warriors of the Reich. To my understanding there was an unfair treatment with the jewish population, but not to the extent of what happened in Ukrania for example with the jews at the hands of the Ukranians. What did happen was when the soviet partisans entered in the Baltic Countries, & slaughtered many people. Then remember the Forrest Brothers.
22. Si bien la Legion lucho con los alemanes para consolidar su independecia de la URSS, tambien hay que recordar que varios de sus hombres, los cuales un porcentaje importante se unio a las filas de las SS, liquidaron por razones etnicas a varios letones, incluidos judios, letones-rusos, etc.
23. Indeed so many lies have been poured over what real happened in the Baltic countries, during WWII and afterwards. The Latvian Legion deserves my most deepest respect for what they achieved, never forgot their real identity, and after the fall of the soviets they regained their independence. Very Remarkable!! Nowadays the ruskis try to put things upside down, as usual and in favor of their interests, and the amazing thing is that in spite of the economic differences the Latvians stay put .

Riga, Latvia 1941: Entering of Nazis

1.95 min. | 4.5555553 user rating | 2947 views

Original source: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4308580983663512966#
Tags: Riga 1941 German Nazi Soviet Union Hitler Stalin Lenin June Ocupattion Latvia