RIGA, Sept. 27 - . Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks told reporters Friday that Waffen SS legionnaires are the pride of the Latvian people and state.
"Waffen SS legionnaires are the pride of the Latvian people and state. It is our duty to honor from the depths of our souls these patriots of Latvia," Pabriks said. According to him, no one should be "allowed to mock" the memory of them.
Latvian SS Legion was created by Nazi Germany during World War II on the territory of occupied Latvia from two grenadier divisions. On March 24, 1943 Heinrich Himmler issued an order specifying the term "Latvian Legion" as the general definition for Latvians serving in all Waffen SS Latvian military formations, including police battalions.
On March 16, 1944 divisions of the Legion entered the battle with the Red Army near the town of Ostrov in the Pskov region. That is why the Legionnaires' Day is celebrated in Latvia on March 16.
The SS, as well as the SD, the Gestapo and the National Socialist German Party, were recognized as criminal organizations during the Nuremberg Trials - the trial of a group of major Nazi war criminals. Also a crime against humanity was the creation of concentration camps, which were organized, among other things, by the SS.
The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia earlier opened a criminal case against veteran of the Latvian SS Legion and Latvian politician Visvaldis Lacis under an article on the rehabilitation of Nazism. As noted in the Investigative Committee, in 2017 Lacis republished his book "The Latvian Legion in the Light of Truth," where as a former member of this structure approved and supported the activities of punishers during World War II in the occupied territories of the Belarusian SSR, Pskov, Leningrad and Novgorod regions.