Baltic Holocaust Collaborators's file / תיק – משתפי פעולה בשואה הבלטית

These sources examine the The Holocaust in the Soviet Union and the Baltic States, with special focus on the documentation and activities of The NKVD and the KGBThe research materials reveal how the Soviet secret police gathered intelligence on the murder of Jews and conducted Trials against Nazi criminals and local collaborators After the war. Some of the texts deal with harsh criticism of LatviaAgainst the backdrop of Waffen-SS veterans' marches and the allegations of Failure to recognize local responsibility In addition, lists and lectures analyze the The archival aspects of Soviet documentation, including field reports and survivor testimonies that serve as a basis for historical research. In conclusion, the collection presents the tension between Official documentation and the public memory of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.

The documents before us present a complex picture of the documentation of the Holocaust in the Baltic states and the territories of the Soviet Union, focusing on the tension between local cooperation and Soviet documentation and policing mechanisms (H83-1f, H83-2f). The sources indicate that the cooperation of the local population in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania was a critical element in the implementation of the "Final Solution", with anti-Jewish actions sometimes beginning even before the arrival of German forces (H83-7f). At the same time, the Soviet NKVD collected a great deal of information about Nazi crimes, but the transfer of information to the political leadership in Moscow was partial and political motives influenced the way it was presented (H83-2f, H83-8f).

Key figures

Victims, survivors and researchers:

• Edward Anders: A Holocaust survivor from Latvia and professor of chemistry, whose family was largely destroyed in 1941; he managed to escape thanks to his mother's false claim that he was an "Aryan ass" (H83-3f).
• Steven Springfield: Survivor of the Riga ghetto and concentration camps (Kaiserwald, Stutthof), who serves as president of the Latvian Survivors Association in the USA (H83-1f, H83-3f, H83-7f).
• Lewis Schloss: Born in Germany, deported to Latvia, spent time in labor camps and Buchenwald, and survived the war as a forced laborer (H83-1f, H83-3f).
• George Schwab: Holocaust survivor from Latvia, president of the National Committee for American Foreign Policy (H83-1f, H83-3f, H83-7f).
• Ya. Z. Szenfeld: Bookkeeper in the Judenrat of Lviv, who provided detailed information about the murder of the city's Jews and executions in the ghetto (H83-2f).
• Joseph Volf: An eyewitness who told of the escape of dozens of people from execution by firing squad (H83-2f).
• Ilya Altman: Russian historian and researcher who lectured on the connection between the NKVD and Holocaust documentation (H83-2f, H83-8f).

Nazis and collaborators:

• Karlis Ozols: A company commander in the Latvian SD unit, who was involved in the mass murder of Jews in the Minsk ghetto and Slutsk; after the war he became a chess champion in Australia and was not prosecuted (H83-5f).
• Viktors Arajs: Leader of the infamous "Commando Arais" unit in Latvia, responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews (H83-5f, H83-7f).
• Paul Scheer: The police chief in Kiev, who testified about meetings with Himmler regarding the extermination of Ukrainian Jews (H83-2f).
• Kurt Junker: Waffen-SS officer who instructed and commanded Latvian units in operations against partisans and the murder of Jews (H83-5f).

Expansion of important sources

• NKVD report and Holocaust documentation (H83-2f): This is one of the most significant sources, detailing how the NKVD served as the first official organ to document the extermination of Jews in the territories of the Soviet Union. The document reveals that despite the massive collection of information (about 15,000 pages of testimonies), the information did not always serve to save the Jews but was used for later intelligence and legal needs. The source notes that the Soviet leadership refrained from using information about Auschwitz in planning military operations in 1944.
• Testimony of Carlisle Ozoles (H83-5f): This source provides a detailed timeline of an unpunished war criminal. It demonstrates how Baltic collaborators were integrated into the Nazi murder apparatus (such as in SD units) and how some managed to escape to countries like Australia and build new, prestigious lives under the identities of outstanding athletes.
• Symposium on Local Cooperation (H83-1f, H83-7f): These sources (the event plan and handwritten summaries) offer a historiographical analysis of the role of the local population. They suggest that in Estonia, for example, the local police were "vital" to the implementation of German policy, and that the pattern of murder of Jews sometimes began spontaneously by the locals even before full German rule was established.

List of sources

• H83-1f : Program of a symposium by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on local cooperation in the Baltic States.
• H83-2f : A detailed lecture by Dr. Ilya Altman on the role of the NKVD in documenting the Holocaust and collecting testimonies.
• H83-3f : Brief biographies of symposium participants, including Holocaust survivors and researchers.
• H83-4f : An article by Alan Rosen on the limitations of writing about the Holocaust in English and early testimonies of survivors.
• H83-5f : Documentary file and timeline on Latvian war criminal Kārlis Uzolas.
• H83-6f : Press release from the Simon Wiesenthal Center condemning the Latvian Legion Veterans' Parade.
• H83-7f : Handwritten notes from a symposium dealing with cooperation of local police forces in the Baltics.
• H83-8f : Handwritten notes on Altman's lecture and Soviet and German archives.

H83-1f

H83-2f

H83-3f

H83-4f

H83-5f

H83-6f

H83-7f

H83-8f

 

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