In August 1941, the Wehrmacht called for volunteers to join security battalions, to be deployed in the Soviet Union guarding rail depots, hunting Soviet partisans, performing combat reconnaissance, patrol and front-line battle.
Theoretically these six battalions came under the detested Himmler, who headed both the SS and police. But in Estonia the call-up was issued by the Wehrmacht and the units served with the Wehrmacht in Russia. In the fall of 1942 these six were re-designated as three “Estonian Battalions”, commanded by Estonians, but ostensibly controlled by Wehrmacht liaison officers, initially wearing German uniforms without German markings. In the summer of 1944 when the Germans were retreating west into Estonia, these units, despite protests, were reassigned to the Waffen SS, for which the Estonians clearly did not volunteer.
Also in 1941 fourteen so-called “police battalions” were formed, serving mainly in combat in Russia. Front-line duty quickly depleted their numbers and many were deactivated.
The “Estonian Legion” was formed in 1942 and a meager 2000 volunteers were sent to Poland for training. They were placed under the Waffen SS, since service in the Wehrmacht was generally restricted to German nationals. Its first battalion was sent to Russia where its ranks were decimated in combat. Thereafter the Legion’s ranks were supplemented through mobilization. The 20th Waffen SS Infantry Division, except for senior officers, consisted also of mobilized Estonians. The two-regiment Legion fought on the Eastern Front and later in 1944 as a division in Estonia against an overwhelmingly larger Red Army.
The label “fascist” frequently implies complicity in Nazi war crimes. It has been argued that no definitive and conclusive evidence exists of Estonians in German military having committed atrocities in general or having killed Jews in specific. In fact archival documentation has revealed that in several cases, different police battalions had the same unit designation numbers, some numbered units were never formed and some “Estonian” units were in fact manned totally by Germans.
However the International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity has concluded that the 36th Police Battalion participated on August 7, 1942 in the gathering together and the shooting of Jews in the town of Novogrudok in Belarus. The Commission also identified the 286th, 287th and 288th Police Battalions of killing prisoners in Estonia and participating in “raids” on villages in Poland, Belarus and Lihtuania. The Commission stated, that membership in the cited units, on its own, is not proof of involvement in crimes.
The fate of Jews in Estonia is well documented. Prior to WW II the 4400 Estonian Jews enjoyed state-supported cultural autonomy, unique in Europe. During the Soviet occupation of 1940-41 10% of Estonian Jews were deported to Siberia. By the time of the German invasion about 1000 Jews remained. The rest had departed. Those remaining didn’t anticipate the Germans to be more babaric than the Soviets. Between August and December 1941 almost all were killed. Some had been hidden by Estonian families. The Commission places complicity in this extermination with the Einsatzkommando 1A, assisted by the Omakaitse and police.
While reliable research has confirmed the pre-war Estonian Jewish population, the fate of Central and East European Jews who were shipped to Estonia in 1942-44 by the Nazis in unclear. In general the camps in Estonia mostly served as way-stations on route to death camps in Poland. Klooga is the most infamous location where 2000 inmates were hastily killed prior to the German retreat in 1944.
Many involved in atrocities during the German occupation were in fact tried and sentenced by various Soviet tribunals. In fact the last director of the KGB in Estonia stated with bravura in 1993 that “all Nazi war criminals in Estonia had been liquidated”.
The International Commission concluded: “It is unjust that an entire nation should be criminalized because of the actions of some of its citizens: but it is equally unjust that its criminals should be able to shelter behind a cloak of victimhood.”
(to be continued)