Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

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Organisers of March 16 events have withdrawn their applications due to epidemiological situation- the organisers of this SS glorification march should withdraw due to historical facts, recognising that glorifying any SS detachment in the 21st century is u

2021-03-09 09:57:34
UPDATE 09.03.2021




Organisers of March 16 events have withdrawn their applications due to epidemiological situation- the organisers of this SS glorification march should withdraw due to historical facts, recognising that glorifying any SS detachment in the 21st century is unacceptable. To maintain that anyone who protests against this march is working together with the Russian government is ridiculous.

Thousands of people worldwide protest each and every year against the SS march in Riga, they are ordinary people who come from all over the world, they have two things in common: historical truth and common sense.

 

Last year one former Waffen -SS Legionnaire stated to the press 'Collaboration With Nazis Was 'Mistake'  Thursday 19 March 2020

 

Why do the organisers of this disgraceful event not listen to him?




Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

A Message from Dr Efraim Zuroff, February 16 2021- Chief Nazi Hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Director of the Center's Israel Office and Eastern European Affairs.

2021-02-16 16:05:48
 This message is being written on February 16, a month before the date of the annual march of veterans of the Latvian S.S. in the heart of Riga. A somewhat similar march, one of neo-fascists and Lithuanian nationalist extremists, was scheduled to take place today, which is one of the country's two independence days. February 16 marks the independence achieved in 1918, which is "celebrated" by a march in Kaunas (Kovno), which was the interwar capital of Lithuania, whereas on March 11, the local neo-Nazis and sympathizers march in the current capital Vilnius (Vilna) to mark the independence achieved in 1990. Hopefully, none of these events will be taking place this year as scheduled due to Covid-19 restrictions. 

 

 The reason that I am mentioning the marches in Lithuania, in conjunction with the S.S. veterans march in Riga, is because all three are inspired by the same misguided extremist patriotism and sustained by the fake historical narratives created and promoted since independence by the Lithuanian and Latvian governments. They are ostensibly held to honor the brave patriots who volunteered to fight for independence against the oppressive Soviet regime, but in reality glorify anti-Semites, some of whom were active participants in the annihilation of their Jewish citizens and other Jews.

 

 So let's present the facts. The Latvian Legion fought in the framework of the Waffen-SS, Heinrich Himmler's army, for a victory of the Third Reich, the most genocidal regime in human history. Its defenders prefer to ignore that cardinal fact, and insist that all the men were fighting only for Latvian independence. The problem with that contention is that the Nazis had absolutely no intention of granting independence to any of the Baltic countries, regardless of whatever assistance they provided, whether it was in murdering Jews or joining the battles against the Red Army.

 

 A second argument is that the Legion did not participate in the murder of Jews. That is partially true, since the units were established after most Latvian Jews had already been murdered. Yet what is always omitted by the Legion's defenders, is that among the men who joined the Latvian Legion, were many mass murderers of Jews from the notorious Arajs Kommando mass murder squad and the Latvian SD, hardly individuals worthy of any honors.

 

 A third argument is that the men who served in the Legion paved the way for Latvian independence in 1990, but that too is of course totally baseless, since their service for the Nazis did not achieve any progress towards freedom, which was only obtained when the Soviet union crumbled. In fact, had the Nazis won World War II, the Latvians would most likely still be subjugated, but by the Germans not the Soviets. 

 

 All of the above are good reasons why we should be very glad that such events will not be held this year or ever after. 

 

 Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff is the chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Director of the Center's Israel Office and Eastern European Affairs.

 

 Dr. Efraim Zuroff Director, Simon Wiesenthal Center – Israel office and Eastern European Affairs Coordinator, SWC Nazi war crimes research worldwide www.operationlastchance.org 

Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

Twenty-Three Years of Marching! It is Time to give the Latvian SS and Fans their Marching Orders!

2020-02-16 11:29:30

Time to call a halt… Stop the 16 March marches and the twisting of history!    By Ruth Barnett MBE, Holocaust Educator and Author    16 February 2020   Humanity, the one human race, is denigrated by those of its members who try to avoid responsibility by covering up, denying and trying to re-write shameful parts of their history. Nearly all, if not all countries have some shameful history. It is time for an international 'amnesty' in which this is recognised and all past shame publicly acknowledged, so that we can all go forward accepting the truth of the past in order to create a better future.   Currently the Family of Nations on Planet Earth is the most dysfunctional family of all time. We have too many leaders at all levels, who should be role models and guardians of the truth, irresponsibly putting their greed for power and wealth before the interests of their people. We need a country like Latvia that suffered and caused suffering in World War II, to lead the way by heralding the truth instead of glorifying atrocities.   Ruth Barnett MBE, Holocaust Educator and Author of:  Person of No Nationality, Jews & Gypsies, Why War?   Love, Hate & Indifference, Equality and Inequality  and What Price for Justice: a Play in Two Acts  

 

Please add your voice to the international petition, and see our blogspot,

https://stop16marchinriga.blogspot.com/…/baltic-marchingsea…

earlier articles and papers available online,
https://www.academia.edu/…/List_of_Published_Articles_by_Mo…

and reports on earlier marches in Defending History.
http://defendinghistory.com/category/riga-waffen-ss-marches…

http://defendinghistory.com/will-the-west-remain-sil…/101575

http://defendinghistory.com/…/M.-LOWENBERG-COMPILATION-ON-W…


Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

Time to Call a Halt to the 16 March SS march !

2019-03-03 21:22:34

Time to call a halt… Stop the 16 March marches and the twisting of history !   By Graeme Atkinson  anti-fascist journalist and internationalist  03.03.2019   

 Annually since 1998, in the centre of Riga, on 16 March, processions have been held to honour veterans of the Latvian Legion of the murderous Nazi Waffen SS for fighting the Allies in WWII.

And, through the media of Latvian government materials and state propaganda film footage, the role of the Latvian Legion is still apologised for or excused while the far-right National Alliance – which sits in the Latvian government – is again loudly demanding that the date be enshrined as an official national memorial day.

Not new: these events have received tacit (and sometimes explicit and public) support from state authorities, including, in 2012, Latvia’s president himself and have been attended by members of the Latvian Parliament, members of the Riga City Council and officials of the Latvian defence ministry. 

Documentary evidence of official complicity in Latvia’s Day of National Shame is copious but astonishingly the ghastly charade of memorialising the SS in Riga, a European capital at the heart of NATO and the EU, goes on, attended by increasing numbers and attracting right-wing extremists and Hitler fans from across Europe, including the UK.

Despite the mounting international input, the rest of Europe just looks on at this unwholesome performance that lauds the members of a proven criminal organisation. It is surely time that Latvia, the UK government, the European Union, NATO and the international community showed some self-respect and pressed for a halt to it.  

 

Call to protest!

For further details see  

https://stop16marchinriga.blogspot.com/2019/

http://defendinghistory.com/category/riga-waffen-ss-marches?order=desc

http://defendinghistory.com/latvian-court-rules-that-depicting-nazi-violence-of-1941-on-a-placard-is-illegal/90473

 

 


Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

Call For International Protests

2018-03-06 23:16:07

Call for International Protests March 16, 2018   No honouring of the Latvian Waffen-SS!

Call for international protests:  

http://berlin.vvn-bda.de/2018/03/blumen-fuer-die-waffen-ss/

http://stop16marchinriga.blogspot.co.uk/2018/

http://defendinghistory.com/category/riga-waffen-ss-marches

http://defendinghistory.com/category/lowenberg-monica

On 16 March 2018, in the Latvian capital of Riga, as in previous years since 1991, after a Lutheran church service, an honorary march and flag-lined rally will take place at the Freedom Monument in the heart of the city to honour Latvian units of the Waffen SS. Numerous members of these legionnaires were involved in the mass murder of Latvian Jews before they joined the Waffen SS. Approximately 160,000 Latvians worked for the German murderers during the Second World War. Latvia, like Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Bulgaria is one of the Eastern European states where locally staffed anti-Semitic units and death squads under different names who collaborated with the Nazis are celebrated today as national heroes. This is done with tacit consent of the state and varying degrees of tacit or open support from state authorities. For example, at the end of 2017 a law was passed in Latvia which stated that even if Latvian soldiers had collaborated with the Nazis they would still be recognised as being anti-Hitler. In addition, all former Latvian veterans who had fought in the Second World War- including Waffen SS members should be officially honoured.

The  “March of Honour” in Riga is an unprecedented provocation towards relatives of victims of the Latvian police and SS associations and the Jewish, Russian-speaking and other minorities in the country.  The march is not only in conflict with the fundamental values of the European Union, whose advantages the Latvian state accepts, but it is also a crass provocation against all the peoples of Europe that made huge sacrifices to bring down Hitler. Last but not least, it should be remembered that from the end of 1941, Jews from the German Reich were deported to the Riga ghetto where they were murdered in the surrounding forests with the help of Latvian collaborators who then later joined in 1943, only two years later, the 15th and 19th divisions of the Latvian Waffen SS.

For many years, Latvian and international anti-fascists have been repeatedly protesting against the march, amongst them Dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem. In Latvia, anti-fascist demonstrators are exposed to considerable reprisals (telephone monitoring, travel restrictions, administrative chicanery, police and state influence on hotels and event organisers and arbitrary police arrests in the run-up to protests. This also applies to supporters who come from Germany and other countries. In 2016, five members of the VVN-BdA were detained for several hours at Riga airport because they wanted to participate in the protests against the Waffen-SS march of honour. Afterwards, they were dumped into a prisoner van and deported to Lithuania. The following year, the Latvian police effectively prevented any form of protest. It is therefore all the more important to show solidarity with the Latvian antifascists in 2018. The VVN-BdA and the member federations of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) call for anti-fascists to participate in anti-fascist demonstrations on 16 March in front of Latvian embassies and consulates and in turn protest against the glorification of Nazi collaborators and mass murderers and freedom for Latvia's antifascists. The Berlin VVN-BdA calls for a vigil in front of the Latvian Embassy: Friday 16 March 2018, 14.00 - 16.00 clock in the Reinerzstr. 40/41, 14193 Berlin Grunewald         

We demand:  

An end to the glorification of Nazi collaborators and murderers!

 Recognition of Baltic participation in the Nazi genocide! 

An end to state repression of Latvian anti-fascists

And of the Federal government that they terminate forthwith the allocation of pensions to former Waffen SS members 

Berlin Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Association of Anti-Fascists e.V. [Berlin VVN-BdA e.V.] Magdalenstraße 19, 10365 Berlin   http://berlin.vvn-bda.de/


Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

Call for International Protests 16 March 2018

2018-02-05 11:15:32

Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

Call for International Protests March 15 and March 16, 2017

2017-03-01 16:25:12



 On 16 March,  as in previous years since 1991, in the Latvian capital of Riga  and after a Lutheran church service, an honorary march and flag-lined rally will take place at the Freedom Monument to honour Latvian units of the Waffen-SS.


Latvia like Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Bulgaria is one of the Eastern European states where units of the Waffen-SS and other anti-Semitic death squads  who collaborated with the Nazis are celebrated today as national heroes. This is done with tacit consent of the state and partial support from authorities.

The  'March of Honour' in Riga is an unprecedented provocation towards relatives of victims of the Latvian police and SS associations and  the Jewish, Russian-speaking and other minorities in the country.  The march is not only  in conflict with the fundamental values ​​of the European Union, whose advantages the Latvian state likes to accept, but is also a provocation against the Russian Federation and thus a threat to peace in Europe.

In Latvia, anti-fascist demonstrators are exposed to considerable reprisals (telephone monitoring, travel restrictions, administrative chicanery, police, state influence on hotels and event organisers). This also applies to supporters who come from Germany and other countries.

It is therefore all the more important to show solidarity with the Latvian antifascists in 2017.  The VVN-BdA and the member federations of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) call for a trip to Riga to participate in the anti-fascist demonstration on 16 March.


At the same time the  protest organisers call  for protests against the glorification of Nazi collaborators and mass murderers and freedom for Latvia's anti-fascists to take place on 15 March outside Latvian embassies and consulates in the European cities of:

  •  Rome, Brussels, Budapest and Athens

The VVN-BdA  also calls for vigils in front of the Latvian Embassy and the Honorary consulates in:
 
  • Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf
 
We demand:
 
  •  An end to the glorification  of Nazi collaborators and murderers! 
  •  Recognition of Baltic participation in the Nazi genocide! 
  •  Freedom for "Latvia without Nazism"!
 
We call for protest messages to be presented to Latvian Embassy and Latvian consulates on the 15th of March!
 
 
(On how to get to Riga email: bundesbuero@vvn-bda.de or call 030-5557-9083-2)
 
 
 
-
Association of the persecutors of the Naziregime -
Association of the Antifascists (VVN-BdA) e.V.
Federal association
Change city Deutsch Magdalenenstr. 19, 10365 Berlin, Germany
Tel .: +49 (0) 30-55579083-2, Fax: +49 (0) 30-55579083-9
 
 
---------------------------------------
 
Keine Ehrung der lettischen Waffen-SS!

 

Aufruf zu internationalen Protestkundgebungen 

 

http://vvn-bda.de/keine-ehrung-der-lettischen-waffen-ss-internationale-protestkundgebungen/

 

 

Am 16. März wird es in der lettischen Hauptstadt Riga - wie jedes Jahr seit 1991 - zu einem Gottesdienst, einem Ehrenmarsch und einer fahnengesäumten Kundgebung am Freiheitsdenkmal zu Ehren der lettischen Einheiten der Waffen-SS kommen. 

 

Lettland gehört mit Estland, Litauen, der Ukraine und Bulgarien zu den osteuropäischen Staaten in denen Einheiten der Waffen-SS und andere mit den Nazis kollaborierende antisemitische Todesschwadronen als nationale Idole gefeiert werden. Dies geschieht mit staatlicher Duldung und teilweise offener Unterstützung durch Behörden. 

 

Der Rigaer „Ehrenmarsch“ ist eine unerhörte Provokation für die Angehörigen der Opfer der lettischen Polizei und SS-Verbände und für die jüdische, russischsprachige und andere Minderheiten im Land. Er steht nicht nur im Gegensatz zu den Grundwerten der Europäischen Union, deren sonstige Vorzüge der lettische Staat andererseits gerne entgegennimmt, sondern ist auch eine Provokation gegenüber der Russischen Föderation und damit eine Gefahr für den Frieden in Europa.

 

In Lettland werden antifaschistische Demonstrant*innen erheblichen Repressalien (Telefonüberwachung, Reisebeschränkungen, Behördenschikanen, Polizeiwillkür, staatliche Einflussnahme auf Hotels und Veranstaltungsunternehmen) ausgesetzt. Dies gilt auch für Unterstützer*innen, die aus Deutschland und anderen Ländern anreisen.

 

Umso wichtiger ist es, auch 2017 Solidarität mit den lettischen Antifaschist*innen  zu zeigen. Die VVN-BdA und die Mitgliedsverbände der Internationalen Föderation der Widerstandskämpfer (FIR) rufen dazu auf, nach Riga zu reisen und am 16. März an der antifaschistischen Kundgebung teilzunehmen.

 

Gleichzeitig rufen sie dazu auf am 15. März 

 

·         in Rom, Brüssel, Budapest und Athen

 

vor lettischen Botschaften und Konsulaten in Europa gegen die Verherrlichung von NS-Kollaborateuren und Massenmördern zu protestieren und Freiheit für Lettlands Antifaschist*innen zu fordern. 

 

Die VVN-BdA ruft auf zu Mahnwachen vor der lettischen Botschaft und den Honorarkonsulaten in 

 

·         Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Frankfurt und Düsseldorf.

 

Wir fordern:

·         Schluss mit der Ehrung von NS-Kollaborateuren und Mördern!

·         Anerkennen der baltischen Beteiligung am nazistischen Völkermord! 

·         Freiheit für „Lettland ohne Nazismus“!

·         Wir rufen für den 15. März auf zu Protestkundgebungen vor der lettischen Botschaft und lettischen Konsulaten!

 

 

(Informationen zur Anreise nach Riga über: bundesbuero@vvn-bda.de oder 030-5557-9083-2)


 

http://vvn-bda.de/keine-ehrung-der-lettischen-waffen-ss-internationale-protestkundgebungen/

--

Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes –

Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten (VVN-BdA) e.V.

Bundesvereinigung

Magdalenenstr. 19, 10365 Berlin

Tel.: +49 (0)30-55579083-2, Fax: +49 (0)30-55579083-9

E-Mail: bundesbuero@vvn-bda.de

www.vvn-bda.de

 


Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

Update on Legionnaires march 16 March , 2016 Riga , Latvia

2016-03-22 00:14:43

Ten Steps Back, One Step Forward- The Pantomime Has Started! 16 March 2016

'Sad day. In Riga where several hundred people turned out to honor the soldiers of the two Latvian SS divisions, who fought for a victory of Nazi Germany in WW I...I. Portrayed as freedom fighters who paved the way for Latvian independence (which the Nazis had no intention of giving them), they included participants in the mass murder of Latvian Jewry and many thousands of Jews deported to Latvia to be murdered' 

Dr Efraim Zuroff, Simon Wiesenthal Centre 

 

Radio Interview:

 

Listen  to Dr Efraim Zuroff  speaking on Monday  21 March on Salford City Radio 94.4FM  http://www.podcast.canstream.co.uk/scr/index.php?cat=mon19  

Listen from 25.00-30.30 mins

  

Articles:

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Latvia-must-come-to-terms-with-its-past-448705 by  Dr EfraimZuroff  

http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/world/article/2766/don%E2%80%99t-stand-by-mr-lidington by Monica Lowenberg

http://stop16marchinriga.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/dont-stand-by-mr-lidington-source-hope.html  - Article with Full links

 

Videos:

http://globalnews.ca/news/2581869/latvians-honour-wwii-nazi-allies-in-legionnaires-day-memorials/-

Shocking video,  SS men feeling sorry for themselves

http://rus.delfi.lv/news/daily/latvia/zaderzhannogo-za-provokacii-blogera-zhurnalista-fillipsa-otpustili.d?id=47191569

Another shocking video, Graham Phillips asking Estonian politician Jaak Madison if he is not ashamed to be attending a fascist march

 

Photo reportages:

http://rus.delfi.lv/news/daily/story/den-pamyati-legionerov-v-rige-arhiv-tekstovoj-translyacii.d?id=47189879#!dgs=dgslv-74181:5307607

Photo reportage : index.php?view=category&catid=752&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=519

 

For a Full Media List

See:

http://defendinghistory.com/in-the-run-up-to-the-march-16th-2016-waffen-ss-fest-in-central-riga/80365

http://stop16marchinriga.blogspot.co.uk/2016_03_01_archive.html

 

 

 


Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

Ban the Nazi March that will be taking place, once again, in Riga 16 March, 2016!

2016-03-02 16:42:51

Dear Supporters of this Petition and Visitors,

In fourteen days time the annual march of the legionnaires/ glorification march of the SS will undoubtedly take place, with clockwork precision,  on the 16th March, 2016 in Riga, Latvia; an EU, NATO, OSCE country. An obscene event which surpasses all reason. 

 

To date we have had a number of successes but also a number of failures, full details of which can be read here:

http://defendinghistory.com/a-chronology-of-latvias-pantomime-of-march-16th-horror-2012-2016/80025 and here:

http://stop16marchinriga.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-chronology-of-latvias-pantomime-of.html

May we encourage you to say once again 'NO' to this disgraceful event and encourage the Latvian government to continue banning members of parliament from attending it and  continue acknowledging that the men who joined the Latvian SS collaborated with the most genocidal system the world has ever known.  The SS were agents of death NOT freedom fighters and their legacy of suffering and woe should not be merged with myths to suit current geopolitics.

 

Thank you for your continued support!  

 

 


Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!

SS march in Riga, Latvia will still take place tomorrow

2015-03-15 15:01:18

Dear Supporters of this Petition,

Firstly, thank you for your continued support.  The Latvian government should be commended for banning, for the second year,  its ministers from attending the SS march scheduled tomorrow.   Unfortunately though despite numerous protesters from around the world going to Riga last year, and years before, to protest against what one can only say is a complete disgrace in a European, NATO, OSCE country,  the Latvian SS will  tomorrow, with undoubtedly military precision, march down the main street of a European capital of a country that currently holds the presidency of the rotating council of the European Union!  The  issues that the SS stood for, were not and are not,  European and humanitarian values, infact the complete reverse and yet they are honoured today in an EU country  in the 21st century! 

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_news/?doc=14507

 

Thank you to those of you who will be protesting against this event and glorification of men who worked for the most genocidal regime the world has ever known. 

Further updates can be found on   blogspot.com/  and http://defendinghistory.com/

 

 

 


Stop the 16 March marches and Latvians revising history!



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