Former Nazi Waffen-SS legionnaire buried with military honors in EU country (VIDEO)
A member of the Latvian Legion, a branch of Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS, was buried with military honors in Latvia on Wednesday.
Laimons Ezergailis, who died at the age of 102, served in the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division, a formation that was established on Adolf Hitler’s orders in 1943 and consisted primarily of ethnic Latvians.
The urn with Ezergailis’ ashes was buried at the Lestene military cemetery, a memorial site dedicated to Latvian Legionnaires. Ezergailis held the Order of Viesturs, one of the country’s highest state decorations and its highest military honor.
The Latvian Legion remains controversial because it fought under German command as part of the Waffen-SS, which was declared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials.
Latvian authorities argue that the Legion fought to prevent the return of Soviet rule rather than in support of the National Socialist ideology, noting that many of its members were conscripted. Russia rejects that interpretation, and has accused Latvia of rehabilitating Nazi collaborators through official honors and annual commemorations.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) released declassified documents last year alleging that Latvian Waffen-SS formations committed atrocities against civilians during World War II.
Based on Soviet counterintelligence records, the files say collaborationist units later incorporated into the Latvian Legion murdered at least 30,000 people and participated in mass executions, including the killing of more than 10,000 Jews in Riga’s Bikernieki Forest in 1941.
