Baltic Collaborators and Sexual Crimes: Herberts Cukurs

[little grey rabbit]

I have been reading Operation Last Chance by Efraim Zuroff and was struck how, in contrast to Germans, many of the crimes of Baltic collaborators seemed to have a strong sexual element.

In the case of the Latvian Herberts Cukurs, Zuroff supplies the following [page 119-120]

I knew that the only way to put an end to this outrageous attempt to rehabilitate one of the biggest Latvian murderers of Holocaust was to produce and publicize the evidence of his crimes. At Yad Vashem, I found quite a few testimonies of survivors taken immediately after the war that told the true story of Herberts Cukurs's prominent role in the mass murder of Jews. Rafael Shub, for example, noted that on July 2, 1941, Cukurs burned to death eight Jews in the new Jewish cemetery: the synagogue sexton Feldheim, his wife and four children, and Cantor Mintz and his wife. Abraham Shapiro, a survivor who had been incarcerated at the headquarters of the Arajs Kommando at 19 Vladamaras Street after Cukurs had taken over his family's apartment, related that the deputy commander had personally murdered two Jews, one of whom was named Leitmann, who failed to appear at a lineup as ordered. e also witnessed Cukurs and his fellow Latvian officers sexually molest and torture a young Jewish girl while he played piano at a command performance ordered by Cukurs in the apartment he had seized from the Shapiro family.

The most damning evidence was supplied by Max Tukacier, who on September 23, 1948, testified that he was among a group of Jews arrested by the Arajs Kommando and taken to their headquarters, where he witnessed how numerous Jews were tortured and subsequently shot on Cukurs' orders. On July 15, 1941, he personally saw Cukurs order an elderly bearded Jew to rape a 20-year old Jewess in the front of a crowd of Latvian police and prisoners, and when he proved incapable of doing so, forced the man to kiss the naked girl all over her body again and again. Those prisoners who could not bear to watch this ugly sight - some 10 to 15 of them, including several women - were beaten to death by Cukurs with the butt of his pistol. Tukacier also testified to Cukurs's active role in the mass murders of November 30 and December 8, 1941, noting that he beat and shot men, women and children who could not keep pace on the death march to Rumbula.

On June 1, 2005, I sent copies of these and other testimonies to Janis Osis, who was in charge of the Cukurs file at the office of the Prosecutor General. In addition, I published an op-ed entitled "Herberts Cukurs - Certainly Guilty" in Diena, Latvia's largest and most important daily, as well as in the English language weekly the Baltic Times.

As most members will know, Herberts Cukurs has been executed some decades before in 1965 in Brazil - presumably by agents of the Israeli Government.

[David Thompson]

For more information on this fellow, see:

Herbert Cukurs
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=56115

and an interesting post by edgardo gil on Mr. Cukurs' death at http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 3#p1005593

[michael mills]

On July 15, 1941, he personally saw Cukurs order an elderly bearded Jew to rape a 20-year old Jewess in the front of a crowd of Latvian police and prisoners, and when he proved incapable of doing so, forced the man to kiss the naked girl all over her body again and again.

[Two sentences containing frivolous content removed by the moderator - DT]

Seriously though, this sort of story needs to be treated with a good deal of reserve. Sexual fantasy is an extremely powerful force and has spawned a huge amount of highly imaginative erotic literature, most of it with only a marginal connection to reality.

The story of Cukurs then beating to death with his pistol butt some 10-15 persons who did not like witnessing the erotic scene allegedly being played out before their eyes (itself unlikely) also needs to be treated with reserve. It takes a considerable deal of force and often a number of blows to beat just one person to death with a blunt instrument such as a pistol butt, let alone 10 to 15. The poor man must have been utterly exhausted!

On the other hand, the accounts of Cukurs beating and shooting Jews who could not keep up on the death-march to the Rumbula execution site seem entirely credible. Cukurs and the men under his command had a strong incentive to keep the columns of Jewish victims moving along at a steady pace so as not to slow down the shooting action that was being perpetrated by Jeckeln's staff. Jeckeln would no doubt have been very annoyed with Cukurs if he had allowed the movement of Jews to slow down or stop.

It is noteworthy that the above accounts all come from one witness, a Max Tukacier. One is entitled to ask how he managed to survive the massacre of nearly all the Latvian Jews who fell into German hands. Possibly it was by making himself useful to his Latvian and/or German captors in some way, which would have given him an incentive to beef up his accounts with "lurid embellishment". The story of the elderly Jew being forced to rape a 20-year-old woman perhaps reflects some secret dark desire on the part of Tukacier.

It is indubitable that when a group of men gains power over a subjugated population, some of them will take the opportunity to exploit the women of that subjugated population sexually, either by force or by inducing them to submit through offering "protection". So accounts of rape and sexual exploitation are generally quite credible, within limits.

However, the story of the old Jew and the young Jewess sounds to me like "lurid embellishment".

[little grey rabbit]

Max Tukacier seems to have made his way to Australia, although I assume he is longer with us

I Max Tukacier of stateless
Fix this text

nationality, formerly Latvian bom in Riga resident 4 sears 11 months In Australia now íesiding at 136 Andeison stieet South Yana In the State of Victoria intend to Applv for Naturalisation under the Nationality and Cltizen ship Act 1948

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/23423374 6 May 1954.

ie he arrived in 1949.

[wm]

The story of Cukurs then beating to death with his pistol butt some 10-15 persons who did not like witnessing the erotic scene allegedly being played out before their eyes (itself unlikely) also needs to be treated with reserve.

A lot of people don't like seeing their friends get humiliated...

It takes a considerable deal of force and often a number of blows to beat just one person to death with a blunt instrument such as a pistol butt, let alone 10 to 15. The poor man must have been utterly exhausted!

I don't think it is correct. For example in the KL Gusen at least three men were known to be capable of killing with one powerful hit to the head.
They were a kapo named Kempke, he used usually a wooden stick, Oberkapo Doneker - a metal rod, and kapo Hajdeman - a heavy on one end stick.

[David Thompson]

An off-topic post from The Black Rabbit of Inlé was removed by this moderator - DT.

History books offer hundreds of such stories involving persons with a great deal of power over others, and their victims. Once you've got the handcuffs on someone else, it's your party. The stories involve all climes and times, and the NS-regime was no exception. So what? If the idea is to start a sexually prurient thread, get ready for the padlock.

[michael mills]

I don't think it is correct. For example in the KL Gusen at least three men were known to be capable of killing with one powerful hit to the head.
They were a kapo named Kempke, he used usually a wooden stick, Oberkapo Doneker - a metal rod, and kapo Hajdeman - a heavy on one end stick.

Perhaps a very large, powerful man, who had had a lot of practice beating people with blunt objects, might be able to kill a person with one blow to the head.

Such a man might well be found among the criminal classes, where brutal physical violence was a way of life. The three Kapos mentioned above most probably came from a criminal background, and were quite experienced in the use of physical violence.

Cukurs however did not have a criminal background. He was an aeronautical engineer by profession, and a famous pilot who set many records for long-distance flights, some in airplanes he had designed and constructed himself. It is doubtful that he had had any experience in the use of physical violence before 1941.

It is relatively easy for someone who is not practised in the use of physical violence to learn to use a firearm to kill people by aiming it at them and pulling the trigger; even a person who is not physically strong can do that. It is much harder to gain the ability or the strength to kill someone by using a firearm as a blunt instrument.

Thyat is why I find it quite credible that Cukurs shot Jews with a pistol, but less credible that he beat them to death with its butt. After all, why expend a lot of energy trying to beat someone to death with a pistol when it is much easier to shoot him with it?

[David Thompson]

Michael -- You wrote:

Perhaps a very large, powerful man, who had had a lot of practice beating people with blunt objects, might be able to kill a person with one blow to the head.

It doesn't take physical hugeness, a lot of physical power or practice, or even a blunt object, to kill someone with a single blow to the head. You can do it with a single bare hand, as I learned in the Army when I was a young man. Women and teenage boys can do it. The blunt object just makes the task easier -- if you have a taste for it.

[michael mills]

You can do it with a single bare hand, as I learned in the Army when I was a young man.

But were you able to do so before you were taught how?

That is the crux of the matter; there is a technique that needs to be taught.

There is nothing in Cukurs' life before 1941 to indicate that he might have acquired the skill of killing with his bare hands.

But once he had been given a pistol he had the power to kill with it. Killing by shooting with the pistol is easier than using it as a club.

[David Thompson]

Michael -- You wrote:

But were you able to do so before you were taught how?

That is the crux of the matter; there is a technique that needs to be taught.

There is nothing in Cukurs' life before 1941 to indicate that he might have acquired the skill of killing with his bare hands.

No, I was taught how to do it. But there are two points which ought to be made:

(1) No one here is claiming that Cukurs killed anyone with a single blow to the head, either with an implement or with his bare hands. The claim is that he killed people on one occasion using the butt of a pistol -- something which does not necessarily require great physical strength, stamina, practice or instruction.

(2) So far, we don't have enough information about Cukurs' background to be able to say what his police training was, or what he knew about how to kill people, except that he allegedly did it. The fact that at one time he was an aviator and designed aircraft doesn't rule out a murderous proclivity any more than being a cleric or policeman does.

[wm]

But once he had been given a pistol he had the power to kill with it. Killing by shooting with the pistol is easier than using it as a club.

There were a lot of people watching, he could have accidentally killed someone, and firing a handgun indoors is painful on the ear.
And it is not that hard, he was probably using his Nagant, this thing is like a hammer, hitting the side of the skull, because blunt trauma injures there are the least tolerated.
It is said, that he was thrown out of the Army in 1926 because of his "terrorist tendencies", I don't quite know what it means, I suppose he was hazing too eagerly.

But I'm not sure I believe in the existence of the bare-hand-single-blow boy killers, it smacks of the vibrating palm technique that killed Bruce Lee, the young innocent soldiers are vulnerable to bs I suppose .

[David Thompson]

wm -- You wrote:

But I'm not sure I believe in the existence of the bare-hand-single-blow boy killers, it smacks of the vibrating palm technique that killed Bruce Lee, the young innocent soldiers are vulnerable to bs I suppose .

What you believe is your affair, but please keep your posts factual. If you are curious about the subject, I suggest further research.

[michael mills]

Here is a link to a more positive, indeed laudatory apprisal of Cukurs, in particular of his achievements as a pilot:

http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17787

In regard to the alleged criminal activities of Cukurs during the German occupation of Latvia, the article contains this statement by Andrew Ezergailis, author of the authoritiative work "The Holocaust in Latvia":

Historian Andrew Ezergailis said:




“MOSSAD killed an innocent man”.

To change the question from "how many Jews did Cukurs kill?", to "did he even kill one Jew?”

1- Even as I was writing my book about holocaust in Latvia, I noticed that there were many exaggerations as far as the question about holocaust, the matter of Cukurs did not seem like an important question. I could have looked as microcosm to a wider problem about exaggerations and untruth in literature about Holocaust in Latvia. If I had known ten years ago, that Massada’s version about Cukurs being the biggest mass killer of Hebrews in Latvia, who be assigned the destruction of 30 000 people, contains deep lack of knowledge, if not lies. Massada version not only contains simple falsehoods, but also shows a lack of knowledge about the system of destruction as such. Destruction system was brought to Latvia by and under Einsatzgrupe leadership, not one individual was given the opportunity to set records .

Ten years ago I did not have the opportunity to access materials which these days the movie makers were able to gather. A very important document which has come to light is that which Cukurs provided as testimony to the police in Brazil. To the film makers' credit is that they changed the questions, from how many Hebrews Cukurs killed, to did he kill any. What happened to the democratic system’ s presumption of innocence? If someone would ask me if there was a possibility while serving under Arajs command to kill a Hebrew in his home, I would say yes. In 1941, 300 men served under Arajs and his unit needed administrative people, who were responsible for maintaining modern inventory. Lieutenant Leimanis served as an officer for arms. He was still alive in the 70’/80’ and Eriks Parups testified in his behalf , he said that Latvian officers' resistance movement infiltrated into Arajs commando to spy on their activities. He cooperated with American judiciary instances thus no accusations were raised against him. Among many hundreds of Arajs’ former soldiers depositions, nowhere is Leimanis or Cukurs mentioned. When Arajs was tried in Hamburg (Germany) among his documents Cukurs was not mentioned.

2. The only accusations about Cukurs as “butcher” of Riga come from surviving Hebrews, who wanted to find explanation for the tragedy of their people, but there are multiple problems with their testimony. In first place they lack information about holocaust internal organization, and methods of destruction. They had no knowledge about the Latvians who did the shooting. Many of them think, that killing of Hebrews in Latvia were improvised on the spot and did not follow an organized plan. Majority of those who survived, could not name one shooter except Cukurs. We arrive at crass conflict of testimony: none of those who testified ,are able to place Cukurs at the edge of shooting pit, but the only Latvian, whom Hebrews were able to name was Cukurs. If I was given a choice of whom I would believe, I would lean towards the Latvian testifier, who was with Cukurs. At least those testimonies were given under oath. If Cukurs had participated, as an officer, he would have given orders and would not have participated as a shooter. The Latvian shooters would not have forgotten his name .

3. As far as testifiers testimony has been analyzed and examined, the coefficient of truth has been low and full of contradictions. As an examples we could mention SD officer Elke Scherwitz's, of Hebrew ancestry, trial, who was accused by survivors, especially Max Kaufman, and in his 1948 trial (Scherwitz) in Munich was found guilty of killing 30 000 Hebrews in Latvia. German historian Anita Kugler has made a study about Scherwitz and sees these accusations as exaggerated and false. Then follows the trial of captain Vilis Hazners, who was tried in the USA. He was accused of destroying 30 000 Hebrews in Latvia. Again, accusations were based by survivors testimony .These were full of contradictions and exaggerations. These evaporated in cross examinations by lawyers. Hazners was found not guilty. More than 70 000 Hebrews were exterminated in Latvia, but that did not happed the way testifiers gave depositions. The same 30 000 exterminated Hebrews in Latvia were assigned to Cukurs and on these same depositions of survivors, Massada overhastily killed Cukurs. This is not the time to analyze all of supposedly Cukurs' cruelty, yet we can without doubt affirm that during the first weeks of German occupation he was on his farm in Bukaisi village (might even have come under German arrest), arrived in Riga, as he states, only on July 14, 1941. Thus all the testimony (about 75%) about his cruelty before July 14th are nullifiable. That also means that all other testimony should be looked at through skeptical / rational grinding stones.

The fact that Cukurs was part of Arajs' unit as supervisor of a garage, is not deniable. In Cukurs’ book of life one should also note that he helped at least three Latvian Hebrews to survive holocaust, this fact in Massada's book about Cukurs was omitted. A girl named Miriam Kaizner, the family Cukurs hid in their farmstead in Bukaisi and later took her with them to Brazil; a youth named Abram Shapiro ( who to this day plays the violin in Las Vegas) was given working papers in the summer of 1941 and Lutrins, whom Cukurs' garage workers saved from shooting in Rumbula, hid him and brought him back to the garage on Valdemar street where he worked as a garage mechanic.
In summing up everything, one must say that testimony against Cukurs was exaggerated, even absurd. To find truth about this sinful man, the investigation should be started from point zero, which it seems the energetic film producer is doing.

Andrievs Ezergailis Professor of History at Ithaca College, NY, USA (Division of Social Sciences and Humanities) Foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

It should be noted that one of the "witnesses" quoted in the first post on this thread was a certain Abraham Shapiro, who apparently later retracted his testimony, according to the linked article:

The alleged testimonies of Abraham Shapiro (Latvian: Abrahams Šapiro),




a Jewish Holocaust survivor, were widely believed to be crucial in accusing Cukurs of personally executing Jews in Riga. He was contacted in person by Latvian TV crew "Legend Hunters" (Latvian: Leģendu mednieki) in Las Vegas, where he is currently living under changed identity as a successful musician. Shapiro was amused and surprised to learn that he is believed (and claimed so by Mossad) to have provided testimony on Cukurs personally executing Jews. Shapiro claimed on record in front of video camera that he had never done so. It was found out by the TV crew that while Shapiro had never actually given such a testimony, it had been written down by a legal department of some "unidentified" "organization of Jews liberated in Germany", along with two other similar "testimonies" (also likely to be fabricated evidence) and used as a basis for false accusations against Cukurs which led to his death.

It should however be said that even if Cukurs' function in the Arajs Commando was that of a technician responsible for maintaining the unit's vehicles, that would not have precluded his taking part in anti-Jewish actions, such as guarding the Jews being marched from the Riga Ghetto to the execution site at Rumbula on 30 November and 8 December 1941.

According to Ezergailis, the Arajs Commando consisted on only 300 men in 1941. Accordingly, it is reasonable to assume that for a mass action such as that of the execution of the Riga Jews at Rumbula every member of the unit would have been mobilised to perform guard and escort duty, including the technicians in charge of the unit's vehicles.

But did Cukurs personally commit any atrocities even if he did take part with other members of the Arajs Commando in marching the Riga Jews to their deaths at Rumbula? Ezergailis makes the important point that none of the former Arajs men who were captured and interrogated by the NKVD and German authorities ever named Cukurs in their testimony as a person who had shot or injured Jews. Nor did Arajs mention Cukurs at his post-war trial in the 1970s in Germany.

So it could well be the case that Jewish survivors who had witnessed atrocities by Latvian auxiliaries against their fellow Jews attributed those atrocities to Cukurs only because he was a well-known person in Latvia due to his prewar aviation exploits, and was also known to be a member of the Arajs Commando.

[michael mills]

The first page of this thread on another internet forum contains some interesting material, in particular the opinion of Margers Vestermanis, the curator of the Jewish Museum in Riga:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthre ... 2056354790

Ignore the rest of the linked thread; it is simply an exchange of personal comments.

The first meassage on the thread draws on this article:

http://www.gabyweber.com/dwnld/artikel/ ... urs_en.pdf

These are the references to the opinion of Vestermanis:

In the Jewish museum in Riga, nevertheless, no-one is championing
that book. "It is really shaming", says Margers Vestermanis, the
curator," that of the Mossad works so badly, so primitively, about
(the factual) concerns of the book; The Execution of the Hangman of
Riga ".

...............................................................

Margers Vestermanis leads the Jewish museum in Riga. He himself was
a slave worker of the Nazis during World War II. The book
"Execution of the Hangman of Riga" is " a complete nonsense ", he
says. Indeed, Cukurs has been a member in the murder group of
Viktor Arajs, but Herbert Cukurs was not responsible for
assassination of 30,000 Jews. "Neither Viktor Arajs nor Cukurs were
a member in the Perkonkrust whose history is well known."
The Perkonkrust was a nationalistic, paramilitary troop, born
during the first Latvian republic under Kalis Ulmanis, an
authoritarian ruler. At that time about 80,000 Jews lived in
Latvia, five percent of the population. Under Ulmanis, they lived
quiet well, in comparison to the era before it, as Latvia had been
under Russian administration, where they could choose their
professions and acquire land.
Perkonkrust did the agitation against these people with his 6,000
members. They saluted"Kampf Heil", with the fascist's greeting and
were against all foreigners. Their slogan was "Hit the Jews and the
Germans"! In 1940, the Red Army annexed the Baltic States. And this
was the first time for contacts and physical connections between
the Perkonkrust and the German Abwehr - against the common enemy,
the Communists.
But Cukurs never was a member of the resistance, says Vestermanis,
but a daredevil and adventurer who loved the risk, enjoyed
travelling, pleasures and a good life. On the flea market he bought
an old Citroen motor and inserted it in a scrapped airplane with
which he flew to Gambia. The newspapers of Latvia financed his
adventure and from all stations he cabled reports to Riga. Then he
became a special correspondent in the war of Abessynia and in
Japan.
Cukurs became a media event, a national hero, and the Latvian air
force hired him as a captain. He was not known as an anti-
Semite,says Vestermanis. He rather tried to take advantage of all
situations for himself. Even later, under the Soviet occupation of
Latvia, he presented himself as a convinced anti-communist, but he
still made an arrangement with the Russians. On the 9th April 41 he
went to Moscow and offered his collaboration, probably to do
personal business with the Soviet air force. With which authorities
he had contact in the Soviet Union, never became known.
On the 16th of April 1941 he went back on his farm in Latvia where
he was at the time of the invasion of the German armed forces. Many
suspected him as a Russian spy because of his Moscow trip, and the
situation had become dangerous for him, speculates Vestermanis.
Probably to prove his loyalty to the new rulers, Cukurs enlisted
into the special command of Victor Arajs.
The mass murder of the Latvian Jews happened in several great
actions. The first homicide action began a few days after the
invasion of the Germans by Latvian fascist's groups. With the
second, at the end of 1941, the Germans killed 25,000 ghetto
inhabitants in the forest. Germany later announced the transport of
Jews to Riga as there was a claim to need space in the ghetto.
Herbert Cukurs membership within the Arajs command is proven. He
was his chauffeur and his right hand man. The fact that those
troops committed heavy crimes - shootings, tortures, synagogues
burned - is likewise recorded. Whether and how Cukurs was involved
in these actions personally, cannot be proven today. With
certainty, he carries a joint responsibility for his membership in
this terrorist group, but whether he carries a penal
responsibility, is not clear.
Margers Vestermanis knows well the documents, both for, and against
him. For him, two Jewish women have spoken out. Ella Medalje (born
Ella Guttmann), was aided in escaping her being shot because she
had presented herself as an "Aryan". Cukurs had driven her to the
Waldemar Street nazi headquarter s building and he did not betrayed
her, although he knew that she was a Jew. And later, Miriam
Keitzner gave testimony in Brazil saying that Cukurs had hidden her
on his farm.
However, during the executions in November, 1941, Cukurs had been
present, says Vestermanis, under direct orders, he fired blindly in
the mass of prisonars. These massacres were ordered and organised
the by the German SS. Primarily, three persons were responsible: SSgroup
leader Friedrich Jeckeln who had come from the Ukraine where
he had been very active in the murder of the Jews of Kiev. SSleader
and commander of the Riga ghetto, Eduard Roschmann who
became known as the "butcher of Riga ". And Viktor Arajs, the
Latvian boss of a special murder group.
Herbert Cukurs was often at the nazi headquarter at number 19
Waldemar Street. It was an expropriated building of a former Jewish
banker, where the Arajs group had their offices. There was the
garage of their cars for which Cukurs was responsible. In the
basement, there were torture cells for prisoners, Jews and
partisans.
On the third floor of that building, were the rooms of the
Perkonkrust. However, after only one month of German occupation,
these Latvian fascists got into trouble with the Germans and were
forbidden to remain within the building.

The book " The Execution of the Hangman of Riga " quotes eight
witness's statements of surviving prisoners of Waldemar Street.
They have been filed before Jewish organisations. The originals are
in the archive of the memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, copies in
the Jewish museum in Riga.
The fact that these witnesses were victims of the worst
humiliations, is excepted without any question. However, something
in these statements is inexact, something even wrong, means
Vestermanis. The fact that in it Cukurs is named as a member of the
Perkonkrust, proves nothing. The witnesses have been tormented and
been traumatised and would have hardly differentiated anyone on the
other side according to their party affiliation.
It is very strange, Vestermanis says that not in the Soviet
archives nor in the Latvians archives, are there any incriminating
records against Cukurs. After the war, the Soviet Union wanted to
exert a big war crimes trial because of the nazi massacres in the
Baltic States and, therefore, interrogated thousands. "After the
war, 365 members of these fascist commands were condemned. The
astonishing thing is that in the all the testimonies, there are no
criminal incriminations against Cukurs".
The book about the supposed "Hangman of Riga "mentions a request
for extradition by the Soviet Union to the Brazilian government.
However, such a request has never existed. The Brazilian embassy in
Buenos Aires informed me that‚‘‘Neither the Soviet Union, nor
Israel, ever applied for the extradition of Cukur‘‘. On a list,
published in 1960 in Israel, with the names of nazi war criminals,
the name of Herbert Cukurs did not appear.

The author of the article hints that the murder of Cukurs in Montevideo in 1965 was not a Mossad "hit" at all, but rather an attempt by a group of criminals to abduct Cukurs for the purpose of extorting information from him, perhaps in relation to the transfer of funds from the Ostbank to Sweden at the end of the war, in which Cukurs was involved as a pilot.

Given that the function of Mossad has always been to combat the Arab enemies of the Jewish State, and its only proved involvement in hunting former German operatives was the abduction of Eichmann (which was carried for internal Israeli political reasons), I am inclined to accept the author's insinuation that the murder of Cukurs was not a Mossad operation but rather a criminal conspiracy gone wrong.

[David Thompson]

Michael -- see also the interesting post by edgardo gil on Mr. Cukurs' death at http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 3#p1005593, which I mentioned in an earlier post. There are a lot of unanswered questions here, both about the life and death of Mr. Cukurs.