So far not one Finnish SS-battalion volunteer has been accused for any crime.Rob - wssob2 wrote: ...
Yes the Baltic SS units tend to get identified as "white hat" Waffen-SS, - witness the 1951 Lodge-Philbin Act. Buried on the forum somewhere are some quotes from Finnish SS troops expressing concern about the genocidal activities their comrades were participating in.
"Nationalism"? Would not call will for freedom as "nationalism".Rob - wssob2 wrote:The topic of how the SS co-opted anti-Communist Eastern European nationalisms is a fascinating, complicated and controverial subject, one that sadly resonates to this day in modern conflicts like we're seeing in the Ukraine. A fantastic book that covers the tale of Latvian collaboration is Alfred Valdmanis And The Politics Of Survival - read it and you'll get a sense of how tragic it was. Another book that covers the nations sandwiched between the hammer of Stalin and the anvil of Hitler is Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.
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Although I can well understand the choices many Eastern European Jews did when they supported the soviet invaders in 1939-41 I can also very well understand the feelings of the other citizens of those countries, when many Jews took part on Stalin's order of destruction of those countries and murdering of the escaping civilians. Just read memories of an Estonian veteran, who was shocked of the atrocities of those destruction battalions.