The case of Ewald Mikson

[michael mills]

An example of the fundamental philosemitism of the Bolshevik Soviet state is provided by the fact that in 1928 the President of the Crimean Tartar Republic was sentenced to death and executed for the crime of Anti-Semitism.

The particulars of his "Anti-Semitism" were that he opposed the proposals advanced by the Jewish and philosemitic establishment within the CPSU(b) (led by Larin and the President of the USSR, Kalinin) to excise the northern part of the Crimean Republic to form a Jewish autonomous area on which Jewish agricultural settlement would take place.

For details on the background to the execution of the President of the Crimean Tartar Republic, see the book "Soviet Zion : The Quest for a Russian Jewish Homeland", by Allan Laine Kagedan (New York : St. Martin's Press, 1994). The book is written from a distinctly philosemitic viewpoint.

The enormity of that virulently philosemitic act can be demonstrated through an analogy with the present most powerful philosemitic political organism. It is as if the Governor of Texas were to be executed by the Federal Government of the United States for opposing a proposal to excise West Texas for the purpose of creating autonomous Jewish agricultural settlements there.

[Pieter Kuiper]

Because judeo-bolshevism is a global phenomenon, of course events in Estonia can be explained by events in the Crimea. Everything is connected, in the anti-philosemite mind.

An example of the fundamental philosemitism of the Bolshevik Soviet state is provided by the fact that in 1928 the President of the Crimean Tartar Republic was sentenced to death and executed for the crime of Anti-Semitism.

Mr. Mills did not give us this president's name.

In 1928, the chairman of Crimean CEC Veli Ibraimov was repressed (among a great number of absurd charges he was accused and of “overemphasizing national” interests in detriment to class ones” - it is possible, they reminded him of his unsuccessful attempt to return his compatriots to homeland.

http://www.cidct.org.ua/en/studii/2-3/14.html

Does Mr. Mills believe that Mikson was influenced by events in the Crimea in 1928?

[alf]

I see the topic has been diverted away from Ewald Mikson, strange how that always seems to happen when those who are revisonists are losing an arguement, divert the subject and attack the other parties personally is a basic technique of denialism.

So going back to the topic lets see, dear Ewald was he a willing accomplaince to the Nazi Regime? I am ignoring Micheal's diversion of traitorism, etc, the charges by the Simon Weinsenthal Centre werent brought to the late 80's and the Communist Regime was on its death knell

I see when proof is offered on Mikson war crimes, the topic is hastily diverted.

http://www.historycommission.ee/temp/co ... onclusion1

The Commission particularly singles out the roles of Ain-Ervin Mere; Julius Ennok; Ervin Viks and Ewald Mikson, who signed numerous death warrants; Karl Linnas and Aleksander Koolmeister, commandant and senior officer respectively at camps in Tartu, and Tallinn; and Aleksander Laak, commandant at Jägala and later in Tallinn. The Commission also singles out the role of the members of the three-man tribunals which passed sentence on Soviet POWs, suspected Communist sympathizers, and "anti-social elements".

Of course the reason Ewald/Evald Mikson was originally raised was to try and slander Simon Wiensenthal, strangely enough, no one seems to have gone and had a look at the Simon Wiensenthal Centre to see their side of the story. So here it is http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/s/c ... &ct=286604

June 21, 2001

WIESENTHAL CENTER WELCOMES ESTONIAN HISTORICAL COMMISSION FINDINGS WHICH CONFIRM HOLOCAUST CRIMES OF EVALD MIKSON

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today welcomed the recently-published findings of the Estonian Historical Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity which confirmed the Centers allegations that Evald Mikson had played an active role in the murder of Jews in Estonia during his service as Deputy Chief of the Estonian Political Police in the Tallinn-Harju district during World War II.

In a statement issued in Jerusalem by Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who researched the Mikson case and led the campaign for his prosecution, the Center registered its regret that Mikson had passed away before he could be prosecuted but expressed deep satisfaction that the findings of the commission, established by Estonian President Lennrt Meri and composed of figures of international repute, confirmed the allegations against Mikson submitted by the Center to the Icelandic authorities. In Zuroffs words:

Justice sometime arrives too late for criminal prosecution but at long last the shadow of doubt regarding the wartime crimes of Evald Mikson has finally dissipated and his important role in the mass murder of Estonian Jews had finally been authoritatively confirmed."We are particularly pleased that the official Estonian Commission has noted Miksons criminal activities because for quite some time leading Estonian officials, and even the Estonian Foreign Ministry, had sought to defend Mikson and deny his participation in crimes against humanity.

We hope that the pioneering research carried out by the commission will not only clarify the role played by Estonians in the crimes of World War II, but will also facilitate the prosecution of those Estonian Holocaust perpetrators who can still be brought to justice.

For more information, contact the Wiesenthal Centers Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.

Another little bit of informtion about Dear Ewald/Evald http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-37.htm It is a discussion on Operation Last Chance, a project to try and track down remaining War Crimminals.

"Estonia had the least potential to begin with. The Jewish community before the Shoah numbered about 4,500. Some 3,500 escaped to the Soviet Union before the Nazis reached the country. The remaining one thousand Jews were murdered by Estonians and Germans. Among the murderers was Evald Mikson, the former goalkeeper of the Estonian national soccer team, who subsequently escaped to Iceland"

Ewald was a pre war soccor player who represented Estonia, was extremely popular in Iceland after the war and any raising of his war cries was met with vitirol from the Icelandic media, it seems sports stars the world over are idolised http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-vilhjalmur-f04.htm

The entire Icelandic media, except for one weekly, kept silent because of political pressure and published no information about the case apart from a few initial reports. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, was proclaimed one of the main enemies of Iceland because of his wish to have Mikson prosecuted.50 Íþróttastjörnur (Stars of Sport), a book published in 1992, contains nearly as much information about Evald Mikson as about his son, one of the book's athletic heroes. Atli, the son, is quoted as saying:

[My father] is persecuted and defamed by a foreign group of fanatics, and has to tolerate the worst...accusations that have been published about an Icelandic citizen....By attacking the Estonians and accusing them of war crimes against the Jews, the Wiesenthal Center will do the Russians a great favor. At the same time, the Center once more gains worldwide sympathy for the Jews. If the Center could find many Estonians who could be accused of war crimes against the Jews, that would undoubtedly give a bad name to the Estonian nation. In that way the Simon Wiesenthal Center would simultaneously help the Russians to strengthen their position in Estonia. Possibly there is some collaboration going on. Although dad is persecuted by a fanatic organization, which thinks it is working in the name of the Jewish people, my view on the Jews has not been changed. I have nothing against them, because most of them have nothing to do with this organization."51

Evald Mikson died in 1993, shortly after the Icelandic government and the state prosecutor finally decided to take into account all the evidence they had received from the Wiesenthal Center and Estonian archives.

On 3 October 1999, the daily Morgunblaðið published an interview with Atli Edvaldsson titled "The Devil Never Sleeps." Edvaldsson told about the last time he saw his father alive: "dad said to me: Dear Atli, remember to finish my case. And he also said: The Devil never sleeps. He wanted me to remember that although Communism had collapsed, the Soviet Union had crashed, and even though he was dead and gone, the persecution would not stop." In a sinister response to Zuroff's reaction52 to this interview with Edvaldsson and the incorrect information it contained, the editors of Morgunblaðið claimed that the evidence against Mikson was not reliable because some of it originated with the KGB.53The editors also argued that the Wiesenthal Center possessed no confession from Mikson, nor a verdict to back up its charges against him.54 Yet Morgunblaðið, which in 1992 decided not to report on the evidence supplied by the Wiesenthal Center, paid little if any attention to the conclusion of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against Humanity, published in 2001, that Evald Mikson had committed war crimes and engaged in the murder of Jews.55 Some individuals in Iceland continued to defend Mikson and even blamed Israel for the results of the Estonian report.56

Makes an interesting read, Ewald/Evald was the father of the Iceland National Basketball team post WW2, his sons were national soccor players http://www.targumshlishi.org/naziwarcrimes3.html Naturally sporting stars CANNOT be war crimminals.

Justice came to late, but Mikson's legacy to the world will not be the one he wanted, the truth about him.

[michael mills]

So, out of 4,500 Jews living in Estonia, 3,500 were evacuated into the USSR by the Soviet authorities. (Nobody just "escaped", since, as I have pointed out, the Estonian-RSFSR border was closed and guarded by the NKVD, and nobody could cross except those officially evacuated).

There must have been a reason why they were evacuated. The Soviet Government only evacuated those it wanted to evacuate, for its own reasons. The number of Jews evacuated indicates that they had been useful to the Soviet Government, and were still useful, or favoured.

No wonder the Jews who were not evacuated were regarded as traitors by anti-Soviet Estonian patriots, and treated accordingly. That was probably somewhat unfair, since the 1,000 Jews who were not evacuated were most probably less guilty of collaboration with the Soviet occupation than the 3,500 who were evacuated.

Mikson may have executed 30 persons, but we do not know who they were. They may well have been persons guilty of collaboration with the Soviet occupiers, perhaps persons who had participated in the deportations, and hence deserving of the death sentence in the view of Estonian patriots.

And by the way, the topic was not "diverted" away from Mikson.

Rather, an attempt was made to explain why Estonian patriots fighting against the Soviet oppressors took harsh action against those Jews in Estonia who did not manage to get away with the retreating Soviet administration.

It was shown that the Estonian patriots were motivated by the collaboration of substantial sections of the small Jewish community in Estonia with the Soviet occupation. It was also shown that the reason for that collaboration was the fundamentally philosemitic nature of the Soviet Union, which caused Jews to support it.

The point is that the actions of Mikson and other Estonian anti-Soviet nationalists should be seen in the context of large-scale Jewish collaboration with the Soviet oppressors of the Estonian people, and the inevitable retribution for that betrayal once the Soviet power had been overthrown.

[Pieter Kuiper]

Mikson may have executed 30 persons, but we do not know who they were. They may well have been persons guilty of collaboration with the Soviet occupiers, perhaps persons who had participated in the deportations, and hence deserving of the death sentence in the view of Estonian patriots.

I referred above to the case of Beile Ratut. A mentally handicapped 12-year-old girl, she was arrested on suspicion av having taken part in communist activities. After interrogation by Omakaitse where she could not even write her name, she was sentenced to death just for being a Jew.

Why does Mills call such disgusting cowards "patriots"?

[michael mills]

The material on Mikson in Iceland was excerpted from an article on Jews in Iceland by one Vilhjalmur Vilhjamsson (ie William Williamson), who is described as a former archeologist turned senior researcher at the Danish Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

The article appeared in a Jewish publication, "Jewish Political Studies Review".

Vilhjamsson's political allegiance is demonstrated by the following excerpt from his article:

Anti-Semitism on the Rise

As already mentioned, Jews in Iceland experienced open anti-Semitism before the issue of Israel and the Middle East conflict emerged. Today, in a country with so few Jews, the sentiments toward the State of Israel are probably the best way of measuring anti-Semitism [my emphasis].

Trends tend to come quickly to Iceland, and the resurgent European anti-Semitism is no exception. In October 2003, the chairman of the Icelandic Palestinian Association posted on the group's website a message called "Israel, Israel, über alles." Support for the Palestinians in Iceland is now characterized by repeated comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany. At the same time, the Israelis are condemned for "misusing the Holocaust."

[DXTR]

And by the way, the topic was not "diverted" away from Mikson.

Rather, an attempt was made to explain why Estonian patriots fighting against the Soviet oppressors took harsh action against those Jews in Estonia who did not manage to get away with the retreating Soviet administration.

It was shown that the Estonian patriots were motivated by the collaboration of substantial sections of the small Jewish community in Estonia with the Soviet occupation. It was also shown that the reason for that collaboration was the fundamentally philosemitic nature of the Soviet Union, which caused Jews to support it.

The point, Mr. Mills is that you from the start did not undertake a clear cut attempt at 'explaining' the estonian anti-semitism, I wonder if anyone had objected to such an explanation. Your agitation, which mildly put reaks of bias, was a overgeneralisation of estonian jews, justification for their demise where you without any base in facts proclaimed the majority of estonian jews to be agents of the soviet regime.

Most of them collaborated with the Soviet occupation in that year. When the German armed forces commenced their invasion in June 1941, almost all the Jews of Estonia, being agents of the Soviet Government or members of the families of such agents, were evacuated to the Soviet interior, along with the rest of the personnel of the Soviet occupation administration.

There would be nothing wrong in proving that the majority of estonian jews were soviet agents or collaborators if this was the case, after all contrary to your conviction we are not philosemites - just someone who would like to see the basic elements and tools in studying historical events, come into play. - But since you do not provide any substantial evidence for this claim 'almost all the Jews of Estonia, being agents of the Soviet Government ' - and do not take into account a number of other explanation, or it least try to rule them out we can only conclude that you are trying to divert attention away. (see: Earldors post of october 5, 2005 15.25 http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 6&start=15)

When you further endeavour to try to explain to us all that the soviet union was ruled by philosemites, it not only taste a bit of the old judaism=communism rhetoric you once again show the shallow depths of your training or the height of you bias by using the case of Veli Ibraimov to proof that the soviet union was ruled by philosemites. In a volatile regime such as the USSR, where lies and unsubstantiated accusations were the order of the day, I would be carefull as a historian, would be or trained, to use allegations by the regime against anyone that the regime saw fit to get rid of, as proof of anything. let alone the true intentions or views of the regime. As you know everything that could be used with its basis in leninist marxist ideology to justify everything in the soviet union, even if the case was just to get rid of who ever was in the way of the given accusator.

We are then left with an agitation where you try to convince us all that the estonian jews were soviet agents and that the estonian anti semitism was justified due to soviet allegiance and jewish religion!:

Even if certain of the remaining Estonian Jews who received punishment at the hands of Estonian anti-Soviet patriots were personally innocent of any wrongdoing, the action taken against them is understandable in the context of the collaboration of a large part of the 5000 Estonian Jews with the Soviet occupation, and should not be punishable today. Jewish tradition itself recognises group responsibility for actions committed by members of the group; the concept that "the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children" is Judaic.

So you have not shown 'that the Estonian patriots were motivated by the collaboration of substantial sections of the small Jewish community in Estonia with the Soviet occupation. It was also shown that the reason for that collaboration was the fundamentally philosemitic nature of the Soviet Union, which caused Jews to support it'

Neither have you shown 'that the reason for that collaboration was the fundamentally philosemitic nature of the Soviet Union, which caused Jews to support it.'

This is still unsupported claims that you have put forward - evacuation does not equal collaboration, untill you have by deploying proper sources ruled out other explanations.

[michael mills]

It is somewhat disingenuous to harp on the case of one mentally retarded girl, as if it were typical of the activities of Omakaitse, or other anti-Soviet Estonian nationalists.

If Pieter Kuiper reads the conclusions of the Estonian Commission, which have been linked in earlier posts, he will see that the "forest brethren" (= anti-Soviet partisans hiding out in the forests before the German invasion), who later became the Omakaitse, were engaged in fighting against the Soviet "destruction battalions" (istrebitel'nye bataliony) which had been set up to carry out Stalin's scorched earth policy, and also to liquidate anti-Soviet elements.

The fight of the Omakaitse against the Soviet "destruction battalions" in order to prevent them killing anti-Soviet Estonians and destroying the national property of the Estonian people was certainly an example of patriotism.

Executing a mentally retarded girl was not what I would call an act of patriotism, but it does not outweigh the fundamental patriotism of the Omakaitse in their resistance to Soviet oppression. And then again, Clinton once executed some poor imbecile when he was Governor of Arkansas.

[michael mills]

DXTR,

The charge against the President of the Crimean Tartar Republic (whose name is given by Kagedan as Ibragimov) was anti-Semitism, which in the Soviet Union carried the death penalty. He was found guilty and executed.

Only under a thoroughly philosemitic regime could something called "Anti-Semitism" be a defined crime carrying the death penalty.

What Ibragimov did was to oppose the taking of land away from the Crimean Tartars and giving it to Jewish colonists. That was enough to attract the charge of "Anti-Semitism" and a subsequent death sentence.

His crime was to stand in the way of the supporters of Jewish interests in the Soviet Union, and they got rid of him. What better proof could there be of the ideological philosemitism of the Soviet system, and its use of the harshest measures to pursue a Jewish interest favoured by the Government?

DXTR, you obviously know knip alt about the conflict between Crimean Tartars and Soviet Jews over land settlement in the 1920s. It is all in the book by Kagedan which I referred to. Try reading it.

Also try reading any book about the Soviet takeover of East Poland and the Baltic States. You will find that the former Soviet border was maintained as a barrier to prevent movement between the old Soviet Union and the new territories, and any ideological contamination that might arise therefrom. Only properly authorised persons could cross the old border in either direction.

After the German invasion, unauthorised persons who tried to cross the old border in an easterly direction were turned back by the guards. Only those persons whom the Soviet Government had an interest in evacuating to the Soviet interior, in order to save them from falling into German hands, were able to cross.

The fact that the great majority of the Jews of Estonia were allowed to cross the old border into the RSFSR (together with some 20,000 or so of the 90,000 Jews of Latvia) demonstrates that their movement out of Estonia had been authorised by the Soviet Government.

The question remains why that authorisation was given. Generally permission to flee eastwards was only given to members of the Soviet administration and its supporters, or else to skilled workers being evacuated with their factories.

[Pieter Kuiper]

It is somewhat disingenuous to harp on the case of one mentally retarded girl, as if it were typical of the activities of Omakaitse, or other anti-Soviet Estonian nationalists.

Beile Ratut is typical of the Omakaitse that collaborated with the nazis. There is no way they could have justified such murderous antisemitism by believing the Jews were communists. There was also Siima and David Pliner, 6 year old twins, executed March 28, 1942 on the orders of Viks (after advice from Seyler, SS).

Executing a mentally retarded girl was not what I would call an act of patriotism, but it does not outweigh the fundamental patriotism of the Omakaitse in their resistance to Soviet oppression. And then again, Clinton once executed some poor imbecile when he was Governor of Arkansas.

Beile Ratut had been a kena tüdruk, a nice girl, according to one of her carers (Puide, p. 79). It is disgusting that Mills compares her to an american death-row inmate.

[Pieter Kuiper]

The fact that the great majority of the Jews of Estonia were allowed to cross the old border into the RSFSR (together with some 20,000 or so of the 90,000 Jews of Latvia) demonstrates that their movement out of Estonia had been authorised by the Soviet Government.

In his Samuil Braschinskys försvunna vrede (1997), Peeter Puide writes about his trips to Estonian archives after independence. (It was translated to Finnish - can Estonians read that?) On page 96 he cites a woman he talked with in May 1993. I will quote it, because it says something about the alleged communism of the Jews, about evacuations, and about Mikson.

I was arrested and convicted to life inprisonment on January 6 1944. I got work in the sickbay of the Central Prison. This happened because I had been married to a Jew. My husband had already been shot September 13, 1941, the day after he had been arrested. Omakaitse picked him up, two men in civilian clothes. My husband had not wanted to flee, he thought that at worst he would spend the rest of the war in a ghetto somewhere. For he was no communist, he was a business man.
I had hidden Jewish property, they said later - my own belongings that is. There were two policemen that interrogated me, one was called Päärson, en avil man.

During the bombardments in March - that was terrible, the whole city was alight with an intense white light - during the bombings the whole sickbay was up, and the young communists shouted and celebrated and jumped up and down in their beds with their white hospital gowns like ghosts. "Meie omad tulevad! Ours are coming!" they shouted. And I thought, when the Rusians come back, I will end up in Siberia after all, because we had already been on the russian deportation lists in 1941, in June, and that was awfull.

That Miksom , I saw him almost every day on the prison inner court from a window of the pharmacy. He was the terror of the prison. He used to position the prisoners for visitation, often in civilian clothes, without a hat. He stood towards me, I could see his face. Everybody was afraid of him, he was doing the dirty work for prison chieef Laak. There was an execution room in the prisen, where people were hanged. He liked to be there.

When new Jews arrived at the prison, Mikson arranged the selection, and decied who would be led away for execution. I never saw him with any papers in his hands. He decided right there, by himself, by pointing. I once saw the daughter of the shoe-king Bata in the court, one morning around ten o'clock. She had come with a group of Czech prisoners. A prison guard told me that. She had such a beautiful fur coat. She was transported to Kalevi-Liiva or Klooga.

Puide does not say if he tried to check this last detail. I cannot find anything about a Bata daughter that would have been deported to Estonia, so I am skeptical. But of course, a guard may have told her something like this.

[michael mills]

The fact that the Jewish husband of the unnamed woman had been a businessman and not a Communist says nothing about the 3,500 or so Jews who were evacuated from Estonia by the Soviet authorities.

It may be that that particular man had not collaborated with the Soviet administration in any way, and that is why he was not evacuated with the majority of Estonia's Jews.

If he was completely innocent of any wrongdoing against the Estonian people during the Soviet occupation, then his execution was unjust. But in a situation such as that which Estonia was experiencing, one year of brutal Soviet occupation followed by a fierce war for survival, it was common for the innocent to suffer along with the guilty.

The essential fact is that the above man could not have crossed the Estonian border into the RSFSR unless his movement had been authorised by the Soviet authorities. He would have been turned back at the border by the NKVD guards, as happened to many persons who were not officially evacuated but tried to cross the old Soviet border on their own.

[michael mills]

Since I have not read the book by Puide, or even heard of it |(or him) until now, I cannot really comment on it.

But it does appear that Puide has selected a couple of cases where innocents were killed in order to give the impression that persons killed by the Omakaitse were usually or typically innocent.

In order to form a true picture, we would need to look at the details of the total number of people killed by the Omakaitse in Estonia. For example, how many of the persons killed by them had been members of the "istrebitel'nye bataliony" (a term that is better translated as "extermination battalions" rather than "destruction battalions", since the Russian verb "istrebliat' " actually means "exterminate" or "extirpate" rather than to destroy objects).

[Michael Kenny]

But it does appear that Puide has selected a couple of cases where innocents were killed in order to give the impression that persons killed by the Omakaitse were usually or typically innocent.

Not being up to date with the politivcs of the Baltic Republics a lot of this thread is over my head however trying to ignore these examples where children are executed tells me that you are not really interested in any evidence of this mans guilt. I suppose if you have a deep seated prejudice against 'Jews' then it really is a waste of time trying to get through to you.
I am Irish by the way.........just in case you doubt my motives.

[michael mills]

Well now, Mr Kenny, can you give us a list of the names of the persons that Mikson can be proved to have killed, or to have caused to be killed?

I am sure we would all welcome it, since the details are rather scanty so far. According to the Estonian Commission, Mikson signed a number of death warrants. But for whom ? Were the persons whose executuons he ordered guilty or innocent, and by what criteria?