Holocaust in Estonia
Encyclopedia
The Holocaust in Estonia refers to the Nazi crime
s during the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany
. There were, prior to the war, approximately 4,300 Estonian Jews. After the Soviet 1940 occupation about 10% of Jewish population were deported to Siberia
along with other Estonians
. About 75% of Estonian Jews, aware of the fate that awaited them from Nazi Germany
, escaped to the Soviet Union
; virtually all the remainder (between 950 and 1,000 people) were killed by Einsatzgruppe A and local collaborators before the end of 1941. Roma people of Estonia were also murdered and enslaved by the Nazi occupiers.
reported that "Estonia is the only country in Eastern Europe where neither the Government nor the people practice any discrimination against Jews and where Jews are left in peace and are allowed to lead a free and unmolested life and fashion it in accord with their national and cultural principles."
(Sonderkommando
) 1A under Martin Sandberger
, part of Einsatzgruppe A led by Walter Stahlecker, who followed the arrival of the first German troops on July 7, 1941. Arrests and executions continued as the Germans, with the assistance of local collaborators, advanced through Estonia
. Estonia became a part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland
. A Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) was established for internal security under the leadership of Ain Mere in 1942. Estonia was declared Judenfrei
quite early by the German occupation regime at the Wannsee Conference
.
Jews that had remained in Estonia (929 according to the most recent calculation) were killed. Fewer than a dozen Estonian Jews are known to have survived the war in Estonia.
s and lists of Jews shot dated July, August, and early September 1941. For example the official death certificate of Ruvin Teitelbaum, born in Tapa
on January 17, 1907, states laconically in a form with item 7 already printed with only the date left blank: "7. By a decision of the Sicherheitspolizei
on September 4, 1941, condemned to death, with the decision being carried out the same day in Tallinn
." Teitelbaum's crime was "being a Jew" and thus constituting a "threat to the public order".
On September 11, 1941 an article entitled "Juuditäht seljal" – "A Jewish Star on the Back" appeared in the Estonian mass-circulation newspaper Postimees
. It stated that Dr. Otto-Heinrich Drechsler
, the High Commissioner of Ostland
, had proclaimed ordinances in accordance with which all Jewish residents of Ostland from that day onward had to wear visible yellow six-pointed Star of David
at least 10 cm (4 in). in diameter on the left side of their chest and back.
On the same day Regulations issued by the Sicherheitspolizei were delivered to all local police departments proclaiming that the Nuremberg Laws
were in force in Ostland, defining who is a Jew, and what Jews could and could not do. Jews were prohibited from changing their place of residence, walking along the sidewalk
, using any means of transportation, going to theatre
s, museum
s, cinema
, or school
. The profession
s of lawyer
, physician
, notary
, banker, or real estate
agent were declared closed to Jews, as was the occupation of street hawker. The regulations also declared that the property
and home
s of Jewish residents were to be confiscated. The regulations emphasized that work to this ends was to be begun as soon as possible, and that lists of Jews, their addresses
, and their property were to be completed by the police by September 20, 1941.
These regulations also provided for the establishment of a concentration camp near the south-eastern Estonian city of Tartu
. A later decisions provided for the construction of a Jewish ghetto near the town of Harku
, but this was never built, a small concentration camp being built there instead. The Estonian State Archives contain material pertinent to the cases of about 450 Estonian Jews. They were typically arrest
ed either at home or in the street, taken to the local police station
, and charged with the 'crime' of being Jews. They were either shot outright or sent to concentration camp and shot later. An Estonian woman, E. S. describes the arrest of her Jewish husband as follows:
, it was the intention of the Nazi government to use the Baltics countries as their main area of mass genocide. Consequently, Jews from countries outside the Baltics were shipped there to be killed. and an estimated 10,000 Jews were killed in Estonia after having been deported to camps there from elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The Nazi regime also established 22 concentration and labor camps on occupied Estonian territory for foreign Jews to be used as slave labor. The largest, Vaivara concentration camp served as a transit camp and processed 20,000 Jews from Latvia and the Lithuanian ghettos. Usually able bodied men were selected to work on the oil shale
mines in northeastern Estonia. Women, children, and old people would be executed on arrival.
At least two train loads of Central European Jews were imported to Estonia for immediate extermination, killed at the Kalevi-Liiva
site near the Jägala concentration camp
.
, one from Theresienstadt
(Terezin
) with Czechoslovakian Jews and one from Berlin
with German citizens. Around 1,700–1,750 people were immediately taken to an execution site at the Kalevi-Liiva
sand dunes and shot. About 450 people were selected for work at the Jägala
camp or for use as sex slaves.
Transport Be 1.9.1942 from Theresienstadt arrived at the Raasiku station on September 5, 1942, after a five day trip. According to testimony by Ralf Gerrets, one of the accused at the Holocaust trials in 1961
, eight busloads of Estonian auxiliary police
had arrived from Tallinn
. The selection process was supervised by Ain-Ervin Mere
, chief of Sicherheitspolizei in Estonia; those not selected for slave labor were sent by bus to an execution site near the camp. Later the police in teams of 6 to 8 men would execute the Jews by machine gun
fire, on other hand, during later investigation some guards of camp denied participation of police and said that execution was done by camp personnel. On the first day a total of 900 people were murdered in this way. Gerrets told that he had fired a pistol at a victim who was still making noises in the pile of bodies. The whole operation was directed by Obersturmführer
Heinrich Bergmann and Oberscharführer
J. Geese. Few witnesses pointed out Heinrich Bergmann as the key figure behind the extermination of Estonian gypsies. In the case of Be 1.9.1942 the only ones chosen for labor and to survive the war were a small group of young women who were taken through concentration camps in Estonia, Poland and Germany to Bergen-Belsen
, where they were liberated. Camp commandant Laak used the women as sex slaves, killing many after they had outlived their usefulness.
A number of foreign witnesses were heard at the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
, including five women, who had been transported on Be 1.9.1942 from Theresienstadt.
; approximately between 1000 and 1200 men) were directly involved in criminal acts, taking part in the round-up (and possibly killing) of 200 Roma people and 950 Jews. 15,000 Soviet POW died in Estonia because of hard living, or were executed. Units of Estonian Auxiliary Police
participated in the extermination of the Jews in Estonia and Pskov
region of Russia and provided guards for concentration camps for Jews and Soviet POWs (Jägala
, Vaivara, Klooga
, Lagedi), where the prisoners were killed – despite the criminal activities in which numbers of policemen were engaged. All members of Police Department B-IV did participate in such crimes. Battalion Narwa was formed from the first 800 men of the Legion to have finished their training at Dębica
(Heidelager in 1943), being sent in April 1943 to join the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division Wiking in Reichskommissariat Ukraine
. On May 5, 1943 the 3rd Estonian Waffen-SS
brigade was formed and sent to front near Nevel
. The Estonian military and police units made a significant war contribution fighting for the German Armed Forces.
From 1941 to 1943 Karl Linnas
had commanded a Nazi concentration camp at Tartu
, Estonia
, where he directed and personally took part in the murder of thousands of men, women, and children who were herded into anti-tank ditches.
The final acts of liquidating the camps, such as Klooga
, which involved the mass-shooting of roughly 2,000 prisoners, were committed by Estonians under German command, that is by units of the Estonian Security Police and SD
and (presumably) the Schutzmannschaftsbataillon of the KdS. Survivors report that, during these last days before liberation, when Jewish slave labourers were visible, the Estonian population in part attempted to help the Jews by providing food and so on."
: Ralf Gerrets, Ain-Ervin Mere
, Jaan Viik, Juhan Jüriste, Karl Linnas
, Aleksander Laak
and Ervin Viks who have faced trials for crimes against humanity committed during the Nazi occupation in Estonia. The accused were charged with murdering up to 5000 German and Czechoslovakia
n Jews
and Romani people near the Kalevi-Liiva
concentration camp in 1942–1943. Ain-Ervin Mere
, commander of the Estonian Security Police (Group B of the Sicherheitspolizei
) under the Estonian Self-Administration
, was tried in absentia
.
Before the trial Mere was an active member of the Estonian community in England, contributing to Estonian language publications. At the time of the trial he was however held in captivity, accused of murder. He was never deported and died a free man in England in 1969. Ralf Gerrets, the deputy commandant at the Jägala
camp. Jaan Viik, (Jan Wijk, Ian Viik), a guard at the Jägala labor camp was singled out for prosecution out of the hundreds of Estonian camp guards and police for his particular brutality. He was testified as throwing small children into the air and shooting them. He did not deny the charge. A fourth accused, camp commandant, Aleksander Laak
(Alexander Laak) was discovered in Canada but committed suicide.
In January 1962 another trial was held in Tartu
. Juhan Jüriste, Karl Linnas
and Ervin Viks were accused of murdering 12,000 civilians in the Tartu concentration camp.
to be 125,000. The bulk of this number consists Jews from Central and Western Europe and Soviet prisoners-of-war killed or starved to death in prisoner-of-war camp
s on Estonian territory.
The Estonian History Commission estimates the total number of victims to be roughly 35,000, consisting of the following groups:
The number of Estonian Jews killed is less than 1,000; the German Holocaust perpetrators Martin Sandberger
and Walter Stahlecker cite the numbers 921 and 963 respectively. In 1994 Evgenia Goorin-Loov calculated the exact number to be 929.
Since the reestablishment of the Estonian independence markers were put in place for the 60th anniversary of the mass executions that were carried out at the Lagedi, Vaivara and Klooga (Kalevi-Liiva) camps in September 1944. On February 5, 1945 in Berlin
, Ain Mere founded the Eesti Vabadusliit together with SS-Obersturmbannführer
Harald Riipalu
. He was sentenced to the capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
but was not extradited by Great Britain
and died there in peace. In 2002 the Government of the Republic of Estonia
decided to officially commemorate the Holocaust. In the same year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center
had provided the Estonian government with information on alleged Estonian war criminals, all former members of the 36th Estonian Police Battalion.
Nazi crime
Nazi crime or Hitlerite crime is a legal concept used in some legal systems .In the Polish legal system a Nazi crime is an action carried out by, inspired by or tolerated by public functionaries of the Third Reich that also classifies as a crime against humanity or other persecutions of people...
s during the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany
Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany
After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Army Group North reached Estonia in July.Initially the Germans were perceived by most Estonians as liberators from the USSR and its repressions, having arrived only a week after the first mass deportations from the Baltics...
. There were, prior to the war, approximately 4,300 Estonian Jews. After the Soviet 1940 occupation about 10% of Jewish population were deported to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
along with other Estonians
Estonians
Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian...
. About 75% of Estonian Jews, aware of the fate that awaited them from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, escaped to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
; virtually all the remainder (between 950 and 1,000 people) were killed by Einsatzgruppe A and local collaborators before the end of 1941. Roma people of Estonia were also murdered and enslaved by the Nazi occupiers.
Jewish life pre-Holocaust
Prior to World War II, Jewish life flourished with the level cultural autonomy accorded being the most extensive in all of Europe, which gave full control of education and other aspects of cultural life to the local Jewish population. In 1936, the British based Jewish newspaper The Jewish ChronicleThe Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.-Publication data and readership figures:...
reported that "Estonia is the only country in Eastern Europe where neither the Government nor the people practice any discrimination against Jews and where Jews are left in peace and are allowed to lead a free and unmolested life and fashion it in accord with their national and cultural principles."
Murder of Jewish population
Round-ups and killings of the remaining Jews began immediately by the extermination squad EinsatzkommandoEinsatzkommando
During World War II, the Nazi German Einsatzkommandos were a sub-group of five Einsatzgruppen mobile killing squads—up to 3,000 men each—usually composed of 500-1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to kill Jews, Romani, communists and the NKVD collaborators in the captured...
(Sonderkommando
Sonderkommando
Sonderkommandos were work units of Nazi death camp prisoners, composed almost entirely of Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims during The Holocaust...
) 1A under Martin Sandberger
Martin Sandberger
Martin Sandberger was an SS Standartenführer and commander of Sonderkommando 1a of the Einsatzgruppe, as well as commander of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD in Estonia. He played an important role in the mass murder of the Jews in the Baltic states...
, part of Einsatzgruppe A led by Walter Stahlecker, who followed the arrival of the first German troops on July 7, 1941. Arrests and executions continued as the Germans, with the assistance of local collaborators, advanced through Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
. Estonia became a part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland
Reichskommissariat Ostland
Reichskommissariat Ostland, literally "Reich Commissariat Eastland", was the civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany in the Baltic states and much of Belarus during World War II. It was also known as Reichskommissariat Baltenland initially...
. A Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) was established for internal security under the leadership of Ain Mere in 1942. Estonia was declared Judenfrei
Judenfrei
Judenfrei was a Nazi term to designate an area free of Jewish presence during The Holocaust.While Judenfrei referred merely to "freeing" an area of all of its Jewish citizens, the term Judenrein was also used...
quite early by the German occupation regime at the Wannsee Conference
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of the Nazi German regime, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference was to inform administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jews, that Reinhard Heydrich...
.
Jews that had remained in Estonia (929 according to the most recent calculation) were killed. Fewer than a dozen Estonian Jews are known to have survived the war in Estonia.
German policy towards the Jews in Estonia
The Estonian state archives contain death certificateDeath certificate
The phrase death certificate can describe either a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or popularly to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later...
s and lists of Jews shot dated July, August, and early September 1941. For example the official death certificate of Ruvin Teitelbaum, born in Tapa
Tapa, Estonia
Tapa is a town in Lääne-Viru County, Estonia. Located at the junction of the country's Tallinn-Narva and Tallinn-Tartu-Valga railway lines, it is an important centre of transit for freight as well as rail passengers...
on January 17, 1907, states laconically in a form with item 7 already printed with only the date left blank: "7. By a decision of the Sicherheitspolizei
Sicherheitspolizei
The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
on September 4, 1941, condemned to death, with the decision being carried out the same day in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
." Teitelbaum's crime was "being a Jew" and thus constituting a "threat to the public order".
On September 11, 1941 an article entitled "Juuditäht seljal" – "A Jewish Star on the Back" appeared in the Estonian mass-circulation newspaper Postimees
Postimees
Postimees is an Estonian daily newspaper. It was established in 1 January 1857 by Johann Voldemar Jannsen and became Estonia's first daily newspaper in 1891....
. It stated that Dr. Otto-Heinrich Drechsler
Otto-Heinrich Drechsler
Otto-Heinrich Drechsler was a prominent German dentist, mayor of Lübeck, and during the Second World War from 1941 through 1944 he resided in Riga as the General Commissioner of Latvia for the Nazi occupation regime .- Early life :Drechsler originally intended a career as professional military...
, the High Commissioner of Ostland
Reichskommissariat Ostland
Reichskommissariat Ostland, literally "Reich Commissariat Eastland", was the civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany in the Baltic states and much of Belarus during World War II. It was also known as Reichskommissariat Baltenland initially...
, had proclaimed ordinances in accordance with which all Jewish residents of Ostland from that day onward had to wear visible yellow six-pointed Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
at least 10 cm (4 in). in diameter on the left side of their chest and back.
On the same day Regulations issued by the Sicherheitspolizei were delivered to all local police departments proclaiming that the Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
were in force in Ostland, defining who is a Jew, and what Jews could and could not do. Jews were prohibited from changing their place of residence, walking along the sidewalk
Sidewalk
A sidewalk, or pavement, footpath, footway, and sometimes platform, is a path along the side of a road. A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade and is normally separated from the vehicular section by a curb...
, using any means of transportation, going to theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
s, museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
s, cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, or school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
. The profession
Profession
A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain....
s of lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, notary
Notary
A notary is a lawyer or person with legal training who is licensed by the state to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents...
, banker, or real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
agent were declared closed to Jews, as was the occupation of street hawker. The regulations also declared that the property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
and home
Home
A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...
s of Jewish residents were to be confiscated. The regulations emphasized that work to this ends was to be begun as soon as possible, and that lists of Jews, their addresses
Address (geography)
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used for describing the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or...
, and their property were to be completed by the police by September 20, 1941.
These regulations also provided for the establishment of a concentration camp near the south-eastern Estonian city of Tartu
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...
. A later decisions provided for the construction of a Jewish ghetto near the town of Harku
Harku
Harku is a small borough in Harku Parish, Harju County, northern Estonia. It has a population of 651 .-External links:*...
, but this was never built, a small concentration camp being built there instead. The Estonian State Archives contain material pertinent to the cases of about 450 Estonian Jews. They were typically arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
ed either at home or in the street, taken to the local police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
, and charged with the 'crime' of being Jews. They were either shot outright or sent to concentration camp and shot later. An Estonian woman, E. S. describes the arrest of her Jewish husband as follows:
Concentration camps established for foreign Jews
With the invasion of the Baltic StatesBaltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, it was the intention of the Nazi government to use the Baltics countries as their main area of mass genocide. Consequently, Jews from countries outside the Baltics were shipped there to be killed. and an estimated 10,000 Jews were killed in Estonia after having been deported to camps there from elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The Nazi regime also established 22 concentration and labor camps on occupied Estonian territory for foreign Jews to be used as slave labor. The largest, Vaivara concentration camp served as a transit camp and processed 20,000 Jews from Latvia and the Lithuanian ghettos. Usually able bodied men were selected to work on the oil shale
Oil shale
Oil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced...
mines in northeastern Estonia. Women, children, and old people would be executed on arrival.
At least two train loads of Central European Jews were imported to Estonia for immediate extermination, killed at the Kalevi-Liiva
Kalevi-Liiva
Kalevi-Liiva are sand dunes in Jõelähtme Parish in Harju County, Estonia. The site is located near the Baltic coast, north of the Jägala village an the former Jägala concentration camp...
site near the Jägala concentration camp
Jägala concentration camp
Jägala concentration camp was a labour camp of the Estonian Security Police and SD during the German occupation of Estonia during World War II. The camp was established in August 1942 on a former artillery range of the Estonian Army near the village of Jägala, Estonia. It existed from August 1942...
.
Extermination of foreign Jews at Kalevi-Liiva
According to testimony of the survivors, at least two transports with about 2,100–2,150 Central European Jews, arrived at the railway station at RaasikuRaasiku
Raasiku is a small borough in Raasiku Parish, Harju County, Estonia, with a population of 1,340 . Although situated in a parish with the same name, Raasiku is not the official administrative centre of the municipality...
, one from Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín , located in what is now the Czech Republic.-History:The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 by the orders...
(Terezin
Terezín
Terezín is the name of a former military fortress and adjacent walled garrison town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic.-Early history:...
) with Czechoslovakian Jews and one from Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
with German citizens. Around 1,700–1,750 people were immediately taken to an execution site at the Kalevi-Liiva
Kalevi-Liiva
Kalevi-Liiva are sand dunes in Jõelähtme Parish in Harju County, Estonia. The site is located near the Baltic coast, north of the Jägala village an the former Jägala concentration camp...
sand dunes and shot. About 450 people were selected for work at the Jägala
Jägala
Jägala is a village in Jõelähtme Parish, Harju County, Estonia. It had 139 inhabitants in 2007.-See also:*Jägala River*Jägala Waterfall*Jägala concentration camp*Jägala Army Base*Jägala Airfield-External links:* *...
camp or for use as sex slaves.
Transport Be 1.9.1942 from Theresienstadt arrived at the Raasiku station on September 5, 1942, after a five day trip. According to testimony by Ralf Gerrets, one of the accused at the Holocaust trials in 1961
Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
A number of Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia were held in the 1960s.The best-known trial was brought in 1961, by the local Soviet authorities against Estonian collaborators who had participated in the execution of the Holocaust during the Nazi German occupation...
, eight busloads of Estonian auxiliary police
Auxiliary police
Auxiliary police or special constables in England) are usually the part-time reserves of a regular police force. They may be armed or unarmed. They may be unpaid volunteers or paid members of the police service with which they are affiliated...
had arrived from Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
. The selection process was supervised by Ain-Ervin Mere
Ain-Ervin Mere
Ain Mere was an Estonian military officer. During the World War II, he was an Obersturmbannführer in the Waffen SS and also the head of the Sicherheitspolizei in Estonia following its creation in 1942.He was born in Vändra and fought voluntarily in the Estonian War...
, chief of Sicherheitspolizei in Estonia; those not selected for slave labor were sent by bus to an execution site near the camp. Later the police in teams of 6 to 8 men would execute the Jews by machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
fire, on other hand, during later investigation some guards of camp denied participation of police and said that execution was done by camp personnel. On the first day a total of 900 people were murdered in this way. Gerrets told that he had fired a pistol at a victim who was still making noises in the pile of bodies. The whole operation was directed by Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...
Heinrich Bergmann and Oberscharführer
Oberscharführer
Oberscharführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1932 and 1945. Translated as “Senior Squad Leader”, Oberscharführer was first used as a rank of the Sturmabteilung and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions required by growing SA membership...
J. Geese. Few witnesses pointed out Heinrich Bergmann as the key figure behind the extermination of Estonian gypsies. In the case of Be 1.9.1942 the only ones chosen for labor and to survive the war were a small group of young women who were taken through concentration camps in Estonia, Poland and Germany to Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
, where they were liberated. Camp commandant Laak used the women as sex slaves, killing many after they had outlived their usefulness.
A number of foreign witnesses were heard at the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
A number of Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia were held in the 1960s.The best-known trial was brought in 1961, by the local Soviet authorities against Estonian collaborators who had participated in the execution of the Holocaust during the Nazi German occupation...
, including five women, who had been transported on Be 1.9.1942 from Theresienstadt.
"The accused Mere, Gerrets and Viik actively participated in crimes and mass killings that were perpetrated by the Nazi invaders on the territory of the Estonian SSR. In accordance with the Nazi racial theory, the SicherheitspolizeiSicherheitspolizeiThe Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
and SicherheitsdienstSicherheitsdienstSicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
were instructed to exterminate the Jews and Gypsies. For that end in August–September 1941 Mere and his collaborators set up a death camp at Jägala, 30 km (19 mi) from Tallinn. Mere put Aleksander Laak in charge of the camp; Ralf Gerrets was appointed his deputy. On 5 September 1942 a train with approximately 1,500 Czechoslovak citizens arrived to the RaasikuRaasikuRaasiku is a small borough in Raasiku Parish, Harju County, Estonia, with a population of 1,340 . Although situated in a parish with the same name, Raasiku is not the official administrative centre of the municipality...
railway station. Mere, Laak and Gerrets personally selected who of them should be executed and who should be moved to the Jägala death camp. More than 1,000 people, mostly children, the old, and the infirm, were translocated to a wasteland at Kalevi-Liiva where they were monstrously executed in a special pit. In mid-September the second troop train with 1,500 prisoners arrived to the railway station from Germany. Mere, Laak, and Gerrets selected another thousand victims that were condemned by them to extermination. This group of prisoners, which included nursing women and their new-born babies, were transported to Kalevi-Liiva where they were killed.
In March 1943 the personnel of the Kalevi-Liiva camp executed about fifty Gypsies, half of which were under 5 years of age. Also were executed 60 Gypsy children of school age..."
Roma people murdered
Few witnesses pointed out Heinrich Bergmann as the key figure behind the extermination of Estonian Roma people.Estonian collaboration
Units of the Eesti Omakaitse (Estonian Home GuardOmakaitse
The Omakaitse was a militia organisation in Estonia. It was founded in 1917 following the Russian Revolution. On the eve of the Occupation of Estonia by the German Empire the Omakaitse units took over major towns in the country allowing the Salvation Committee of the Estonian Provincial Assembly...
; approximately between 1000 and 1200 men) were directly involved in criminal acts, taking part in the round-up (and possibly killing) of 200 Roma people and 950 Jews. 15,000 Soviet POW died in Estonia because of hard living, or were executed. Units of Estonian Auxiliary Police
Estonian Auxiliary Police
Estonian Auxiliary Police were Estonian units that fought in World War II under command of Germany. Estonian regular units allied with Nazi Germany began to be established on 25 August 1941, when under the order of Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, commander of the Army Group North,...
participated in the extermination of the Jews in Estonia and Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
region of Russia and provided guards for concentration camps for Jews and Soviet POWs (Jägala
Jägala
Jägala is a village in Jõelähtme Parish, Harju County, Estonia. It had 139 inhabitants in 2007.-See also:*Jägala River*Jägala Waterfall*Jägala concentration camp*Jägala Army Base*Jägala Airfield-External links:* *...
, Vaivara, Klooga
Klooga concentration camp
Klooga was a Nazi labor subcamp of the Vaivara concentration camp complex established in September 1943 in Harju County, during World War II, in German-occupied Estonia near the northern Estonian village Klooga...
, Lagedi), where the prisoners were killed – despite the criminal activities in which numbers of policemen were engaged. All members of Police Department B-IV did participate in such crimes. Battalion Narwa was formed from the first 800 men of the Legion to have finished their training at Dębica
Debica
Dębica is a town in southeastern Poland with 46,693 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009. It is the capital of Dębica County. Since 1999 it has been situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it had previously been in the Tarnów Voivodeship .-Area:...
(Heidelager in 1943), being sent in April 1943 to join the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division Wiking in Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...
. On May 5, 1943 the 3rd Estonian Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
brigade was formed and sent to front near Nevel
Nevel
Nevel is a town and the administrative center of Nevelsky District of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located on Lake Nevel southeast of Pskov. Population:...
. The Estonian military and police units made a significant war contribution fighting for the German Armed Forces.
From 1941 to 1943 Karl Linnas
Karl Linnas
Karl Linnas was an Estonian who was sentenced to capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia in 1961. He was later deported from the United States to the Soviet Union...
had commanded a Nazi concentration camp at Tartu
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, where he directed and personally took part in the murder of thousands of men, women, and children who were herded into anti-tank ditches.
The final acts of liquidating the camps, such as Klooga
Klooga concentration camp
Klooga was a Nazi labor subcamp of the Vaivara concentration camp complex established in September 1943 in Harju County, during World War II, in German-occupied Estonia near the northern Estonian village Klooga...
, which involved the mass-shooting of roughly 2,000 prisoners, were committed by Estonians under German command, that is by units of the Estonian Security Police and SD
Estonian Security Police and SD
The Estonian Security Police and SD , or Sipo, was a security police force created by the Germans in 1942 that integrated both Germans and Estonians within a unique structure mirroring the German Sicherheitspolizei....
and (presumably) the Schutzmannschaftsbataillon of the KdS. Survivors report that, during these last days before liberation, when Jewish slave labourers were visible, the Estonian population in part attempted to help the Jews by providing food and so on."
War crimes trials
Four Estonians most responsible for the murders at Kalevi-Liiva were accused at war crimes trials in 1961. Two were later executed, while the Soviet occupation authorities were unable to press charges against two who lived in exile. There have been several known 7 ethnic EstoniansHolocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
A number of Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia were held in the 1960s.The best-known trial was brought in 1961, by the local Soviet authorities against Estonian collaborators who had participated in the execution of the Holocaust during the Nazi German occupation...
: Ralf Gerrets, Ain-Ervin Mere
Ain-Ervin Mere
Ain Mere was an Estonian military officer. During the World War II, he was an Obersturmbannführer in the Waffen SS and also the head of the Sicherheitspolizei in Estonia following its creation in 1942.He was born in Vändra and fought voluntarily in the Estonian War...
, Jaan Viik, Juhan Jüriste, Karl Linnas
Karl Linnas
Karl Linnas was an Estonian who was sentenced to capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia in 1961. He was later deported from the United States to the Soviet Union...
, Aleksander Laak
Aleksander Laak
Aleksander Laak was a lieutenant and the commander of the Jägala concentration camp during the German occupation of Estonia....
and Ervin Viks who have faced trials for crimes against humanity committed during the Nazi occupation in Estonia. The accused were charged with murdering up to 5000 German and Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
n Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and Romani people near the Kalevi-Liiva
Kalevi-Liiva
Kalevi-Liiva are sand dunes in Jõelähtme Parish in Harju County, Estonia. The site is located near the Baltic coast, north of the Jägala village an the former Jägala concentration camp...
concentration camp in 1942–1943. Ain-Ervin Mere
Ain-Ervin Mere
Ain Mere was an Estonian military officer. During the World War II, he was an Obersturmbannführer in the Waffen SS and also the head of the Sicherheitspolizei in Estonia following its creation in 1942.He was born in Vändra and fought voluntarily in the Estonian War...
, commander of the Estonian Security Police (Group B of the Sicherheitspolizei
Sicherheitspolizei
The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
) under the Estonian Self-Administration
Estonian Self-Administration
Estonian Self-Administration , also known as the Directorate, was the puppet government set up in Estonia during occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany...
, was tried in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
.
Before the trial Mere was an active member of the Estonian community in England, contributing to Estonian language publications. At the time of the trial he was however held in captivity, accused of murder. He was never deported and died a free man in England in 1969. Ralf Gerrets, the deputy commandant at the Jägala
Jägala
Jägala is a village in Jõelähtme Parish, Harju County, Estonia. It had 139 inhabitants in 2007.-See also:*Jägala River*Jägala Waterfall*Jägala concentration camp*Jägala Army Base*Jägala Airfield-External links:* *...
camp. Jaan Viik, (Jan Wijk, Ian Viik), a guard at the Jägala labor camp was singled out for prosecution out of the hundreds of Estonian camp guards and police for his particular brutality. He was testified as throwing small children into the air and shooting them. He did not deny the charge. A fourth accused, camp commandant, Aleksander Laak
Aleksander Laak
Aleksander Laak was a lieutenant and the commander of the Jägala concentration camp during the German occupation of Estonia....
(Alexander Laak) was discovered in Canada but committed suicide.
In January 1962 another trial was held in Tartu
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...
. Juhan Jüriste, Karl Linnas
Karl Linnas
Karl Linnas was an Estonian who was sentenced to capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia in 1961. He was later deported from the United States to the Soviet Union...
and Ervin Viks were accused of murdering 12,000 civilians in the Tartu concentration camp.
Number of victims
Soviet-era Estonian era sources estimate the total number of Soviet citizens and foreigners to be murdered in Nazi-occupied Estonian Soviet Socialist RepublicEstonian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic , often abbreviated as Estonian SSR or ESSR, was a republic of the Soviet Union, administered by and subordinated to the Government of the Soviet Union...
to be 125,000. The bulk of this number consists Jews from Central and Western Europe and Soviet prisoners-of-war killed or starved to death in prisoner-of-war camp
Prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or...
s on Estonian territory.
The Estonian History Commission estimates the total number of victims to be roughly 35,000, consisting of the following groups:
- 1000 Estonian Jews,
- about 10,000 foreign Jews,
- 1000 Estonian Roma.
- 7000 other Estonians.
- 15,000 Soviet POWs.
The number of Estonian Jews killed is less than 1,000; the German Holocaust perpetrators Martin Sandberger
Martin Sandberger
Martin Sandberger was an SS Standartenführer and commander of Sonderkommando 1a of the Einsatzgruppe, as well as commander of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD in Estonia. He played an important role in the mass murder of the Jews in the Baltic states...
and Walter Stahlecker cite the numbers 921 and 963 respectively. In 1994 Evgenia Goorin-Loov calculated the exact number to be 929.
Modern memorials
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Ain Mere founded the Eesti Vabadusliit together with SS-Obersturmbannführer
Obersturmbannführer
Obersturmbannführer was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS. It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional field grade officer rank above Sturmbannführer as the SA expanded. It became an SS rank at the same time...
Harald Riipalu
Harald Riipalu
Harald Riipalu was an Estonian military commander and one of four commanders who earned the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross when fighting in the German army in World War II.-Early life:Harald Riipalu was born in Saint Petersburg where his family was lessee in a manor...
. He was sentenced to the capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
A number of Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia were held in the 1960s.The best-known trial was brought in 1961, by the local Soviet authorities against Estonian collaborators who had participated in the execution of the Holocaust during the Nazi German occupation...
but was not extradited by Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and died there in peace. In 2002 the Government of the Republic of Estonia
Government of the Republic of Estonia
The Government of the Republic of Estonia exercises executive power pursuant to the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Estonia...
decided to officially commemorate the Holocaust. In the same year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center , with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1977 and named for Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter. According to its mission statement, it is "an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to repairing the world one step at a time...
had provided the Estonian government with information on alleged Estonian war criminals, all former members of the 36th Estonian Police Battalion.
Collaborators
- Ralf Gerrets
- Friedrich Kurg
- Karl LinnasKarl LinnasKarl Linnas was an Estonian who was sentenced to capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia in 1961. He was later deported from the United States to the Soviet Union...
- Ain Mere
- Hjalmar MäeHjalmar MäeHjalmar-Johannes Mäe was an Estonian politician....
- Jaan Viik
Organizations
- Einsatzgruppe A
- Estonian Auxiliary PoliceEstonian Auxiliary PoliceEstonian Auxiliary Police were Estonian units that fought in World War II under command of Germany. Estonian regular units allied with Nazi Germany began to be established on 25 August 1941, when under the order of Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, commander of the Army Group North,...
- OmakaitseOmakaitseThe Omakaitse was a militia organisation in Estonia. It was founded in 1917 following the Russian Revolution. On the eve of the Occupation of Estonia by the German Empire the Omakaitse units took over major towns in the country allowing the Salvation Committee of the Estonian Provincial Assembly...
- OrdnungspolizeiOrdnungspolizeiThe Ordnungspolizei or Orpo were the uniformed regular police force in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1945. It was increasingly absorbed into the Nazi police system. Owing to their green uniforms, they were also referred to as Grüne Polizei...
- Sonderkommando 1a
- Sicherheitspolizei
KZ-Außenlager
- KZ AseriAseriAseri is a small borough in Ida-Viru County, in northeastern Estonia. It's the administrative centre of Aseri Parish. Aseri has a population of 1,642 .-Notable people:*Heino Hankewitz , social manager...
- KZ AuvereAuvere-See also:*Battle of Auvere...
- KZ EridesEredaEreda is a village in Mäetaguse Parish, Ida-Viru County in northeastern Estonia....
- KZ Goldfields (Kohtla)
- KZ Ilinurme
- KZ JeweJõhviJõhvi is a town in north-eastern Estonia, and the capital of Ida-Viru County. The town is also an administrative centre of Jõhvi Parish. It is situated 50 km from the Russian border....
- KZ Kerestowo (Karstala-Korostell in Estonian Ingria)
- KZ KiviöliKiviõliKiviõli is an industrial town in Ida-Viru County, Estonia with a population of 7000 . The main industry is oil shale mining, which gives the town its name...
- KZ KukruseKukruseKukruse is a village in Kohtla Parish, Ida-Viru County in northeastern Estonia.Kukersite, a marine type oil shale of Ordovician age, is named after Kukruse.Eduard von Toll lived in Kuckers manor....
- KZ Kunda
- KZ KuremaaKuremäe-See also:*Pühtitsa Convent...
- KZ LagediLagediLagedi is a small borough in Rae Parish, Harju County, northern Estonia. It has a population of 847 .-External links:*...
- KZ LodenseeKlooga concentration campKlooga was a Nazi labor subcamp of the Vaivara concentration camp complex established in September 1943 in Harju County, during World War II, in German-occupied Estonia near the northern Estonian village Klooga...
(KZ Klooga; commandant SS-UntersturmführerUntersturmführerUntersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the German Schutzstaffel first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of Sturmführer which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921...
Wilhelm Werle; September 1943 – September 1944. There were hold 2 000 – 3 000 prisoners, most of them the Lithuanian JewsLithuanian JewsLithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...
. When the Red ArmyRed ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
approached, SS-men shot the 2 500 prisoners on September 19, 1944 and burned most of the bodies. The less than 100 prisoners succeeded to hide, and survive. There is a monument on the place of the concentration camp.) - KZ NarwaNarvaNarva is the third largest city in Estonia. It is located at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, by the Russian border, on the Narva River which drains Lake Peipus.-Early history:...
- KZ Narwa-HungerburgNarva-JõesuuNarva-Jõesuu is a town in Ida-Viru County, Estonia, located on the country's northern Baltic Sea coast near the Russian border. The name of the town in Estonian and Russian means "mouth of the Narva River"....
- KZ Putki
- KZ Reval (ÜlemisteÜlemisteÜlemiste is a subdistrict in the district of Lasnamäe, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It has a population of 1,453 .Ülemiste has a station on the Elektriraudtee rail line.- References :...
?) - KZ SakaSakaThe Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....
- KZ SondaSonda, EstoniaSonda is a small borough in Ida-Viru County in northeastern Estonia. It's the administrative centre of Sonda Parish....
- KZ Soski
- KZ Wiwikond
- KZ ÜlenurmeÜlenurmeÜlenurme is a small borough in Tartu County, Estonia. It's the administrative centre of Ülenurme Parish. Ülenurme has a population of 1,574 ....
Arbeits- und Erziehungslager
- AEL JägalaJägala concentration campJägala concentration camp was a labour camp of the Estonian Security Police and SD during the German occupation of Estonia during World War II. The camp was established in August 1942 on a former artillery range of the Estonian Army near the village of Jägala, Estonia. It existed from August 1942...
(August, 1942 – September 1943) - AEL MurruMurruMurru is a village in Are Parish, Pärnu County in southwestern Estonia....
- AEL RevalTallinnTallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
- HarkuHarkuHarku is a small borough in Harku Parish, Harju County, northern Estonia. It has a population of 651 .-External links:*...
(243 Estonian Romani people were executed in the Harku concentration camp on October 27, 1942) - LasnamäeLasnamäeLasnamäe is the most populous administrative district of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The districts' population is about 115,000, the majority of which is Russian-speaking. Local housing is mostly represented by 5-16 stories high panel blocks of flats, built in the 1970-1990s. Lasnamäe is...
- Harku
- AEL TartuTartuTartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...
(commandant Karl LinnasKarl LinnasKarl Linnas was an Estonian who was sentenced to capital punishment during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia in 1961. He was later deported from the United States to the Soviet Union...
) - AEL TurbaTurba' literally means crowd in Latin. It may refer more specifically to any text in the biblical Passion of Jesus which is spoken by any group of people, including the disciples, the Jews, or the soldiers...
(in EllamaaEllamaaEllamaa is a village in Nissi Parish, Harju County in northern Estonia....
)
Prisons
- HaapsaluHaapsaluHaapsalu is a seaside resort town located on the west coast of Estonia. It's the administrative centre of Lääne County and has a population of 11,618 ....
- KuressaareKuressaareKuressaare is a town and a municipality on Saaremaa island in Estonia. It is the capital of Saare County. The current population is about 14,706 Kuressaare is a town and a municipality on Saaremaa island in Estonia. It is the capital of Saare County. The current population is about 14,706...
- NarvaNarvaNarva is the third largest city in Estonia. It is located at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, by the Russian border, on the Narva River which drains Lake Peipus.-Early history:...
(in Vestervalli Street, 1941–1944) - Petseri
- PärnuPärnuPärnu is a city in southwestern Estonia on the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea. It is a popular summer vacation resort with many hotels, restaurants, and large beaches. The Pärnu River flows through the city and drains into the Gulf of Riga...
- TartuTartuTartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...
- Valga
- VõruVõruVõru is a town and a municipality in south-eastern Estonia. It is the capital of Võru County and the centre of Võru Parish.-History:Võru was founded on 21 August 1784, according to the wish of the Empress Catherine II of Russia, by the order of Riga Governor general count George Browne, on the...
Other concentration camps
- Dvigatel
- EssuEssuEssu is a village in Haljala Parish, Lääne-Viru County, in northeastern Estonia....
- Järvakandi
- LaitseLaitseLaitse is a village in Kernu Parish, Harju County in northern Estonia....
- LavassaareLavassaareLavassaare is a borough in southwestern Estonia. Administratively it constitutes Lavassaare Parish , a rural municipality within Pärnu County. It has a population of 539 and an area of 8.00 km².-External links:*...
- LehtseLehtseLehtse is a small borough in Tapa Parish, Lääne-Viru County in northern Estonia....
- LelleLelleLelle is a small borough in Kehtna Parish, Rapla County, in central Estonia. It's located on the branching point of Edelaraudtee's Tallinn–Pärnu and Tallinn–Viljandi railway lines. Lelle has a population of 522 ....
(1942 – May, 1943) - RoelaRoelaRoela is a small borough in Vinni Parish , Lääne-Viru County in northeastern Estonia.- External links :*...
- SitsiSitsiSitsi is a subdistrict in the district of Põhja-Tallinn, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It has a population of 3,850 .-References:...
(In TallinnTallinnTallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, at the end of Tööstuse Street where was 10 barracksBarracksBarracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
; until September 17, 1944) - VasalemmaVasalemmaVasalemma is a small borough in Harju County, northwestern Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Vasalemma Parish. Vasalemma has a population of 867 .-External links:*...
- Vaste
External links
- Birn, Ruth Bettina (2001), Collaboration with Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe: the Case of the Estonian Security Police. Contemporary European HistoryContemporary European HistoryContemporary European History is an international peer-reviewed academic history journal, published by Cambridge University Press quarterly since 1992 and covering the history of Europe from 1918 onwards. Currently its editors are Dr. Neville Wylie , Prof. Mary Vincent , Prof. John Connelly and Dr...
10.2, 181–198. - Extermination of the Gypsies in Estonia during World War II
- Operation 1005 in Riga by Jens Hoffmann