Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia
Encyclopedia
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 (1941–1944)
. The accused were charged with murdering up to 5000 German and Czechoslovakia
n Jews
and Gypsies near the Kalevi-Liiva
concentration camp in 1942–1943. The public trial
by the Supreme Court of the Estonian SSR was held in the auditorium of the Navy Officers Club in Tallinn
and attended by a mass audience. All three defendants were convicted and sentenced to death
, two of them were executed shortly after. The third defendant, Ain-Ervin Mere
was tried in absentia
and was not available for execution.
A second trial was held in Tartu
in 1962. The accused were charged with killing Soviet citizens and were sentenced to death in absentia. The verdict was inadvertently published in the magazine Sotsialisticheskaya zakonnost before the delayed trial began.
, the trial focused on the events of September 1942. According to testimony of the survivors, at least two transports with about 2,100–2,150 people, arrived at the railway station at Raasiku
, one from Theresienstadt
(Terezin
) with Czechoslovakian Jews and one from Berlin
with German citizens. Around 1,700–1,750 people, mainly Jews, not selected for work at the Jägala
camp were taken to Kalevi-Liiva
and shot.
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 one of the accused, Gerretts, eight busloads of Estonian auxiliary police
had arrived from Tallinn
. A 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.
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. In the case Be 1.9.1942 however, 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 at least one who refused to comply.
According to an article published by the journal "Contemporary European History
" in 2001,
The Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity rests the responsibility for such crimes mainly on 2.5–4 % of the Estonian Omakaitse
civil defence units and the Estonian Security Police
.
Original documents related to the Mere-Gerrets-Viik trial are to be found in Estonian State Archives – Party Archives Branch – ERA PA, Collection 129, boxes 63–70.
and Ervin Viks, who were accused of murdering 12,000 people in the Tartu concentration camp. A more recent estimate concluded that the number was around 3,500 people, mainly Estonian and Estonian Jews as well as some Soviet POWs and Jews from Poland and Czechoslovakia. According to an official Soviet account: "the main culprit, Ervin Viks, fled the ire of the people and now lives in Australia, whereas Linnas found shelter in the USA". The Soviet authorities requested the extradition of both men, but against the background of the Cold War
, were flatly refused.
The Australian Attorney General, Sir Garfield Barwick
, continued to reject the request for Viks, claiming that it could not be met because: the USSR and Australia did not have an extradition treaty; Viks had passed immigration screening processes and; consequently, any such extradition would undermine Australian sovereignty. Viks died in Australia in 1983.
In January 1962, the men were tried in absentia
in Tartu
, and were sentenced to death. The transcript and verdict of the trial were published in the magazine Sotsialisticheskaya zakonnost (Soviet Legality) in December before the start of the trial in January the following year(which was delayed due to the sickness of one of the defendants).
During the trials in Tallinn and Tartu quite a few witnesses pointed out Heinrich Bergmann as the key figure behind the extermination of Estonian gypsies.
In 1986 Linnas was finally deported to the USSR, after a federal appeals court had deemed evidence against him "overwhelming and largely uncontroverted." The American judge remarked that his crimes "were such as to offend the decency of any civilized society." Linnas died in a Soviet prison hospital of old age.
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...
. 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 Gypsies 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. The public trial
Public trial
Public trial or open trial is a trial open to public, as opposed to the secret trial. The term should not be confused with show trial.-United States:...
by the Supreme Court of the Estonian SSR was held in the auditorium of the Navy Officers Club 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...
and attended by a mass audience. All three defendants were convicted and sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, two of them were executed shortly after. The third defendant, 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...
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...
and was not available for execution.
A second 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...
in 1962. The accused were charged with killing Soviet citizens and were sentenced to death in absentia. The verdict was inadvertently published in the magazine Sotsialisticheskaya zakonnost before the delayed trial began.
The accused
- Ain-Ervin MereAin-Ervin MereAin 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 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...
) under the Estonian Self-AdministrationEstonian Self-AdministrationEstonian 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 absentiaIn absentiaIn 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 he 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 JägalaJägalaJägala 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 LaakAleksander LaakAleksander Laak was a lieutenant and the commander of the Jägala concentration camp during the German occupation of Estonia....
was discovered in Canada but committed suicide.
The crimes
While the accused may have been involved in other crimes against humanity during the German occupation of EstoniaOccupation 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...
, the trial focused on the events of September 1942. According to testimony of the survivors, at least two transports with about 2,100–2,150 people, arrived at the railway station at Raasiku
Raasiku
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, mainly Jews, not 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 were taken to 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...
and shot.
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 one of the accused, Gerretts, eight busloads of Estonian auxiliary police
Schutzmannschaft
Schutzmannschaft or Hilfspolizei were the collaborationist auxiliary police battalions of native policemen in occupied countries in East, which were created to fight the resistance during World War II mostly in the Eastern European countries occupied by Nazi Germany. Hilfspolizei refers also to...
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...
. A selection process was supervised by Ain-Ervin Mere, chief of 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...
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.
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. In the case Be 1.9.1942 however, 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 at least one who refused to comply.
According to an article published by the journal "Contemporary European History
Contemporary European History
Contemporary 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...
" in 2001,
"In 1942, transports of Jews from other countries arrived, and their murder and incarceration in slave labour camps was organised and supervised by German and Estonian officials (including Mere and the German head of A-IV). The final acts of liquidating the camps, such as KloogaKlooga 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...
, which involved the mass-shooting of roughly 2,000 prisoners, were committed by Estonians under German command, that is by units of the 20.SS-Division and (presumably) the Schutzmannschaftsbataillon of the KdS. Survivors report that, during this period when Jewish slave labourers were visible, the Estonian population in part attempted to help the Jews by providing food and so on."
The Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity rests the responsibility for such crimes mainly on 2.5–4 % of the Estonian Omakaitse
Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
civil defence units and the Estonian Security Police
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...
.
Witnesses
A number of foreign witnesses were heard at the trial, including five women, who had been transported on Be 1.9.1942 from Theresienstadt.The verdict
"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 Fascist 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 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..."
-
- Quoted from the verdict passed on 11 March 1961, published in Немецко-фашистская оккупация в Эстонии. 1941–1944. Tallinn, 1963. Pages 53–54.
Original documents related to the Mere-Gerrets-Viik trial are to be found in Estonian State Archives – Party Archives Branch – ERA PA, Collection 129, boxes 63–70.
Tartu trials
By the early 1960s, the Soviet government was pursuing Juhan Jüriste, Karl LinnasKarl 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, who were accused of murdering 12,000 people in the Tartu concentration camp. A more recent estimate concluded that the number was around 3,500 people, mainly Estonian and Estonian Jews as well as some Soviet POWs and Jews from Poland and Czechoslovakia. According to an official Soviet account: "the main culprit, Ervin Viks, fled the ire of the people and now lives in Australia, whereas Linnas found shelter in the USA". The Soviet authorities requested the extradition of both men, but against the background of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, were flatly refused.
The Australian Attorney General, Sir Garfield Barwick
Garfield Barwick
Sir Garfield Edward John Barwick, was the Attorney-General of Australia , Minister for External Affairs and the seventh and longest serving Chief Justice of Australia...
, continued to reject the request for Viks, claiming that it could not be met because: the USSR and Australia did not have an extradition treaty; Viks had passed immigration screening processes and; consequently, any such extradition would undermine Australian sovereignty. Viks died in Australia in 1983.
In January 1962, the men were 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...
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...
, and were sentenced to death. The transcript and verdict of the trial were published in the magazine Sotsialisticheskaya zakonnost (Soviet Legality) in December before the start of the trial in January the following year(which was delayed due to the sickness of one of the defendants).
During the trials in Tallinn and Tartu quite a few witnesses pointed out Heinrich Bergmann as the key figure behind the extermination of Estonian gypsies.
In 1986 Linnas was finally deported to the USSR, after a federal appeals court had deemed evidence against him "overwhelming and largely uncontroverted." The American judge remarked that his crimes "were such as to offend the decency of any civilized society." Linnas died in a Soviet prison hospital of old age.
External links
- The Holocaust and the concentration camps in Estonia – English translation
- Kalevi-Liiva on German Wikipedia – English translation