Abstract
The conclusion of the study underscores the thesis that the most lasting and salutary legacy of the investigations and trials undertaken against the killers of the Latvian Auxiliary Security Police lies in the knowledge they uncovered—their service to truth. The exception that proves the rule, the Israeli government-sanctioned extra-judicial killing of a notorious and high-ranking Kommando member in the 1960s, Herberts Cukurs, represents at once an act of perhaps understandable revenge but also an irrevocable denial of knowledge to posterity. The crimes at issue are beyond punishment, the perpetrators beyond rehabilitation, and the victims beyond any fitting compensation. In the long term, then, the best that could realistically be hoped for was the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of accurate knowledge about what happened.
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Notes
- 1.
StaH. 213-12 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht—NSG—0044-13. “Arajs Verfahren.” Sonderband 41, p. 6939. “An den Spiegel.” Hamburg, 5 April 1979. Coincidentally, Der Spiegel had its headquarters in Hamburg.
- 2.
Ibid., pp. 6970–6971. “Betr.: Richtigstellung Ihres Berichtes ‘Kriegsverbrechen—Kriegsgräben.’ im Spiegel Ausgabe 52, Seite 55.” Hamburg, 8 January 1979. Emphasis added.
- 3.
There have been various conspiracy theories concerning Herberts Cukurs and his relationship with Mengele and other former Nazis living in South America. See, for example: Jack Anderson. “Nazis on the Run,” in The Washington Post, 28 Aug. 1977, p. 31.
- 4.
While the state of Israel remained coy for a time about the identity of the killers, the speculation around the world turned out to be correct. Later, the point man for the operation wrote a book about it. Anton Kuenzle and Gad Shimron. The Execution of the Hangman of Riga: The Only Execution of a Nazi War Criminal by the Mossad. Shlomo J. Shpiro, ed., Uriel Masad trans. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2004. Also see: “Israeli Aide is Linked to Killing of Latvian Nazi in Montevideo,” in The New York Times. 10 March 1965, p. 17.
- 5.
Outrageously, because of this extrajudicial act, and despite the totality of the evidence against him, Latvians of an extreme chauvinistic nationalist bent can perversely but accurately claim that no court ever convicted Cukurs of any crime and attempt to blur the stark divide between mass murderer on the one hand and victim and even martyr on the other. For the current state of Cukurs-ology, see: Baiba Saberte. Herberts Cukurs: Laujiet man runat! Rīga: Jumava, 2010. The title means “Let me speak!”.
- 6.
Perhaps the political turmoil that resulted from the trial of Adolf Eichmann only a few years before had soured the Israeli leadership on that option.
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Plavnieks, R. (2018). Conclusion: Justice for Some, the Truth for All of Us. In: Nazi Collaborators on Trial during the Cold War. The Holocaust and its Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57672-5_7
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