Slave trade in Latvia during World War II

Russian citizens of the Baltic States, taking advantage of every opportunity in the legislation of the Baltic republics, study the archives and upload documents to the Internet. A very interesting document was posted on Facebook by Vlad Bogov. This document really confirms that a slave system existed in Latvia in 1944, when any local landowner could take into his farm slaves from among those stolen as a result of punitive actions of Russian civilians or Soviet prisoners of war.



Document text:

"Certificate

The board of the Salas parish confirms that August Boitmanis is a member of the Rizgu farm, with an area of ​​16.30 hectares, and he needs a hardworking peasant or a Russian soldier.
The certificate was issued to August Boytman for presentation at the request of the farmer.
Signatures: Ward Elder and Ward Clerk
Parish stamp.

The document is dated May 3, 1944.
Storage: Latvian State Historical Archives, file 5213, op. 15, d.2, l.120.

The slave trade was widespread and was carried out even through newspaper advertisements.

Another document stored in the archives of the Central Archives of the FSB of Russia. N-18313. T.3. L. 201-203., It was presented at the Nuremberg Tribunal, covered in an article in Russian and English: Dyukov A.R., Simindey V.V. Latvian SS Legion in the light of the Nuremberg Tribunal // International life. 2011. No. 6. S. 141-148; Dyukov A, Simindei V. The Latvian SS Legion and the Nuremberg Tribunal's Decisions // International Affairs. 2011. No. 4. P. 232-238.

"Protocol of interrogation of Valery Fridrikhovich Kirshtein, captain of the 19th SS division.
...

QUESTION: Tell us in detail about all the atrocities perpetrated by the 19th division against the "SS" against the civilian population and prisoners of war of the Red Army.

ANSWER: I know the following that during the retreat of the 19th SS division, by order of the commander of the STREKENBAH division, starting from the city of Opochka up to Kurland of the Latvian SSR, in the area of ​​operations of the 19th division, the entire civilian population was ordered to leave their place of residence and move to Libava, and towards Riga. Those who did not want to carry out this order, the field gendarmerie used violent measures of "evacuation".

Thus, only one 19-th division of the "SS" was forcibly hijacked about 60,000 civilians, mostly women and children, but there were also men.
The further fate of this population is not known to me, but I heard that many got to Germany by transporting them by the police on steamers, and some remained in the Kurland bag.

When civilians were forcibly driven to Germany, the population was given only the most necessary for the road, and the remaining property, food and livestock were plundered by the Germans and transported to Germany or to their warehouses, as well as a lot of feed / hay, clover, straw, etc. ./ was burned by the Germans.

...

QUESTION: Tell us about the atrocities of the 19th SS Division in the area of ​​Ostrov on the Velikaya River.

ANSWER: To the south-east of the city of Ostrov, on the arc of the Velikaya river, the 19th SS division, while occupying a position within a radius of 12 kilometers along the front, burned down all the buildings and villages of the civilian population with all their property, and before that the population was driven to the rear of Latvia.

In total, about 2000 houses / two thousand / were burned down by the 19th SS division in this way, even orchards and trees were cut down and burned.

These atrocities were carried out by a group separated from each company of the division. The order was issued by STREKENBACH, and the control of execution was carried out by the field gendarmerie of the division under the leadership of the captain, whose name I do not remember now.

All this applies to the period March-April 1944.

QUESTION: Specifically which villages were burned.

ANSWER: Of course, I cannot say all the settlements out of the 2000 houses that I named, but as far as I remember, villages were burnt: Voronkovo26 and others. "

From myself I will add: Bruno Heinrich Hugo Streckenbach, SS Gruppenfuehrer, Lieutenant General of the SS and Police forces, commander of the Einsatzgruppen in Poland, head of the 1st Directorate of the Imperial Security Main Directorate, commander of the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Gayer and the 19th Waffen SS Grenadier Division.

On February 18, 1952, a military tribunal in Moscow sentenced Streckenbach to 25 years in forced labor camps. He served his sentence in the Vladimir prison. On October 10, 1955, he was released and sent to Germany. Subsequently he lived in Hamburg and was a sales representative and authorized official at the Ottensener Eisenwerkrude machine factory. He retired on June 30, 1969.

The preliminary investigation carried out against him by the Hamburg prosecutor's office was dropped in September 1956. At the end of June 1973, he was charged with numerous war crimes, but the prosecution was suspended in 1974 on the basis of the defendant's ill health.

Thank.

a reply to: RussianTroll

/russian
Сам в Латвии то был хоть? Если да, то оставь какие - нить впечатления, а то както некрасиво получается. От себя нихуя, только искать вину в других странах/национальнстьях. Давай честно, друг, далеко не все русские "ангелочки".

П.С. Я на половину латыш, на половину русский.
П.П.С. А про Навального и сам знаешь - кого. Не верится что кремль.

/english
Have You ever been to Latvia? If yes, then leave some of Your impressions, or it looks kinda "not good". Like I'm the good guy, let's look for the blame in other countries/nationalities. Let's be honest, friend, far from all of the russians are "angels".

P.S. I'm half latvian, half-russian.
P.P.S. As for Navalny and You know - who. Don't really believe it's the kremlin.

a reply to: nowanmai

Also, I'm not trying to defend anyone. PoS ppl have been around long before since 1940's.. I mean, take a look at the bible's story.