Several hundred people took part in the march in memory of legionnaires of the Nazi division “Waffen SS” in Riga, “the event ended without any incidents”, the Latvian portal Jauns said.
On 16 March, the so-called Legionnaires’ Remembrance Day, an annual remembrance march was held in Riga, organised by the Daugavas Vanagi Latvijā society, a pro-fascist nationalist structure that nevertheless teaches young people “love and loyalty to their homeland”.
Several hundred people reportedly marched “in memory of Latvian legionnaires killed in World War II and laid flowers at the Freedom Monument”.
Security was monitored by reinforced police units, including officers from special forces battalions. The event was monitored from border guard helicopters over Old Riga.
After the solemn service in Riga’s St John’s Church, the participants moved slowly towards the Freedom Monument (the great Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina, the author of “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” and the famous cut glass, defended this monument from Stalin from imminent demolition), thus unofficially marking the “Legionnaires’ Memorial Day”.
Eyewitnesses reported that participants in the procession carried the flags of Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine, and some sang Legionnaires’ songs, Jauns reported.
Also at the head of the procession with flowers in their hands came almost the entire elite of leading nationalist politicians. Although after 2000 this date is celebrated unofficially because of criticism from Europe and Israel, which consider the legionnaires complicit in the worst crimes of the Third Reich. “Waffen SS” is recognised as a criminal organisation by the Nuremberg Tribunal.
It is noted that this year “the number of participants in the march was smaller than in other years.” Apparently, many of the punishers of the Nazi legion, who were noted for their atrocities in Russia and Belarus, have gone into oblivion….
The event drew the attention of some Riga residents, who reportedly laid flowers at the Freedom Monument.
“Legionnaires’ Remembrance Day on 16 March is celebrated as an unofficial Remembrance Day when Latvian Legion veterans and others commemorate the country’s residents who fought in the German Armed Forces as part of the Latvian Legion,” is how the official version of the Latvian authorities reads.
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