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WHY
DID ESTONIANS FIGHT TOGETHER WITH THE GERMANS?
Every now and then, the question about Estonian
soldiers in the German armed forces during World War II arises. Were they Nazi
bandits or Estonian freedom fighters? In order to give an unbiased reply to that
question, one should know the events of the time as well as the historical
background. The following has been written as a brief overview of the reasons
why Estonians fought with the Germans. The great tragedy, World War II, was especially tragic for the many
small nations who were drawn into that clash of major nations against their
will. Often, free will to decide on which side they wanted to be on was not
possible and whose side they ended up on depended on the political and
geographical situation. It was not rare to find people from the same nation fighting in opposing
armies. This is exactly the case of the Estonians. The men who had been serving in the Estonian army and
had been transferred to the Red Army after the Soviet annexation, as well as the
men who were mobilised by the Soviet Union in Summer 1941, of which many
perished in the forced labour camps[1],
had to fight with the Soviets. The majority, (70 to 80 per cent) of the (approximately)
100,000 Estonians fighting in World War II fought with the Germans or the Finns[2].
Many times Estonians were
accusingly asked, “Why did you fight with the Germans while all the democratic
nations were against Nazi Germany?” In order to understand this and the general situation
of the Estonians, we first must be acquainted with the historic background. Friends and enemies
Before the war and even during the beginning of World War II,
pro-British sentiment prevailed in Estonia.
The reason for this was the fact
that the British had helped the Estonians in the Independence War and that
relations between Estonia and Great Britain from then on had been quite good.
The author of this article, a
schoolboy before the war, remembers very well how most Estonians felt about the
German campaign against Poland and other small European nations in the
beginning of World War II. Estonians had considered for centuries that Germans, especially the
Baltic German landlords were their main enemies and oppressors. Then there was
the German occupation in 1918 and the so-called Landeswehr War – where German
professional soldiers, financed by the Baltic German nobility, fought against
the Estonians in the Independence War in summer 1919 – these conflicts did not
engender any warm feelings towards the Germans either. So, why did public opinion change so rapidly in favour of the Germans?
It can be stated with confidence
that this profound change in public opinion was caused directly by the Soviet
Union and its actions. By the late 1930s, events in the Soviet Union had created in many people,
a negative view of the Communist regime. This view was strengthened by a rapid sequence of
events in 1939 – the violent establishment of Soviet military bases in the
Baltic countries, threatening these nations with raw force (the so-called Bases
Pact); a blow against Poland from behind while they were fighting with the
Germans; arrogant aggression against Finland; and a few months later, the
annexation of the hitherto independent Estonia and other Baltic nations in the
summer of 1940. Such actions clearly demonstrated the violent and treacherous
character of the Soviet Union, and affected the opinion of most Estonians of
it. But, unfortunately, this was just the beginning.
The reality turned out even worse
than people had feared. In 1940–1941, after Estonia had been annexed to the Soviet Union, events
– violence and terror on citizens, arrests, and especially the mass
deportations and the hundreds of executed people found in mass graves
discovered shortly after the Soviets had been driven out – quickly made it
clear to most Estonians that the gravest threat to the existence of the
Estonian people was Russian communism[3].
The hope that British and French help in maintaining the independence of
the Estonian nation and republic would be forthcoming, had collapsed.
Moreover, both these nations as
well as the US, became friends of the Soviet Union during World War II. So most
Estonians could not do anything other than see Germany as the only ally worth
considering against the threat of death coming from the east. The severity of
the situation forced the age-old hatred into the background. The summer of 1941 saw the beginning of the massive partisan movement,
called the Forest Brethren (metsavennad)
against the Russians (for the average Estonian, the Soviet Union still meant
more or less the same as the Communist Russia[4]).
The majority of Estonians realised
that one must fight against the Communist regime of Russia by any and all
means. This was a forced war which was fought, not for conquering new land or
subduing other nations, but for defending one’s own homeland.
Those Estonians who fought in the
so-called “destroyer battalions” which were putting into effect the Stalinist
policy of scorched earth, were considered as traitors by most Estonians, as
they were fighting not against the
Germans, but against their own people. Brothers in arms – yes, but not friends
After the arrival of the Germans, who were first accepted as friends and
liberators, thousands of Estonian volunteers joined the German armed forces.
Estonian units were formed in order to start defending their homeland against
the Stalinist Russia and to avenge the sufferings and injustice done to the
Estonian people. They hoped, naively, that the Germans would agree to restore the
Republic of Estonia, after which – very probably – the Estonians would have
then joined Germans as willing allies in the fight against the Soviet Union.
Unfortunately, the German
authorities did not use this enthusiasm well, though restoring the national
independence of Estonia would have made Estonians allies to be trusted.
On the contrary – their actions,
though better than the Soviet terror against the Estonians, were still the
actions of occupiers and very soon Germans lost most of the trust and
friendship of Estonians. In the beginning, the Germans attempted to hinder the formation of
Estonian units, in order to prevent the emergence of Estonian armed forces.
Even when the German authorities
finally discovered the necessity of such units, the Estonian units were kept as
small as possible, diffused and under the command of German staff.
The Germans did not want to hear
anything about independent Estonian armed forces, even when dire necessity made
them mobilise tens of thousands of Estonians.
In spite of all this – though cursing the German arrogance and
irrational politics – the Estonians continued fighting with the Germans against
the Russians, led by the principle that in crisis one can use the help of
Beelzebub to exorcise the Devil. Many hoped that the historical situation of 1918 would
repeat itself – both great nations which had been occupying Estonia, Russia and
Germany, would exhaust one another in the war, perhaps giving rise to the
restoration of Estonian independence. It was very important that no Russian troops remained
on Estonian soil when action ceased. Estonian independence was the aim for which one could
fight, attempting to keeping the Soviets from the Estonian border and
preventing them from re-occupying Estonia.
The intensity of people's hatred and the indignation of most Estonians,
which was induced by the action of the Communists, and how important the fight
against the Soviet Union was considered to be can be estimated, for instance,
by the fact that even though the Germans turned out to be occupiers of Estonia,
there was practically no anti-German partisan movement during the German
occupation in Estonia (1941–1944). Though the Soviets left Communist functionaries behind
to organise partisan action on their retreat, they were quickly exposed by the
locals; also the partisan groups sent from the Soviet Union into Estonia, not
gaining support from the people, were liquidated rather quickly.
There were some people who hid
from the mobilisation but their aim was purely personal safety.
Active, Forest Brethren partisan
activity occurred in Estonia only in the Soviet rear during the summer of 1941
and re-started in September 1944 after the Soviets re-occupied Estonia.
It should be also noted that a
number of Estonians serving in the Soviet Army defected to the Germans at the
first chance. This happened mostly in the summer of 1941 and the winter of 1942/43
(the latter under Velikiye Luki). This was the time when the Germans had not completely
run out of luck, and there appeared to be some reason in such defections.
All this shows that there was not
only a small Nazi-minded group of people who were fighting against Communist
Russia, but the fighting was supported by most Estonians. Of course, most Estonians serving in the German armed forces were
mobilised in Estonia and therefore cannot be described as volunteers.
On the contrary, people’s attitude
towards the Germans was quite critical for the most part (the action of the
German authorities changed even the minds of those people who had volunteered
to join their troops). But it should be noted that evading the German mobilisations was
significantly less widespread than it had been in the Summer of 1941 when
thousands of men were evading the Soviet mobilisation.
On the contrary, even when the
situation on the front was rather bad and evading the mobilisation – for
personal safety – would have been understandable, most of the men who received
the notice for mobilisation came to protect their homeland and fought as well
as it was possible in that situation. The attitude of people was also in favour of the men
serving in the German army. It was because people simply understood the necessity of fighting. The legal basis of Estonians fighting
When talking about the fight against the Soviet Union, it is appropriate
to discuss its legal basis also. During both the Soviet and German occupations, the
Estonian legal authorities continued to operate, more or less underground[5].
Their orders and attitude formed the political and moral instructions for
Estonian citizens. Even though the Germans denied the plea for restoration of independence
by several leading Estonian politicians, led by the prime minister J. Uluots,
the politicians still decided that the main enemy in the ongoing war for
Estonia and Estonians was the Soviet Union and they summoned the Estonian
people to mobilise all their internal efforts in fight against communism[6].
In February 1944, when the Soviet
troops had reached the Estonian borders, the Prime Minister J. Uluots read a
speech over the radio[7].
During this speech he noted that the main presumption for the restoration of
Estonian freedom was to keep the Soviets out of Estonia and in order to achieve
this, he summoned Estonians to fight with the Germans.
The speech was published in all
Estonian newspapers. The National Committee of the Republic of Estonia, which consisted of
representatives of Estonian political parties and was oriented mainly towards
the Western Allies, understood the graveness of the situation and supported the
idea of Estonian soldiers fighting with the Germans[8].
Thus it can be said with certainty
that the representatives of Estonian legal authority saw Estonians fighting
against the Soviet Union with the Germans as the only possibility in the given
conditions. No doubt that the standpoint of and the petitions by the Estonian legal
authorities had considerable effect on people and many of those who had
originally not wanted to fight with the Germans, became protectors of the
homeland. For instance, during the mobilisation at the beginnig of February 1944,
about 15,000 men were expected to appear but actually, nearly 40,000 men joined
in to protect their homeland. (The number of people who turned up was even
greater, but not all of the men were accepted.) The situation at the Front had become very serious and
it was obvious that everything possible had to be done to prevent the return of
the Russians. For Estonians, the fight had turned into nationwide fight for freedom[9].
But the Germans were still afraid
of forming Estonian armed forces and so they are responsible for the fact that
the units formed out of the mobilised men (border guard units) were not formed
into a uniform Estonian unit (a Division), but were dispersed and subordinated
to German units. Further – these men were not issued with suitable armament and equipment
for the conditions in which they were to fight. If we try to assess the action of the Estonian legal authorities and
Estonians in World War II objectively, we must consider the fact that Estonians
were in a situation – against their will – with no possibility of choosing
between Western democracy and Germany. The choice was between two major
totalitarian states, Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany.
Estonians liked neither. As a
friend and ally of the Western democracies in World War II, Russia, had
occupied Estonia for a year before the hostilities began. This introduction had
been enough to prove to the Estonians that the mortal enemy of the Estonian
people was Communist Russia, against whom you had to protect yourself by whatever
means available. It was this, that decided the course of history.
Soviet Union and the Western nations
Many of the Western nations understood what Communist Russia was and
learned of Stalin’s crimes only many years later (some have not understood it yet).
Due to wartime propaganda, the
peoples of the West considered anybody who had fought with the Germans as
protectors of that criminal regime, not asking what the purpose of that
fighting had been. There were no exceptions for this rule. But back then, Russians were considered to be good
allies. It is a tragedy of history that the situation caused those Estonian men
who had wanted to protect their homeland against Communist Russia to do it
wearing German uniforms. Tens of thousands of men participated in this fight and for them it was
a fight for their country and people, caused by historic inevitability.
The legal authorities of Estonia
sanctioned this fight. It was clear to Estonian soldiers that the prerequisite for defending
Estonia and restoring its national independence was to crush Communist Russia
and in order to achieve this aim, one had to fight, if necessary, outside of
Estonia as well. But whenever an Estonian soldier fought, he carried the national
colours, blue-black-white on his sleeve and the aim of free Estonia in his
heart. The tragedy of a small nation is that the victors of the World War II
did not want to recognise this in the euphoria following the victory.
It was especially bitter for the
Estonians that even the US became an unconditional ally of the Soviet Union.
Many Estonians serving in the German army had hoped that the US would
understand the situation of the Estonians. The Estonian prisoners-of-war were often treated as
ordinary, Nazi-minded volunteers fighting with the Germans.
(It took a long time before the
Americans started to understand that even though it was obvious why the SS men
did not want to return home, why were the ordinary civilian refugees from the
Soviet-held territories so unwilling to return home?
Something had to be wrong there.)
The events that happened
immediately after the war can be understood – ordinary Americans tend not to
have much empathy for other peoples. But later, even now, here and there, all over the
world, people have tried to accuse Estonians who fought with the Germans,
especially in the Waffen-SS, of all imaginable sins.
Especially active in this sense
have been the Communist authorities of post-war Estonia and their followers and
the global Jewish organisations. The latter, especially, tend to think that the fact
that a lot of Estonians served in the 20th (Estonian) Division of
the Waffen-SS is enough to accuse all Estonians, not asking what this unit
actually was. Estonians and the Waffen-SS
Firstly, it must be said that Estonians, for the most part, joined the
Waffen-SS – so much criticised by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union –
forcibly. Most of the youngsters who had been mobilised in 1943 were transferred
there, as well as entire units in 1944. This happened, for instance, with the Eastern
Battalions, the Estonians who had fought in Finland and had returned, and a
number of others. Men were not asked for their opinion, although they vocally criticised
these transfers. (As contemporaries remember, even the legendary commander of a Eastern
Battalion, Major Alfons Rebane, carrier of the Ritterkreutz, later commander of
a regiment of the Estonian Division, had not wanted his battalion to be
transferred to the Waffen-SS and had even threatened to leave to Finland. But
he understood the seriousness of the situation and with his sense of
responsibility for his homeland and men he continued his service.)
The Estonian Legion and the 20th
(Estonian) Division of the Waffen-SS which had been formed from it were purely
combat units which members the International Court of Nuremberg did not condemn
as war criminals. For Estonians, the Waffen-SS meant better armament and training in the
first place, essential for fighting against the Eastern enemy[10].
Quite often, the Estonian soldiers who had escaped to Germany in autumn
1944 and continued to fight there in spite of the hopeless situation have been
criticised too. It was obvious that they had already lost their homeland and the defeat
of Germany was only a matter of time. These criticisers accuse Estonian soldiers that their
effort helped the Germans to resist and commit additional war crimes and crimes
against humanity until the end of the war. But one must remember that military service was the
only alternative the Germans offered to the Estonian soldiers arriving in
Germany[11].
Unfortunately, these criticisers
cannot suggest any other alternative for what those men had to do other than
suggestions of surrender or even committing suicide (yes, this extreme
suggestion has been made). Indeed, small groups of men would have tried to desert and to escape to
the West, but to develop the idea that this would have been possible for entire
units, especially on the Eastern Front, is sheer naivety.
Russians certainly were not people
whom an Estonian soldier would have wanted to trust, considering the bitter
experiences of 1940–41. (The suggestion that the entire 20th Division of the
Waffen-SS should have shot themselves, cannot be taken seriously.) A brief discussion about crimes against humanity
As it has been not possible to accuse any Estonian units, not even the
20th (Estonian) Division of the Waffen-SS of crimes against
humanity, the most active criticisers of the Estonian soldiers in German
service have, every now and then, launched an accusatory campaign, as noted
above, stating that even though Estonian combat units were not directly
involved in war crimes, their fighting helped the Germans to amongst other
things commit crimes against humanity. Briefly, they are accused of supporting Germans
committing such crimes. But such a simplified approach allows us to accuse soldiers of all
forces in World War II. Following the same logic, one can say that the soldiers of the Red Army,
including Estonians, can be accused in the murders of Katyn, arresting and
deporting tens or even hundreds of thousands of people in Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania and the Caucasus etc. And the list goes on. It would have been impossible for the Stalinist regime to commit and
hide those atrocities from the world without the support of its armed forces.
It could be said that the Allied
soldiers who were liberating some peoples from the Germans were, with the
Soviet Union, pushing others deeper and deeper under the Communist yoke and
helped to preserve the Gulag Archipelago and aided in the death of millions of
people in the Soviet prison camps many years after the war’s end.
But the Nuremburg court only
discussed the atrocities of Germany and her allies.
The victorious peoples were not
judged, in spite what they had done. The Soviet Union demanded a number of issues sensitive
to the major nations to be dropped from the agenda of the Nuremberg court; the
other victorious nations agreed with pleasure. But it is totally obvious that it is sheer nonsense to
accuse men who had fought on this or other side, only by what atrocities the
entire respective fighting nations had committed, for it does not lead
anywhere. Even if we drop the issue of helping to commit war crimes and consider
certain crimes against humanity, it can be said with certainty that those were
committed by the armed forces of all fighting nations.
But a discussion on these must be
based on their committers. And even here the situation is not clear, as one must know the
background of one or other act that is now considered a crime.
Speaking about the atrocities of
Estonians on the side of the Germans, one should know that before the anti-tank
trench at Tartu[12] there were
the Tartu Prison and a number of other places where the remains of cruelly
tortured and executed people were found in the Summer and Autumn of 1941, after
the retreat of the Soviet armed forces. One should also recall the deportation of women and
children, the actions of the “destroyer battalions” etc.
But these accusers have been
silent on these points. We can be completely sure that all this had a strong emotional impact,
which took men to war against the Russians as volunteers, but also set the
character of that war. The enemy really was an enemy, in every sense of the word. It should be noted that crimes against humanity in Estonia continued
even after the war, as the hostilities in fact continued.
The actions of the post-war Forest
Brethren who had been fighting with the Germans for the most part and whom the
Communists were referring to as Fascist throat-cutters and accusing of many
crimes, (though their action did not differ much from that of the Soviet
partisans against the Germans, which were not considered as crimes) compare
were closely to the post-war crimes of the men who had fought in the Red Army
(arresting and torturing innocent people, deportations etc).
Often such actions were carried
out with the willing or unwilling help of security agents, party activists etc.
who had been in the Soviet Army, being the main supporters of the Soviet power
in Estonia. (For the sake of truth, it must be said that most of the men who
had served in the Estonian Corps, did not besmirch their honour with such
atrocities.) Speaking of the Forest Brethren, one needs to remember that many men
were forced into the forests by the actions of the Soviet authorities, i.e. the
actions of the same supporters who, after the war, often persecuted people who
did not like Soviet power and the developments in Estonia, even if the men were
not fighting directly against it. These people often could only choose between the option of
to being sent to Siberia or to go into the forest.
This resulted in thousands of
abandoned households, broken families and tragic fates, making many people who
had perhaps already accepted the defeat and started to live a normal life
again, but now were forced to start an active fight against the Soviets.
Several Soviet activists found
their death at the hands of such men. Additionally, one should not forget that by the end of
the Forest Brethren movement, they were fighting a hopeless and desperate fight
of betrayed and doomed people. They had put all their hope on the US that this democratic and powerful
nation would understand what an empire of evil the Soviet Union was and would
do something against it. This hope was based on the American claim that they did not recognise
the Soviet annexation of the Baltic nations in 1940.
But, unfortunately, all this
remained only words. The Baltic nations were sold at Yalta, just as they had been sold by the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. It must be understood that an embittered man, his vain
hopes betrayed, is a bitter fighter, whose only purpose is to sell his life as
dearly as possible. But all this is a different topic. The discussion above shows that as it is impossible to
point at the Red Army or any other armed force of any fighting nation as whole,
it is also impossible to call single units of the German armed forces, such as
the Estonian Legion or the 20th (Estonian) Division of the
Waffen-SS, criminals, especially when there is no evidence of atrocities being
committed by these units. So, what did an Estonian soldier fight for?
In summary, it must be said that Estonian soldiers in World War II were
generally considered as good and brave soldiers. But the aim of this soldier, which he carried in his
heart during the fighting, was not a new Europe or Greater Germany, it was only
to free his little homeland[13].
It is a historical tragedy that
Estonia could not fight against Communist Russia on the side of democratic
Western nations but with Nazi Germany and thus inadvertently became one of the
“bad boys”. The Western nations have generally accepted the Finnish fight for their
freedom against the Soviet Union, especially because the Finns had to fight
against the Germans by the end of the war. The Estonian fight was exactly the same, a fight for
freedom, where the Estonian soldier tried to give his best, using the resources
he had at the time. It was not the fault of the Estonian soldier that he had no other choice
of ally than Nazi Germany and that he could not reach his aim nor defend his
homeland in the battle between the major nations.
Even though history has been rather
biased so far, the former combatants still believe that the younger
generations, both in Estonia and abroad, will see history with open minds one
day, in spite of more than fifty years of propaganda accusing the men who had
served in the German armed forces, and eventually understand by objectively
assessing the events that for an Estonian soldier the World War II was just a
continuation of the Independence War and nothing else. [1] Estonians were not trusted. The Estonians who were mobilised and taken to Russia were taken to the so-called labour battalions where many perished from hunger and cold in the winter of 1941/42. Estonians in these labour battalions were, in reality, prisoners. It was only in late 1942, when it was evident that the Germans are running out of luck, that Estonians were concentrated into the new Estonian Rifle Corps which later saw action. [2] Over 3000 Estonian volunteers (so-called “Finnish boys”, soomepoisid) fought in the Finnish armed forces. They had not wanted to fight for the Germans and escaped from Estonia to Finland. The largest Estonian unit in the Finnish armed forces was the 200th Infantry Regiment (JR 200). As Finland was an Axis country and fought against the Soviets with Germany, the people fighting with the Finns can be counted as fighting on the German side as well. [3] In 1940–1941 over 4000 peaceful citizens were arrested by the Soviets in Estonia, violating all internationally accepted legal norms. Most of them were murdered, or they died in prison camps. The terror culminated in the deportation of more than 10,000 people, including women and children, in June 1941. The question that faced Estonians was no longer about the survival of democracy or the Republic, but the survival of the Estonian nation itself. [4] Historicaly, Russians have been the only conquerors from the east who have attempted to harass the Estonians. None of the other nations making up the Soviet Union have attempted this. [5] When the Soviet occupation troops arrived in June 1940, Jüri Uluots, the Prime Minister of Estonia, succeeded in going underground. After the Estonian president Konstantin Päts was arrested in July 1940, the powers of the president were transferred to the Prime Minister, as set out in the constitution. The Western nations recognised the continuity and legal succession of the underground Estonian state authorities,. [6] On September 13, 1941 all Estonian newspapers published an address titled “Estonian men and Estonian women!”, signed by the Prime Minister J. Uluots and a number of other leading society persons. [7] Radio speech of the Prime Minister J. Uluots on February 7, 1944. [8] Order of the National Committee of the Republic of Estonia, No. 1 of August 1, 1944 and No. 2 of August 24, 1944. [9] About 1800 of the Estonians fighting with the Finns returned to Estonia in August 1944 when the Russians had reached Tartu, in order to do anything possible during this critical moment to protect Estonia. [10] All soldiers and officers who fought in the 20th Division of the Waffen-SS were released from imprisonment in the West after the Nuremberg court acquitted those former fighters of the Waffen-SS who had been assigned there by authorities and had not committed atrocities. In addition, the letter from the Displaced Persons Commission to the Acting Consul General of Estonia in New York, dated September 13, 1950 states that the Baltic Waffen-SS units, including the Estonian Legion, were to be considered as separate and distinct in purpose, ideology, activities and qualifications for membership from the German SS, and therefore the Commission held them not to be a movement hostile to the Government of the United States. Therefore, the cases of applicants for admission into the United States who have been members of the Baltic Waffen-SS, including the Estonian Legion, would be considered on their individual merit. [11] Before the end of the war nearly all Estonian soldiers in Germany were transferred to the 20th (Estonian) Division of the Waffen-SS, in spite of their original arm of service. [12] After the war, it became well-known as the execution site for people shot by the German occupation authorities. [13] The number of Estonians who had been mobilised in the Soviet armed forces from Estonia and who idealised the Communist empire lead by Russia, was very small. Mostly they ended up on the Soviet side because it had been impossible to evade the mobilisation (see also Note 1). |