From: sandor@sep.Stanford.EDU (Sandor Talas)
Subject: Re: Furstenburg and other things
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 09:41:17 GMT

In article <1bj48eINNd0f@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>, wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (INFIDEL) writes:

|> 
|> >>If you're refering to the old republic, then I submit the flourishing of
|> >>SS mass-murder divisions -- the SD -- such as the Arajs Kommando, as
|> >>evidence of the rabid nationalist character of enough of the
|> >>population of the time.  

Dear John,

I'd like to call your kind attention that Arajs was Latvian and so was
his commando. They had nothing to do with Estonia, even if from an
Australian viewpoint the difference between these two countries is negligible.


|> How many Estonians did it take to fill the Estonian Legion? And how many
|> did it take to fill the special Einzatzgruppen Kommando?
|> 
|> It's not just dribs and drabs; to fill a division, there must be broad
|> appeal. The appeal was the promise of Estonian independence from the
|> Soviet Union. Men joined a fascist cause in the hope of winning their
|> nation's independence. Doesn't this strike you as a pair of strange
|> bedfellows? What about when their cause was baptized in Gypsy and Jewish
|> blood?
|> 
|> And what happened to these men after the war? Where did they go?
|> 
|> Old habits die hard.
|> 

I guess that your opinion would not be changed by facts, but still I would
like to quote some data:

The Estonian Waffen-SS was estabilished in late August 1942, one year after
the german occupation, at first on a voluntary basis. As of October 13, 1942
only 500 volunteers had joined them.

Compare this number with the 2700 Estonians who illegally crossed the sea
in wartime to join the Finnish army and navy to fight against the Soviet
army.  

Let me also remember you that the Soviet Union have occupied Estonia in
1939-40, merged her into the Soviet Union, executed 2000, deported 19,000,
and mobilized 33,000 Estonians who mostly perished in labour camps.
These consisted 5% of the population!
In addition to that, special Soviet destruction battalions were formed
in July 1941 to carry out the 'scorched earth' policy, i.e. to destroy
the country.

I suppose that these acts might have rosen some tensions against the
Soviet Union...

Despite all this, the Estonian Waffen-SS had to be filled with men drafted 
from the police to the number of 1,280 and they were sent to the Russian
front in the spring of 1943 under the name of Narva Battalion.

In March 1943 all Estonian men born between 1919-1924 were called up for
mobilization by the occupying German forces, but they could netted only
5,300 for the Estonian Legion and 6,800 for the support service (Hilfswillige)
for the Wermacht. 

In January 1944 all the men born between 1904 and 1923 were called up for
military service and they drafted 50-60,000 Estonians, who hoped to save
they country from a second Soviet occupation.

In August 1944 the 2,000 Estonian volunteers in the Finnish army have 
returned to Estonia to fight against the Soviet troops.


That is, the proportion of the volunteers of the Estonians fighting on
German side (in the SS - if you prefer) is negligible. So is the number
of the Estonian volunteers fighting on the Russian side. 



All the gatherings of these Estonian men, who are almost all over 70,
are called 'fascist celebrations' by the Russian-language press, as
all the other people's who dared to fight against the Soviet Union 
(i.e. against mostly Russian-speaking people) in the past decades.

Simply, this is the terminology they use.



Regards,

Sandor
 


PS:

Source: 

Toivo Raun: Estonia and the Estonians, 1987
            Hoover Institution, Stanford University

( + the various sources quoted in the book, some 10-15 references for
this topic)