RIGA, Latvia (JTA) — Police arrested a man for displaying a poster of soldiers killing Jews at the annual march by local veterans of two SS divisions that made up the Latvian Legion during World War II.

The man was arrested Friday morning on the margins of the annual march of the Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires — soldiers from the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (the 1st and 2nd Latvian, respectively). A handful of veterans, flanked by hundreds of supporters waving Latvian flags, gathered around Freedom Monument for the march under heavy police guard.

The march in Latvia, a member of the NATO alliance and the European Union, is currently the only public event in Europe and beyond honoring people who fought under the banner of SS, Nazi Germany’s elite security force. Occurring amid rising tensions with Russia, it is part of numerous expressions across Eastern Europe of admiration for those, including Holocaust perpetrators, who collaborated with Germany against the Soviet Union.

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In Latvia, attending the world's only SS veterans march Posted by JTA News on Friday, 16 March 2018

Several protesters from the Latvia Without Fascism group demonstrated against the event by carrying signs reading “They fought for Hitler” and “If they looked Nazis, and acted like Nazis – they were Nazi.” None of those protesters was arrested.

Police did not allow a counter protest by Latvia Without Fascism, Joseph Koren, a leader of that group, told JTA. Hundreds of police cordoned off the Freedom Monument, as veterans, some of them wearing uniform, sang patriotic songs and laid wreaths for their fallen comrades. Organizers of the event from several nationalist groups then drove the veterans to a cemetery where many of their comrades are buried.

“It’s a disgrace that this is happening in Europe,” Aleksejs Saripovs of the Latvia Without Fascism group told JTA. “The European Union needs to pressure Latvia into abandoning this shameful event, but so far there is total silence.”

Many locals offered flowers to the veterans as they marched from the area around Riga’s St. Peter’s Church to the Freedom Monument.

Advocates of the veterans and their supporters claim that Latvian Legion soldiers were not involved in atrocities against Jews, despite evidence to the contrary. According to the Latvian government, the Latvian Legion was not really an SS unit and that the legionnaires who weren’t forcefully conscripted merely sought independence for Latvia when they joined Hitler’s army.

German Nazis and collaborators led to the near annihilation of 70,000 Jews who had lived in Latvia before the Holocaust.

On Wednesday, a bill proposing to make March 16 a national Latvian Legion Day was defeated in Latvia’s parliament. </s> RIGA, Latvia (JTA) — Police arrested a man for displaying a poster of soldiers killing Jews at the annual march by local veterans of two SS divisions that made up the Latvian Legion during World War II.

The man was arrested Friday morning on the margins of the annual march of the Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires — soldiers from the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (the 1st and 2nd Latvian, respectively). A handful of veterans, flanked by hundreds of supporters waving Latvian flags, gathered around Freedom Monument for the march under heavy police guard.

The march in Latvia, a member of the NATO alliance and the European Union, is currently the only public event in Europe and beyond honoring those who fought under the banner of SS, Nazi Germany’s elite security force. Occurring amid rising tensions with Russia, it is part of numerous expressions across Eastern Europe of admiration for those, including Holocaust perpetrators, who collaborated with Germany against the Soviet Union.

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Several protesters from the Latvia Without Fascism group demonstrated against the event by carrying signs reading “They fought for Hitler” and “If they looked like Nazis, and acted like Nazis – they were Nazi.” None of those protesters was arrested.

Police did not allow a counter protest by Latvia Without Fascism, a leader of that group, Joseph Koren, told JTA. Hundreds of police cordoned off the Freedom Monument as veterans, including some in uniform, sang patriotic songs and laid wreaths for their fallen comrades. Organizers of the event from several nationalist groups then drove the veterans to a cemetery where many of their comrades are buried.

“It’s a disgrace that this is happening in Europe,” Aleksejs Saripovs of the Latvia Without Fascism group told JTA. “The European Union needs to pressure Latvia into abandoning this shameful event, but so far there is total silence.”

Many locals offered flowers to the veterans as they marched from the area around St. Peter’s Church to the Freedom Monument.

Advocates of the veterans and their supporters claim that Latvian Legion soldiers were not involved in atrocities against Jews, despite evidence to the contrary. According to the Latvian government, the Latvian Legion was not really an SS unit and the legionnaires who were not forcefully conscripted merely sought independence for Latvia when they joined Hitler’s army.

German Nazis and collaborators led to the near annihilation of 70,000 Jews who had lived in Latvia before the Holocaust.

On Wednesday, the parliament voted down a bill proposing to make March 16 a national Latvian Legion Day. </s> About 1,500 people took part in a march commemorating deceased members of the Latvian Legion of the Waffen SS in Riga, the city police reported Friday.

"Everything was smooth, but there were several conflicts near the Freedom Monument, two persons were detained," the police said.

Participants of the march gathered near the Dome Cathedral in Riga with the aim to march to the Freedom Monument in Riga. The event was attended by former members of the Latvian Waffen SS (Schutzstaffel) and representatives of the country's Saeima (parliament).

The event went by quite peacefully, with participants holding Latvian flags in their hands. The area around the Freedom Monument was cordoned off by police, and there were obstacles on the square in front of the monument.

A group of anti-fascists with posters condemning Nazism met at the Freedom Monument to protest against the march.

A few dozen people with posters saying "they fought for Adolf Hitler" in Latvian, Russian and English met the procession. Antifascists also shouted the phrase "fascism will not pass" and "shame."

The SS, as well as other Nazi organizations, such as the Gestapo, SD and SA, were recognized as criminal organizations during the Nuremberg trials against major figures in the Nazi leadership and war criminals. Moreover, the creation of concentration camps by the SS was recognized as a crime against humanity.

Despite this, a march of participants of the Latvian Legion of the Waffen SS takes place every year in Riga, resulting in discontent and outrage among anti-fascist organizations around the world.

Some countries, such as Russia, have denounced the event, calling it a disgrace. According to a representative of the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Konstantin Dolgov, the fact that Latvian authorities issued a permit allowing veterans of the SS to march contradicts international law and the decisions of the Nuremberg tribunal. </s> The man, who police said was a member of a right-wing group, shot the policemen after they asked him to dispose of his legal gun during a search at the entrance to a municipal building in the town of Georgensgmuend, south of the city of Nuremberg.

Police said he is a member of the Reichsbuerger movement (Reich citizens) which maintains that the World War Two German Reich continues to exist.

The 49-year-old man was lightly injured. Some of the policemen are in serious condition, police said, giving no further details. (Reporting by Joseph Nasr Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) </s> Police officers stop NMR demonstrators from trying to walk along a forbidden street during the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) march in central Gothenburg, Sweden September 30, 2017. — Reuters picGOTHENBURG, Sweden, Sept 30 — Dozens of people were arrested today as neo-Nazis and anti-fascists clashed with police during a march by the extreme right-wing Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) in Gothenburg, Sweden today, police said.

The NMR gathered hundreds of people for the march. Membership in Nazi organisations is not illegal in Sweden and the NMR had a permit from the police to march.

Swedish police said on their website that at least 20 people had been apprehended, and that one police officer had been slightly injured. A police spokesman later told Swedish state television SVT that an additional 10 people had been arrested.

The police anticipated violence and had called in reinforcements from all police districts in Sweden and added 350 temporary jail beds in a police garage. — Reuters </s> GOTHENBURG, Sweden – Dozens of people were arrested on Saturday as neo-Nazis and anti-fascists clashed with police during a march by the extreme right-wing Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) in Gothenburg, Sweden on Saturday, police said.

The NMR gathered hundreds of people for the march. Membership in Nazi organizations is not illegal in Sweden and the NMR had a permit from the police to march.

Swedish police said on their website that at least 20 people had been apprehended, and that one police officer had been slightly injured. A police spokesman later told Swedish state television SVT that an additional 10 people had been arrested.

The police anticipated violence and had called in reinforcements from all police districts in Sweden and added 350 temporary jail beds in a police garage. </s> Swedish police officers block neo-Nazi demonstrators from deviating from a court-ordered route keeping them away from a synagogue in central Gothenburg on Sept. 30. (Tt News Agency/Reuters)

At least 50 people were detained Saturday during a far-right demonstration in Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, that left one police officer and several others injured, according to police reports.

The Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), a neo-Nazi group founded in Sweden but steadily growing in influence in Finland and Norway, had said on its websites that it expected 1,000 people to march Saturday.

Police placed the number closer to 600, making it the largest neo-Nazi rally in Sweden in recent years.

Black-clad demonstrators bearing shields and waving the group's green-and-white flag marched in the city's center. NMR is known for its openly anti-Semitic stance, and the group had originally sought to pass by a downtown synagogue to coincide with Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day.

Local activists protested, and a Swedish court intervened to shorten the march route so it would not pass near the synagogue. According to police reports, clashes broke out between police and NRM supporters when marchers attempted to deviate from the court-ordered route.

The rally sparked anxiety about the rise of the far right in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, and a large counterdemonstration drew about 10,000 people from across the country.

[German far-right leader says Merkel’s refugee policy enabled his party’s rise]

"I am very concerned there will be more rallies like this in the future," said Maxim Thore, an 18-year-old photography student who was among the counterprotesters. "The Nazis said at the protest that they will have a protest like this every Saturday from now on. I know people will always stand against them, but I don't think 10,000 protesters can gather every Saturday."

The counterprotesters clashed with the neo-Nazi marchers, throwing fireworks at the rally and getting into altercations with NMR members who attempted to cross police lines.

Thirty-five people were arrested, including NMR leader Simon Lindberg, police spokeswoman Emelie Kullmyr said.

"Three have been arrested for violence against the police and two others for bearing arms," Kullmyr said.

The night before the protest, 20 people, mostly Danes and Germans, were stopped as they arrived in Sweden to take part in the rally.

Membership in Nazi organizations is not illegal in Sweden. The NMR claims to follow the National Socialist doctrine of Adolf Hitler, and it opposes mass migration and what it calls "a global Zionist elite."

A week before the rally, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called for a halt to far-right activity in the country.

"When we now see an escalation of these extremist forces, and we are moving toward a normalization of racist parties, too, then we must do something," Lofven said.

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Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news </s> German police are investigating an assault on two young men in Berlin, in which the attacker was filmed shouting anti-Semitic abuse.

The men say they were harassed in the Prenzlauer Berg area on Monday while wearing Jewish skullcaps (kippahs). </s> Belarus arrests 2 who want crosses at mass execution site

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Police in Belarus have arrested an opposition leader and another activist as demonstrators for the second day try to prevent authorities from removing wooden crosses at a site near Minsk where tens of thousands of people were executed under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

The Kurapaty woods near the capital have a strong significance for the beleaguered opponents of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. He complained last month about the crosses that opposition supporters had set up there.

Fifteen other demonstrators were arrested Thursday after police closed off the woods and workers began removing the crosses. Pavel Sevyarinets of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party and another demonstrator were arrested Friday in a similar action.

Soviet secret police carried out mass executions at Kurapaty, with its victims estimated to range from 30,000 to 200,000 people.
Police arrest a man at the Freedom Monument displaying a poster of soldiers killing Jews as a protest against an annual march in Riga, Latvia, honoring two Latvian SS divisions during World War II.