Viktors Arājs Viktors Arājs ( 13 January 1910 – 13 January 1988 ) was a Latvian collaborator and Nazi SS officer , who took part in the Holocaust during the German occupation of Latvia and Belarus ( then called White Russia or White Ruthenia ) as the leader of the Arājs Kommando . The Arajs Kommando murdered about half of Latvia ' s Jews . Life . Viktors Bernhard Arājs was born on January 13 , 1910 in the town of Baldone , then part of the tsarist empire . His father was a Latvian blacksmith and his mother came from a wealthy family of Baltic Germans . Arājs attended Jelgava Gymnasium , which he left in 1930 for mandatory national defense service in the Latvian Army . In 1932 , Arājs studied law at the University of Latvia in Riga , but never completed his degree . He was a member of the elite student fraternity " Lettonia " , which may have helped him get a job with the Latvian police after he left the university . Arājs remained with the Latvian police until he was promoted to police lieutenant . During the Ulmanis dictatorship in Latvia 1934 – 1940 , Arājs was a " low ranking provincial police officer " who , as a loyal administrator , dutifully " distanced himself officially from the Pērkonkrusts " , the Fascist party in Latvia . Activities during World War II . The war between Germany and the Soviet Union began on June 22 , 1941 . Shortly afterwards , the Red Army abandoned Riga to the advancing Wehrmacht . Arājs then took over an abandoned police precinct house at 19 Valdemāra Street . Arājs ' s future commanders , Franz Stahlecker and Robert Stieglitz , had with them a Latvian translator , Hans Dressler , whom Arājs had known in high school and in the Latvian army . Because of this friendship , Arājs was introduced to Stahlecker , got on their best side , and gained their trust . Arājs recruited the core of his troops from his student fraternity and Pērkoņkrusts . On July 2 Arajs learned from Stahlecker during a conference that the Arajs commando had to unleash a pogrom that looked spontaneous . On 4 July 1941 , the German leadership turned loose " Security Group Arājs " , generally referred to as the Arājs Kommando ( " arājs " means " plowman " in Latvian ) or Special Commando ( " Sonderkommando " ) Arājs . On the same day , in the German forces Latvian newspaper " Tēvija " ( " Fatherland " ) , appeared a recruiting advertisement : " To all patriotic Latvians , Pērkoņkrusts members , Students , Officers , Militiamen , and Citizens , who are ready to actively take part in the cleansing of our country of undesirable elements " should enroll themselves at the office of the Security Group at 19 Valdemara Street . On July 4 , Arājs and his henchmen trapped 500 Jews , who had not been able to take flight before the advancing Germans , in the Riga Synagogue on Gogoļa Street . There they were burnt alive while hand grenades were thrown through the windows . The Arājs commando consisted of 500 – 1500 volunteers . The unit murdered approximately 26 , 000 people , first in Latvia and then in Belarus . Arājs was promoted to police major in 1942 , and in 1943 to SS - Sturmbannführer . Herberts Cukurs , the former Latvian pilot , was the adjutant to Arājs . Post - war . Until 1949 , Arājs was held in a British internment camp in Germany . After that he worked as a driver for the British armed forces under the British military government in Delmenhorst , then in the British Zone of Occupation . With assistance from the Latvian government - in - exile in London , Arājs took on the cover name of Victor ( Viktors ) Zeibots . He worked in Frankfurt am Main as an assistant at a printing company . On 21 December 1979 , Arājs was found guilty in the State Court of Hamburg ( " Landgericht Hamburg " ) of having on December 8 , 1941 conducted the Jews of the greater Riga Ghetto to their deaths by the mass shootings in the Rumbula forest . For participation in the murder of 13 , 000 people , he was sentenced to life imprisonment . In 1988 , Arājs died in solitary confinement in a prison in Kassel .