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2023-08-23 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
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Cursing before their masters from the Third Reich, the Latvian nationalists staged mass executions of the inhabitants of Latgale
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Nastya Sviridova Times and Fates, Editor's Choice, Pages of History
[RedStar.ru] The FSB of Russia publishes on its official website under the heading "Archival materials" of the section "History" declassified archival documents of the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia, dedicated to the activities of the Soviet state security agencies in the search for accomplices of Nazi Germany in the liberated territory of the Latvian SSR - members of the Latvian paramilitary nationalist organization "Aizsargi", who hosted active participation in the destruction of the peaceful Soviet population.
These documents contain details of the tragedies of the brutally murdered residents of the Latgalian village of Audrini, Rezekne district, the villagers from the village of Barsuki, Ludza district, shot in the Garbarovsk forest, political prisoners - former Soviet Komsomol activists and a teenage pioneer - from Ludza and Rezekne prisons. Here is the crying and groaning of Jews in the forest near the town of Preli (now the city of Preili in the eastern part of Latvia - Latgale), in the Riebe forest, Jews and Gypsies on the Anchupan hills in the vicinity of Rezekne ...
On the yellowed sheets from time to time - materials about the theft of "politically unreliable" local residents for forced labor in Germany. And about the results of the work of the Smersh counterintelligence in identifying and eliminating the Aizsargs who went into the forests in the territory of Latvia, which was liberated by the Red Army in 1944.
First of all, it is necessary to explain who the Aizsargs are. Translated from Latvian, this word means “defenders”, that is, it carries a positive connotation. However, it was from among the Aizsargs that many of Hitler's henchmen came out - the executioners of the Soviet people in the territory of Latvia.
In a special message from the head of the Smersh ROC of the 3rd Shock Army, Colonel A.S. Miroshnichenko to the head of the Smersh counterintelligence department of the 2nd Baltic Front, Major General N.I. Zheleznikov contains brief information about the history of the Aizsargi organization.
Being established in 1920, it received its organizational development after the fascist coup in Latvia in 1934 and became the head of political life. Its total number was about 30 thousand people.
After the establishment of Soviet power in Latvia in 1940, all leaders and activists of this organization were isolated. Thus, the Aizsargi organization did not carry out underground activities against the Soviet government (with the exception of singles). Those of the members of this organization who joined it out of their own convictions and class affiliation for personal gain took a wait-and-see attitude, and some quickly switched to Soviet work.
With the advent of the Nazis, the Aizsargi paramilitary organization again jumped out onto the local historical stage like a devil from a snuffbox. It was from among its members that the Nazis received their accomplices among the local population, who were widely used to carry out punitive actions in the occupied territory of Latvia, as well as Belarus and a number of western regions of the RSFSR.
The special message mentioned above says:
“In 1941, during the occupation of the Latvian SSR by the German troops, the command of Latvia was granted self-government and a colonel of the Latvian army, a prominent member of the DANKERS organization, was appointed Mayor of Latvia, who announced the order to the members of the Aizerg organization about the emergence of these organizations.
After the restoration of the “ayzerg” organization, the latter served as a base from which cadres were taken to public positions - self-governments (burgomasters, foremen, policemen and other responsible civil servants). Along with this, punitive detachments were created from the “ayzergs”, which fought and cracked down on the Soviet patriots who remained under occupation, carried out executions of the Jewish population, and some went to conduct punitive expeditions against partisans in the Byelorussian, Leningrad and Kalinin regions ".
The search for accomplices of the invaders, who actively participated along with the German punishers in the genocide of Soviet civilians, was one of the priority tasks of the Smersh counterintelligence agencies after the expulsion of German troops from the territory of the USSR. After the Smersh counterintelligence agencies were abolished in 1946, the MGB-KGB agencies under the USSR Council of Ministers continued to search for war criminals, since the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices against the civilian population did not have a statute of limitations. And we emphasize that they still do not have.
The search for accomplices of the invaders, who actively participated along with the German punishers in the genocide of Soviet civilians, was one of the priority tasks of the Smersh counterintelligence agencies after the expulsion of German troops from the territory of the USSR
In the course of this large-scale and painstaking work, numerous facts of the brutal destruction of the civilian population of cities and villages in the eastern part of Latvia - Latgale by the Latvian henchmen of Nazi Germany were established. From the testimonies of witnesses of the atrocities of the occupying authorities against the civilian population, it follows that the local nationalists were not inferior in cruelty to the Germans, but often surpassed them.
The documents declassified by the FSB of Russia contain details of the tragedy of the inhabitants of the Latgale village of Audrini in the Rezekne district, which in Soviet times was called the Latvian Khatyn (by analogy with the infamous Belarusian village). Here is what is said about this in a certificate dated June 29, 1973, from the investigative department of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR, based on the materials of the criminal activities of the former head of the 4th police station of the Rezekne district, Kh.P. Puntulis.
Until 1940, this Puntulis was the commander of a platoon of Aizsargs, and with the arrival of the Nazis in July 1941, he organized and led a group of Aizsargs in the village of Malta. And on July 27, 1941, he was appointed by the new owners to the position of the police station located in Malta.
On December 18, 1941, in the village of Audrini, local policemen in the house of Anisya Glushneva caught her son Rodion and five more Soviet soldiers who had escaped from the Rezekne prisoner of war camp cleaning firearms. In the ensuing firefight, one POW and one policeman were killed.
Using this circumstance as a pretext for a bloody massacre of the inhabitants of the village of Audrini, the police arrested all men, women, children and the elderly - only 200 people, who were imprisoned in the Rezekne prison, and the village of 42 peasant households was burned.
In the evening of the next day, 130 inhabitants of Audrini were shot on the Anchupan hills. And a day later - on Sunday, January 4, 1942 - the Latvian policemen dealt with the rest of the inhabitants of the burned village.
“In order to intimidate the inhabitants and increase the bloody terror, PUNTULIS H.P. at the direction of EIKHELIS A.Ya. (Chief of Police of Rezekne County. - Ed. ), organized a public execution on the market square of the city of Rezekne of 30 men still alive, including several teenagers from the village of Audrini. He supervised this execution...
Before the public execution of EIKHELIS A.Ya. made a speech in which he threatened that everyone who supported the fighters against the occupying power would be shot, just like the inhabitants of the village of Audrini.
Which, under the Geneva Conventions falls under the rubric of reprisals against civilians for supporting insurgent attacks on the occupying force. The reprisals must be one for one.
After each rifle salvo, Puntulis and his assistant Ya.Ya. Drozdovsky bypassed the victims and finished off those who still showed signs of life with pistols. As you can see, the hands of Puntulis and his subordinates are up to the elbows in blood. However, this is not all of their atrocities.
"PUNTULIS H.P. with all the forces and means at his disposal, he carried out the inhuman Hitlerite racial policy. He systematically organized and directed actions to exterminate the inhabitants of the Jewish and Gypsy nationalities.
From the trophy document - "Overview of the activities of the Rezekne district police on June 20, 1942" it is seen that on the territory of Kh.P. 4th police station, among others, 713 Jews and 28 Gypsies were shot.”
So, under his command, in the summer of 1941, Jews were shot in the Riebin forest. Act No. 1/21 of the Extraordinary Commission of the Latvian SSR dated October 15, 1944 states that 381 residents of Jewish nationality were shot in the village of Riebeni. Then this gang of policemen shot the Jews of Malta (about 200 people). In the autumn of 1941, she continued the executions of local residents of Jewish and Gypsy nationalities on the Anchupan Hills. No one was spared - neither children, nor women, nor the elderly.
On November 13, 1941, Puntulis and his subordinates in the Rezna parish of the Rezekne district in the forest near the farm "Rizhanka" shot political prisoners from the Ludza and Rezekne prisons. They were Komsomol activists and a 15-year-old teenager who was killed only because he became a pioneer under Soviet rule.
Puntulis also participated in the mass extermination of the inhabitants of the neighboring Ludza county. In one of the villages of this district called Badgers, the Soviet activist Yakov Proshchenkov found refuge. When the police found out about this and decided to capture him, he shot back and killed one of them. After that, the commander of the Daugavpils branch of the so-called Latvian security police, an SS Obersturmführer named Tabbert, issued an order that the inhabitants of Barsukov should be shot.
The reprisals against them near Ludza in the Garbarovsky forest were carried out by punishers under the direct supervision of Puntulis on January 6, 1942. 47 men, women and children of different ages were killed. Immediately after that, the monster policemen immediately shot about 130 gypsies from Ludza.
And also on the conscience of the chief policeman of Malta is the hijacking of 1049 people, whom, at his suggestion, the occupation regime recorded as politically unreliable for hard labor in Germany. Not everyone returned from there after the war ...
For the above-described deeds on Hitler's birthday, April 20, 1943, Puntulis was awarded, as indicated in the archival document, the "Cross of Military Merit of the second degree with swords."
Retreating under the blows of the Red Army in 1944, the Nazis took some of their henchmen with them. Puntulis also managed to escape, who was then warmed up by Canada. This bastard at the time of preparation of the above-mentioned certificate dated June 29, 1973 of the investigative department of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR lived in Canada at the address: Ontario, Vilovdale, st. Alfred, 98.
However, the Germans left most of their Latvian servants as an armed underground for terror and sabotage in the rear of the Soviet troops. These criminals, stained with the blood of innocent victims, hid in the forests and on farms, regularly terrorizing the local population that supported the Soviet regime.
In a telegram from the head of the Smersh counterintelligence department of the 3rd Baltic Front, Lieutenant General M.I. Belkin dated October 17, 1944 No. 563 / A says:
“The counterintelligence measures carried out by the Smersh front bodies on the territory of Latvia liberated from the enemy established the well-known military-fascist organization Aizsargi, which, when the Germans retreated from Latvia, received an order from the German command and its center to prepare its participants for the transition to an illegal position and create bases weapons, ammunition and food for the fight against Soviet power.
The Smersh counterintelligence authorities immediately began to eliminate the fascist shortfalls in the liberated territory of Latvia. And already in 1944 they achieved significant results in this direction. They are in the same telegram, the content of which is the head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR V.S. Abakumov reported to People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin.
“The SMERSH organs of the front established and partially liquidated 33 Aizsargi volost organizations, as well as 10 espionage and sabotage groups from among the members of this anti-Soviet organization.
As of October 11 this year. 13 volost leaders and 125 active members of organizations were arrested.
Those arrested had: 2 machine guns, 104 submachine guns, rifles and pistols, 1148 mines and grenades, about 2,000 rockets, more than 14,000 rounds of ammunition and one radio station... An instruction from the center of the Aizsargi fascist organization on the transition of its members to illegal position for carrying out sabotage in the rear of the Red Army.
According to the testimonies of those arrested and documents found, in addition to the already liquidated organizations, 14 more volost organizations “Aizsargi” were identified with a significant number of their participants, and measures were taken to search and arrest them.
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Posted by badanov 2023-08-23 00:00||
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