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Herberts Cukurs

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Herberts Cukurs
Born(1900-05-17)May 17, 1900
Liepāja, Courland Governorate, Russian Empire
DiedFebruary 23, 1965(1965-02-23) (aged 64)
Montevideo, Uruguay
Occupation(s)Aviator, suspected of involvement in Holocaust

Herberts Cukurs (May 17, 1900, in Liepāja, Courland Governorate, Russian Empire – February 23, 1965, in Montevideo, Uruguay) was an infamous Latvian aviator and Nazi war criminal. He was a member of the notorious Arajs Kommando and was involved in murders of Latvian Jews as part of the Holocaust but he never stood trial. There are eyewitness accounts linking Cukurs to war crimes.[1] He was shot dead by Mossad agents in 1965.

Aviation pioneer

As a pioneering long-distance pilot, he won national acclaim for his international solo flights in the 1930s (Latvia-Gambia and Riga-Tokyo). He was awarded the Harmon Trophy for Latvia in 1933.

Cukurs built at least 3 planes of his own design. In 1937 he made a 45,000-kilometre (24,000 nmi; 28,000 mi) tour visiting Japan, China, Indochina, India and Russia, flying the C 6 wooden monoplane "Trīs zvaigznes" (callsign YL-ABA) of his own creation. The plane was powered by an 135 hp de Havilland Gipsy engine.

Holocaust perpetrator

See also: Burning of the Riga synagogues and Rumbula massacre

After the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany during the summer of 1941 Cukurs became a member the notorious Arajs Kommando, responsible for many of the crimes of the Holocaust in Latvia.

Historian Andrew Ezergailis has contended that Cukurs participated in the atrocities committed in the Riga ghetto in conjunction with the Rumbula massacre on 30 November 1941.[2] After the war, surviving witnesses reported that Cukurs had been present during the ghetto clearance and fired into the mass of Jewish civilians.

According to other sources Cukurs was the most recognizable Latvian SD man at the scene of Rumbula massacre[3]. Cukurs was described as follows:

The Latvian murderer Cukurs got out of a car wearing a leather pistol (Nagan) at his side. He went to the Latvian guards to give them various instructions. He had certainly been informed in detail about the great catastrophe that awaited us.[1]

According to other account Cuckurs also participated in Burning of the Riga synagogues. According to Bernard Press, Cukurs burned the synagogue on Stabu Street, but only after dragging Jews out of the neighboring houses and locking them inside

Eyewitnesses heard the people who were locked inside screaming for help and saw them breaking the synagogues windows from inside and trying, like living torches, to get outside. Cukurs shot them with his revolver.[4]

Postwar fate

After the war, Cukurs emigrated to Brazil via France. There, he established a business in São Paulo, flying Republic RC-7 Seabees on panoramic flights. While living in South America he neither hid nor tried to hide his identity.

He is now known to have been assassinated by Mossad agents, who attracted him to Uruguay under a fake intention of starting an aviation business,[5] after it was found out that he would not stand trial for his participation in the Holocaust.[6] He was invited to a house and shot in the head after a short but violent struggle.

Reputation and attempted rehabilitation

As a result of actions during the occupation of Latvia from 1941 to 1944, Cukurs became known as the "Butcher of Riga".[7][8][9][10][11] Since the fall of Communism, there have been efforts in Latvia to rehabilitate Cukurs. For example, an exhibition was held in Riga in honour of the 'national hero' Herberts Cukurs, in which his work in the Arajs Commando was portrayed as having been harmless. The Latvian Foreign Ministry stated in 2004 that Cukurs was "guilty of war crimes".[12]

Ezergailis states that much of the available literature suggests that Cukurs's main responsibility was working in the garages as a mechanic for the Arajs Commando.[2] Attempts have been made to explain or excuse Cukurs's direct participation in killing of Jews, either by claiming the incompetency of post-war witnesses (i.e. Holocaust survivors), the lack of direct evidence of Cukurs's personal involvement in the killing of individual victims, or by the claim that he acted under duress.

Notes

  1. ^ a b Kaufmann, The Destruction of the Latvian Jews, at 81
  2. ^ a b Ezergailis, Andrievs (1999). Holokausts vācu okupētajā Latvijā 1941–1944 (in Latvian). Riga: Latvijas vēstures institūta apgāds. pp. 222, 230. ISBN 9984601021. OCLC 44502624. Also available in English as: Andrew Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, 1941–1944: The Missing Center (1996), ISBN 9984-9054-3-8.
  3. ^ Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at page 267, n.55
  4. ^ The Murder of the Jews in Latvia, at page 46
  5. ^ Kuenzle, Anton (2004). The Execution of the Hangman of Riga: The Only Execution of a Nazi War Criminal by the Mossad. London: Vallentine Mitchell. ISBN 0853035253. OCLC 53389986. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Simon Wiesenthal Center
  7. ^ Press, The Murder of the Jews of Latvia, at pages 69 to 70.
  8. ^ Künzle and Shimron, The Execution of the Hangman of Riga, at page 127.
  9. ^ Lumans, Latvia in World War II, at page 240.
  10. ^ Eksteins, Walking Since Daybreak, at page 150.
  11. ^ Michelson, Max, City of Life, City of Death, at 103.
  12. ^ http://www.mfa.gov.lv/en/news/Newsletters/CurrentLatvia/2004/October/576/

References

  • Angrick, Angrej, and Klein, Peter, The "Final Solution" in Riga: Exploitation and Annihilation, 1941-1944, Berghahn Books, 2009 ISBN 978-1845456085; originally published as Template:De icon Die „Endlösung“ in Riga., Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-19149-8
  • Ezergailis, Andrew, The Holocaust in Latvia 1941-1944—The Missing Center, Historical Institute of Latvia (in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) Riga 1996 ISBN 9984-9054-3-8
  • Goñi, Uki, ODESSA—Smuggling the Nazis to Perón's Argentina, Granta, New York 2002 ISBN 1-86207-522-2
  • Kaufmann, Max, Die Vernichtung des Judens Lettlands (The Destruction of the Jews of Latvia), Munich, 1947, English translation by Laimdota Mazzarins available on-line as Churbn Lettland -- The Destruction of the Jews of Latvia (all references in this article are to page numbers in the on-line edition)
  • Künzle, Anton, Shimron, Gad, and Massad, Uriel, The Execution of the Hangman of Riga: the Only Execution of a Nazi War by the Mossad, Mitchell, Valentine & Co., 2004 ISBN 0853035253
  • Michelson, Max, City of Life, City of Death: Memories of Riga, University Press of Colorado (2001) ISBN 978-0870816420
  • Press, Bernard, The Murder of the Jews in Latvia, Northwestern University Press, 2000 ISBN 0810117290
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