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Original Articles

Why the Holocaust Does Not Matter to Estonians

Pages 475-497 | Published online: 12 Dec 2008
 

Notes

Notes

1. The facts are derived from my forthcoming book, Murder Without Hatred: Estonians and the Holocaust (Syracuse University Press).

2. Eight Jews were deported to Estonia from Finland in November 1942, but none of these held Finnish citizenship. Upon arrival, all of them were executed.

3. Männil was one of several deserters from the Red Army hidden by a Jewish woman, Miriam Lepp, in the summer of 1941. She was executed on 13 July 1942. One can only speculate whether Männil as a policeman was aware of her arrest and whether he did anything to save her from death.

4. See, for example: Lepassalu (Citation1998, pp. 1–2); Kaldre (Citation1998, pp. 1–7); Jõgeda (Citation2000). Laar wrote that Tallinn Police Prefect Evald Mikson was not guilty (Miksonil ei ole süüd). In December 1941 the German Security Police arrested Mikson on charges of torturing prisoners and misappropriating their valuables. He was not released until two years later. The Estonian State Archives in Tallinn contain several documents from August and September 1941 with Mikson's signature authorizing the execution of individual Jews.

5. Weiss-Wendt (Citation1997, pp. 53–5); Levin (Citation1997, pp. 297–300); Weiss-Wendt (Citation1998, pp. 193–95).

6. See the exchange between A. Weiss-Wendt and T. Hiio in Vikerkaar (Weiss-Wendt & Hiio Citation2001).

7. A. Jaarma, ‘Nõukogude okupatsiooni poolt 1940–1950-ndail aastail Eestis toime pandud sõja- ja inimsusevastaste kuritegude uurimine ja inimsusevastaste kuritegude eest vastutusele võtmine’, lecture delivered at the Estonian National Library in Tallinn on 24 April 2001.

8. See Kott's book review in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2007, p. 323). Eva-Clarita Onken, who evaluated the volume as part of a recent review article in Journal of Baltic Studies, is also pessimistic about its ability to encourage debate and critical reflection (Onken Citation2007, p. 112).

9. See Kaplinski's exposé, for example, in Vikerkaar (2001, pp. 214–19).

10. There were 19 such camps in Estonia (going from east to west): Narva, Narva-Jõesuu, Auvere, Putke, Vaivara, Viivikonna, Soska, Kuremäe, Jõhvi, Ereda, Kohtla, Saka, Kiviõli, Sonda, Aseri, Kunda, Jägala, Lagedi and Klooga. Jägala and Lagedi were not, strictly speaking, ‘labor camps’. Larger camps such as Viivikonna, Kiviõli and Ereda were effectively subdivided into two sections; hence the disparity in numbers of Jewish slave labor camps in Estonia as they appear in various accounts. In addition, the Germans operated five smaller camps in northwestern Russia, southern Estonia and northern Latvia, which were in existence for only a brief period.

11. Starting from the late 1980s Lipkin, who is not affiliated with the Jewish community, began mapping the former sites of Jewish slave labor camps at Viivikonna and Vaivara and interviewing farmers who had lived in the vicinity of the camps. The material thus collected has been published in a local newspaper and is available at a local museum.

12. Between 29 July and 18 September 1944, Lagedi was the site of a makeshift Jewish camp. The camp was located across from the train station and housed 2,050 Jewish prisoners from Ereda who were awaiting a further deportation to Stutthof concentration camp. On 18 September an estimated 426 Jews who had been previously transferred to Lagedi from Klooga were executed in a nearby forest.

13. Põhjarannik, 18 September 2004; Postimees, 10 September 2004.

14. The Round Table meeting on minority issues by the Estonian President (2002) minutes, 10 June, available at: http://vp2001-2006.vpk.ee/et/institutsioonid/ymarlaud.php?gid=24080, accessed 5 July 2007. This does not imply that ethnic Russians on the whole are less prone to anti-Semitism than Estonians. In March 2004, two individuals were detained in Sillamäe – a city with a predominantly Russian-speaking population – for painting anti-Semitic slogans and swastikas on the walls of a building.

15. Põhjarannik, 18 September 2004. Schnabel had been part of the Nazi camp administration since 1934, first at Sulza in Thuringia and then at Buchenwald. Many Holocaust survivors have identified Schnabel as the individual who had carried out selections at Vaivara. He was implicated in homicide at Viivikonna and Narva camps and oversaw the liquidation of Ereda camp.

17. See organization website at: http://si.kongress.ee/. According to the website, the organization was founded in response to the parliament's decision to drop the territorial claims to Russia (based on the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920). The unilateral decision of the Estonian President to seek membership in the EU was cited as another unlawful act that warranted intervention.

18. Lina (Citation2003); Madisson (Citation2004, Citation2006). See also Lina's article in Eesti Aeg, 8 April 1992. In his first book Madisson blamed the Jews for masterminding both World Wars and the Bolshevik Revolution, financing Hitler, and planning a conspiracy to rule the world.

19. See, for example, Piirisild (Citation2006) and A. Savitsch's review on the website of the Independent Information Center, 1 August 2007, available at: http://si.kongress.ee/?a=page&page=42e12d241a164247355b6&subpage=45016c51ddfee722755eb, accessed 1 August 2007.

20. ‘Statement by the President of the Estonian Jewish Community Mrs. Cilja Laud’, delivered on her behalf at the OSCE Conference on Anti-Semitism in Cordoba on 8 June 2005, available at: http://www.osce.org/documents/cio/2005/06/15052_en.pdf+Statement+by+the+President+of+the+Estonian+Jewish+Community+Mrs.+Cilja+Land%E2%80%90,&hl=no&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ee, accessed 30 July 2007.

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