A Latvian court on Tuesday ruled to allow a public commemoration for the day in 1941 when Nazi troops entered the Latvian capital of Riga and expelled the occupying Soviet Red Army.
The Administrative District Court overturned a Riga municipal ban on the event scheduled for Thursday at the central Freedom Monument, a move that has embarrassed the government ahead of a scheduled July 4 visit by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and Foreign Minister Aivars Ronis released a joint statement that they were “puzzled and upset” by the court’s decision.
“Hitler and Stalin’s propaganda and beliefs are degrading to our people and country. The Latvian government respects the human rights guaranteed by the constitution and the court’s independence, but freedom of expression can not relate to Nazi propaganda,” the statement reads.
Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem also criticized the decision, calling for “saner minds” to prevail in Riga to end “this outrage from taking place.”
“To celebrate the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Riga on July 1 is to celebrate the mass murder of all those victimized by the Nazis in Latvia -- primarily Jews, but also Communists, Gypsies and the mentally ill,” Zuroff said in a statement.
July 1, 1941 was the day Nazi forces attacked Latvian territory, which had been annexed by the Soviet Union as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. During the Soviet occupation, tens of thousands of Latvians were shipped to Siberia, prompting celebration of the Nazi arrival in Riga.
When the Germans entered Riga, nearly 40,000 Jews lived in the city. Shortly after their arrival, the Nazis tried to incite Latvian nationalists to attack Jews. By July 21 the Jews were forced into a ghetto. Thirty-five days after they established the Riga ghetto, the Nazis forced 24,000 of its inhabitants to march to the nearby Rumbula forest why they were shot and killed.
The day has never been publicly commemorated in the country at either official or private functions, Latvian news agency LETA reported. Interior minister Linda Mūrniece said police would be present for Thursday’s event and that no violence is expected.
