Monument of Lihula

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Monument of Lihula, located in the cemetery of the small Estonian town of Lihula, was a monument depicting an Estonian soldier in a World War II uniform resembling German military uniform. It was originally unveiled in Pärnu on 2002, but taken down in only nine days after prime minister Siim Kallas had condemnded the statue. The statue was unveiled in Lihula on August 20, 2004, and taken down by the Estonian authorities on September 3, 2004.

The monument consists of a bronze bas-relief and a dedication tablet mounted on a vertical granite slab. The tablet reads: To Estonian men who fought in 1940-1945 against Bolshevism and for the restoration of Estonian independence.

Controversy

As the dedication included those who fought against Bolshevism in the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS, a number of organisations condemned it, most notably the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Most supporters of the monument, however, have clearly distanced themselves from the Nazi ideology. Ilmar Haaviste, head of the Association of Estonian Veterans, who fought on the German side, says he does not regret taking the German uniform, because there was a "naive" hope that somehow an independent Estonia could be salvaged. He thinks wearing a German uniform does not make you a fascist. That both regimes, Nazi and Soviet were equally evil - there was no difference between the two except that Stalin was more cunning. and view Estonians' serving in German army a as having been a necessary evil instead.

Status of the Baltic Legions

Main article: 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian)

The Nuremberg Trials, in declaring the Waffen SS a criminal organisation, explicitly excluded conscripts in the following terms:

Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter the group composed of those persons who had been officially accepted as members of the SS as enumerated in the preceding paragraph who became or remained members of the organisation with knowledge that it was being used for the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the Charter or who were personally implicated as members of the organisation in the commission of such crimes, excluding, however, those who were drafted into membership by the State in such a way as to give them no choice in the matter, and who had committed no such crimes.

In April 13, 1950, a message from the U.S. High Commission in Germany (HICOG), signed by John J. McCloy to the Secretary of State, clarified the US position on the "Baltic Legions": they were not to be seen as "movements", "volunteer", or "SS". In short, they were not given the training, indoctrination, and induction normally given to SS members. Subsequently the US Displaced Persons Commission in September 1950 declared that:

The Baltic Waffen SS Units (Baltic Legions) are to be considered as separate and distinct in purpose, ideology, activities, and qualifications for membership from the German SS, and therefore the Commission holds them not to be a movement hostile to the Government of the United States.

It should be noted, however, that McCloy, as Military Governor for the U.S. Zone in Germany (formally U.S. High Commissioner for Germany) in 1949-1952, at the onset on the Cold War, commuted the death sentences of a number of Nazi war criminals, and gave early releases to others. However, in the case of the Baltic Legions, McCloy did not refer to any pardoning, as he considered these organizations not inheritedly criminal in the first place.

Rumours of Nazi glorification

A number of rumours were circulated about the soldier depicted on the monument wearing Nazi symbolism, and thus constituting an attempt to glorify Nazism. As no such symbolism is currently on the bas-relief, sometimes the rumours have taken the form that these symbols were removed between the first and current installment. A semiotic analysis by professor Peeter Torop of University of Tartu, ordered by Lihula police department after the first installment concluded that no Nazi or SS symbolics whatsoever appear in the bas-relief. He pointed out the monument's slightly impolite composition but found no basis for the hypothesis that the installment of the monument would constitute an incitement of social hatred. (Under Estonian law, such incitement is a crime punishable by a fine or imprisonment of up to three years.) In any case, short of recasting, it would be very hard to modify a bronze-cast statue.

However, the rumours were picked up by some press. On May 22, 2004, the Jerusalem Post ran a story about the plans of some Estonian individuals to build a monument to the 20. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS. The false rumours led to Russia's chief Rabbi, Berl Lazar condemning installment of the monument, expressing concern it would breed anti-Semitism , as well as a formal protest from the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Moving the monument

In 2004, shortly after it was opened, Estonian Government, possibly due to pressure from the EU and the USA as well as other international organisations, opposed the unveiling of the monument, and ultimately ordered it to be removed.

The crane which arrived to remove the monument from Lihula could not enter the cemetery because of a crowd of protesting people. The Riot Police were called in, but as they arrived, locals started to throw stones at them and at the driver of the crane. After a fight between the crowd and the police, the people were driven back, and some policemen were treated for minor wounds in a hospital.

After the removal of the monument it was subsequently placed on October 15, 2005 on grounds of the privately owned Museum of Fight for Estonia's Freedom in Lagedi near Tallinn. As of June 2007, the monument has not been moved again.

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