After a day-long cross-examination of the veteran, one of the commissioners told me that the veteran had been falsely accused. In fact, the commission did not summon any other Estonian for further investigation.
The Canadian media in the 1980s frequently made references to “Nazi” Baltic WWII veterans. Often, these accusations were based on disinformation supplied by the KGB and sent to naive recipients ignorant of the facts.
Imants Lešinskis, the ex-chair of the Latvian version of VEKSA, defected to the US in the 1980s. He related how as a novice KGB officer he was assigned to research the backgrounds of any Latvian activist in America involved in “freedom fighting”. He was to supply falsified, documented evidence about their Nazi involvement, thus destroy their credibility in opposing Soviet rule.
In a similar fashion, Andrus Roolaht (alias Rein Kordes) was the author of multiple booklets and pamphlets badmouthing Estonian anti-Soviet activists in the West. In our community in Canada, the late Enn Salurand, Harry Pärkma, Ilmar Heinsoo, and others were targeted, all falsely implicated with Nazism, obviously implying anti-Semitism.
Become a subscriber to continue reading!
Every week we bring you news from the community and exclusive columns. We're relying on your support to keep going and invite you to subscribe.
Starting from $2.30 per week.
