Police in Latvia arrested a man participating in a pro-Nazi march on Friday morning because he was carrying a poster with an image of soldiers killing Jews.

The annual Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires brings together veterans of two divisions of the World War II-era German Waffen-SS, which was the armed wing of the Nazi Party's SS, or Schutzstaffel, which literally means "protection squadron." The 1946 Nuremberg Tribunal determined that the elite Nazi security force was a criminal organization, but the Latvian Legion—part of the SS—continues to march each year together with hundreds of its supporters. It is the only public event in Europe that honors former Nazis.

gabester wrote:
Interesting. I had never heard of this before, but it is certainly astonishing that this is celebrated anywhere in the world.

Speedy wrote:
[quote=gabester]
Interesting. I had never heard of this before, but it is certainly astonishing that this is celebrated anywhere in the world.

about 25,000 Jews were killed in or on the way to Rumbula forest near Riga, Latvia, during the Holocaust. Except for the Babi Yar massacre in Ukraine, this was the biggest two-day Holocaust atrocity until the operation of the death camps.About 24,000 of the victims were Latvian Jews from the Riga Ghetto and approximately 1,000 were German Jews transported to the forest by train. The Rumbula massacre was carried out by the Nazi Einsatzgruppe A with the help of local collaborators of the Arajs Kommando, with support from other such Latvian auxiliaries. In charge of the operation was Höherer SS und Polizeiführer Friedrich Jeckeln, who had previously overseen similar massacres in Ukraine. Rudolf Lange, who later participated in the Wannsee Conference, also took part in organising the massacre. Some of the accusations against Latvian Herberts Cukurs are related to the clearing of the Riga Ghetto by the Arajs Kommando.

Speedy wrote:
It's unclear how many actual WW II Nazis marched. I doubt if it was many....