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01:32Though they didn't actually pull the triggers, it was Latvians who did the rounding up, the stripping, the marching of the Jews to their deaths, and the kicking of them into their graves.
01:44Led by this man, Victor's Arras, the Arras commando were responsible for many more atrocities during the war.
01:55We can directly attribute approximately 26,000 deaths directly to the Arras commando.
02:03But what drove Victor's Arras and his men to kill their own people?
02:09Were they coerced, deluded by the Nazis?
02:13Or were they just plain evil?
02:18This is the uncomfortable truth about Latvia's most brutal and vicious Nazi collaborators.
02:23Latvia had been part of the Russian Empire for almost 200 years.
02:43But in 1918, its people were set free.
02:49The proud new independent Latvia wore its heart on its sleeve.
02:54Its people were deeply nationalistic and fiercely protective of their newfound freedom.
02:58In 1934, former Prime Minister Carles Ulmanis, inspired by Mussolini, portrayed himself as the great protector of Latvia's independence.
03:17In May, he garnered the support of the Latvian army and marched on the capital, Riga.
03:30In a bloodless coup, Ulmanis took control of the country and declared himself president.
03:40One who shared that passion was 24-year-old Victor's Arras,
03:46the son of a blacksmith.
03:49He'd left university and joined the Latvian police in support of the new regime.
03:58Ulmanis was immensely popular, and the country flourished under him.
04:03But beneath the populist wrapping was a repressive government.
04:11Censorship was key to the Ulmanis dogma,
04:13so the press was gagged,
04:15and political parties banned.
04:18Though Latvia was certainly not anti-Semitic.
04:20By the 1930s, Jews and other minorities had been stripped of their human rights,
04:35persecuted, and imprisoned in Nazi Germany.
04:40Most had no option but to put up and shut up.
04:44Some preferred to leave.
04:47The only problem was that the rest of Europe was unwilling to take them.
05:03Latvia was the exception.
05:06It became a safe haven for the Jews and other minorities fleeing Nazi Germany.
05:11But in their new home, under a strict news blackout,
05:17they had no newspapers or radio and almost no idea that a war had started.
05:24The Jewish population had reached about 90,000,
05:27when in 1940, Latvia's world fell apart.
05:31Latvia had been free of the Soviet Union for just 22 years.
05:41Now their former oppressors, who had ruled them for 200 years, were back.
05:52Stalin had cut a deal with Hitler to carve up Eastern Europe.
05:56Hitler got most of Poland.
05:58Stalin got the Baltic states, including Latvia.
06:04For people like Viktor Zaraz, it was a catastrophe.
06:11The occupiers swiftly imposed a regime of terror.
06:14Over 35,000 Latvians were deported to work in Soviet labor camps known as gulags.
06:22They were the lucky ones.
06:26Thousands more were murdered and buried in mass graves.
06:29But less than a year after their historic deal,
06:43Hitler double-crossed Stalin.
06:47Germany declared war on the Soviet Union.
06:50And on the 22nd of June 1941, invaded.
06:53The Baltic states, including Latvia, stood between Hitler's armies and Moscow.
07:06The Germans crossed the Lithuanian border and with lightning speed reached Latvia's frontier the next day.
07:12They reached Riga, the capital, by the end of the same week.
07:29What little pro-Soviet resistance there was, put up a stern fight,
07:34but there were no match for the strength or size of the German army,
07:38and were soon overwhelmed.
07:40As the German army entered Riga on the 1st of July,
07:57they were greeted by delirious crowds,
07:59free at last from the brutality of the Soviet regime.
08:03Rather than being detested as invaders,
08:06the Germans were welcomed as liberators.
08:09Even Jews waved their red and white Latvian flags.
08:14Among them, the Latvian Jewish Vestamanis family.
08:17They would soon discover the Nazis' real intentions.
08:20Well, the Lightning, who were injured, who were ahead to the LACs,
08:27it was, of course, the Apsvetes, the Thou-Temps.
08:29RÄ«gas radio station, radiofona station, which was close to CÄ«Åu dienÄs at RÄ«gu,
08:39a little bit of life.
08:42He sang the Latvijas valsts hymne,
08:46and Latvijas diktors latviski
08:49I used radio-clausÄ«tÄjus,
08:55to go to the VÄcu armiju,
08:59the people who were coming from the JÅ«ga,
09:04and they ended up with other soldiers and communists.
09:10That's why we are looking for a big tragedy.
09:19Among the invasion forces was Walter Starlecker, a former civil servant.
09:28He reported directly to Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS.
09:40Starlecker's men began spreading rumours that all Latvian Jews were communists,
09:45and it was they who were responsible for the atrocities during Soviet occupation.
09:49They even disinterred corpses of victims of the communists and accused the Jews of their death.
10:00The very first edition of the Nazi newspaper Tavia wrote,
10:06The Jewish-led Bolsheviks are thieves and murderers.
10:20Those words were seen by the 31-year-old Latvian police officer, Victor Zaraas.
10:26Zaraas had been at school with Walter Starlecker's official translator,
10:30and saw an opportunity to further his career.
10:33I think Aras was personally a very ambitious man.
10:38He sought to align himself with existing power structures.
10:44We saw this in wanting to be a police officer in Riga, in a special unit,
10:49joining prestigious student fraternity,
10:52and in the early days of July, most faithfully, aligning himself with the Nazis.
10:56Starlecker saw Aras as a willing collaborator and asked him to form an auxiliary police group
11:05to help his men round up Jews.
11:07Within days, an advert appeared in the newspaper Tavia.
11:15Calling all patriotic Latvians, students, officers, militiamen and citizens
11:21who are ready to actively take part in the cleansing of our country of undesirable elements.
11:27The group was even named after Victor Zaraas.
11:32It was the Aras Commando.
11:35About a hundred applied.
11:37Among them, Herbert Sukas, a Latvian aviation pioneer.
11:42He became Aras' right-hand man.
11:49At the very start of the occupation, Riga and its people were calm.
11:54At the very start of the occupation, Riga and its people were calm.
12:24Soon, anti-Semitic propaganda appeared on the streets.
12:30Jews were required to display two yellow stars of David stitched to the front and back of their clothes.
12:41Then the Aras Commando's reign of terror began.
12:43All telephone lines were cut.
12:50And the Aras Commando went on the rampage in downtown Riga.
12:56And the night, and they were apparently
13:15the Jewish people, the Jewish people,
13:18and the police,
13:20and the Jewish people,
13:22and the Jewish people,
13:24and the Jewish people,
13:26and the Jewish people,
13:28and the Jewish people.
13:37The Aras Commando stirred up anti-Jewish riots, pogroms.
13:41Almost all places of Jewish worship were ransacked.
13:45On the 4th of July, the Aras Commando slammed shut the doors of the Great Choral Synagogue on Gogol Street,
13:56and set the building alight.
14:08This is all that remains of the synagogue today.
14:11Some reported that Jews were herded into the building beforehand,
14:16others that the synagogue was full of Lithuanian refugees.
14:25Eyewitnesses placed Victor Zaras and Herbert Sukas personally at the scene.
14:30There were 300 inside.
14:33All perished in the flames.
14:40While Riga burned,
14:41the next target was to eliminate Jews in the rest of the country.
14:45Lepaia, Latvia's second largest port, was a cosmopolitan city with a vibrant Jewish community.
15:01The German army were followed into the city by a squad of Walter Starlecker's men, an Einsatzgruppe.
15:06There were four such squads spread over Eastern Europe.
15:12Their task? To eradicate all enemies of Germany.
15:16Einsatzgruppe A was assigned to the Baltic states.
15:25It was considered the most murderous.
15:31They immediately began interrogating Lepaia citizens and randomly shooting Jews on the street.
15:36A week later, Walter Starlecker ordered them to speed up their killing.
15:42So they turned to Latvian collaborators, like the Aras Commando.
15:52On the 8th of July, those collaborators rounded up as many Jews as they could find,
15:57loaded them onto trucks and drove them to this beach where the Nazi hit squad was waiting.
16:03The German marbles were waiting.
16:09Reinhard Wiener, a German sailor, was on shore leave.
16:13He was a witness to what happened next.
16:15Reinhard Wiener was on shore leave.
16:18He was a witness to what happened next.
16:21There were German soldiers all around.
16:24First, I would have been in the second row of soldiers
16:27from about 50 meters from the grave.
16:36And he waited for something to happen.
16:43Wiener had with him a cine camera
16:45and began to film what he saw.
16:57The Jews were driven to the beach and guarded by Latvians.
17:27They were driven by the front and back,
17:29and they were driven by the back.
17:32But the unloading process was not the end
17:34of the Latvian guards' duties.
17:39And they were then caught up by the other people,
17:42and then they had to take a row
17:46and then they were then chased by the grave.
17:50And that was from the SS and the Latvian guard.
17:58Then they had to run into the grave
18:02and run around the grave until the end.
18:10Wiener then moved his camera closer to the trench.
18:13Wiener had to be on the back.
18:17Wiener mussten sich mit dem RĆ¼cken
18:18zum Executionskommando stellen.
18:19Also sie wussten ja moment,
18:20als sie den Graben gesehen haben,
18:21werden sie vielleicht gewusst haben,
18:22was mit ihnen geschieht.
18:24Und, Ƥh...
18:26Wiener auch gefĆ¼hlt haben,
18:27weil unten bereits eine Schicht Toter lag,
18:32und ich war auf die nur eine dĆ¼nne Sandschicht
18:34geschaufelt wurde.
18:35Das Executionskommando stand von hinten,
18:37und dann bekam das Executionskommando
18:40den Befehl nach vorne,
18:42and then the attack.
18:56They were shot by the way.
19:02I had the impression that they were shot only because they were Jews.
19:12It is thought up to 300 were killed on this day, but Starleka was far from satisfied.
19:27Over the next few days, 900 more were shot.
19:32It was the first sign that Latvians, like the Aras Commander,
19:35were willing not just to collaborate with the Nazis,
19:38but also to participate in the mass extermination of the Jews.
19:47With this phase of the operation complete, attention returned to Riga.
19:52While it looks like any quiet, clean suburb of Riga, these streets once formed the boundary of what was the Riga Ghetto of 1941.
20:08Just as in Poland and other Nazi-occupied countries, Latvian Jews were relocated into a ghetto.
20:22Concentrating Jews in city ghettos like this granted the Nazis more time to work out exactly how they were going to kill them.
20:28The Moscow quarter, on the banks of the river Daugava, was an area of 16 blocks and was chosen for its poor housing and sanitation.
20:45On the 23rd of October, the Jews of Riga were ordered to leave their homes and report for transfer to the ghetto.
20:55The empty homes left behind by the Jews were ransacked.
20:56First by the Nazis to send goods and furniture back to Germany.
20:58And then by the Latvian police as payment.
20:59The empty homes left behind by the Jews were ransacked,
21:05first by the Nazis to send goods and furniture back to Germany.
21:12The empty homes left behind by the Jews were ransacked,
21:20first by the Nazis to send goods and furniture back to Germany,
21:24and then by the Latvian police as payment for their collaboration.
21:28When the ghetto was sealed in mid-October 1941,
21:32there were almost 30,000 inside.
21:36The perimeter was secured with barbed wire,
21:40and guarded by Latvian police.
21:44Anyone who approached the wire was shot.
21:48Riga's Jews were now exactly where the Nazis wanted them.
21:55Inside the ghetto,
21:57they were hounded constantly by the likes of the Aras Commando,
22:01who would beat the Jews by day and steal from them by night.
22:05Meagre rations left the Jews feeling desperately hungry.
22:09Well, that commitment was already easy.
22:12Well, even the Latvian police were very small,
22:17but here there was still a half.
22:21Well, there was some wood there.
22:24There was 150 grams a day.
22:27There were more than 20 grams a day.
22:29A guy with the
22:53But after just five weeks in the ghetto,
23:02before dawn on the 30th of November,
23:05hundreds of drunken Aras commando kicked down the ghetto gate
23:08and stormed inside.
23:13They barged into the ghetto at 4 a.m.
23:16and began hauling people out onto the street
23:19and setting them in columns of 1,000 people each
23:23and the Jews were told that they were being relocated for labour.
23:30In the initial terrifying storming of the ghetto,
23:34a thousand Jews died.
23:39And sometimes those who tried to walk in the village,
23:44they would walk in the village, or just walk in the village.
23:49And people tried to walk in the village,
23:51where people were trying to go and begin.
23:53They had a lot of people out there.
23:57And we were born in the village,
23:58and we had to go,
23:59while we were coming there,
24:00they were a lot of people out there,
24:01and we were being here.
24:02They were coming.
24:03Yes, the first time, the person knows the sugar, and for a half a day, the person starts to live.
24:17And from the river, there are tens and tens of men, young people.
24:2612,000 were now escorted out of the ghetto by German soldiers and Latvian police.
24:36At first, it wasn't clear what had become of them.
24:40But rumours spread fast that the Nazis had murdered everyone.
24:46But we didn't get to it.
24:50VÄcieÅ”i also tried to get this desire.
24:56We were able to write it in a way.
25:02It was written by Abram, Haim.
25:05I don't know where it was.
25:08We were able to write it in a way.
25:10When we were in Salaspili, there was a fire,
25:17and the young people were looking at their children.
25:26The 12,000 had been marched out of the ghetto,
25:29but they had not been taken to concentration camps.
25:33In fact, they had been handed over to this man,
25:36Lieutenant General Friedrich Jeckelne.
25:40Jeckelne had developed a system for packing bodies in mass graves
25:48by lining them up like sardines in a tin before being shot.
25:53He called it sardine packing.
25:56Jeckelne had perfected his system at a place called Baba Yaa,
26:01where he'd sardine-packed 33,000 Jews.
26:06He'd been summoned to Berlin where Heinrich Himmler,
26:09chief architect of the Holocaust,
26:12had commanded him to rid the Baltic states of every Jew.
26:17The 12,000 Jews of the Riga ghetto had been sardine-packed.
26:21Jekkelne had travelled to Latvia to plan the crime meticulously.
26:34First, he'd found the location, Rumbula,
26:38a forest 10 kilometres from the ghetto.
26:41It was close to the main road out of the city and had loose, sandy soil.
26:48He had three pits dug by Russian prisoners of war,
27:02and he'd hand-picked a murderous gang of Germans.
27:06There were just 12.
27:08He knew them all personally and included his driver and his bodyguard.
27:14But how could just 12 men murder thousands of Jews?
27:18Jeckelne would need help with the logistics.
27:22So he chose Viktor's Aras, Herbert's Sukers, and the Aras Commando.
27:28The participation of a large number of Latvian auxiliaries
27:31was necessary to carry it off.
27:34That can't be denied.
27:35The Germans didn't have the manpower to do it by themselves.
27:40The Aras Commando's ranks had now swollen to over 1,000.
27:44Students, builders, policemen, even one accountant,
27:49had volunteered to join the gang.
27:52Most were under 30 years old.
27:54Some were anti-communist, some anti-Semitic.
27:58Others were attracted by the excellent wages.
28:03Now they were to become collaborators in the most heinous of war crimes.
28:09The round-up in the ghetto was still fresh in everyone's minds.
28:14And the Vestamanis family, since the time was running out.
28:21At the evening, we saw the army in the village.
28:25The army in the village, and the village, and the village.
28:33And the village.
28:36The army was still alive.
28:39The army was still alive.
28:41The army was still alive.
28:43We had to go to the rest of the country.
28:48My mother said, no, no, we had to go to the country.
28:55I had to go to the country.
28:58I knew that nothing was going to happen.
29:03My mother said, no, no, no, no.
29:09My mother said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
29:26Any thoughts that the friends they'd seen taken from the ghetto were still alive
29:31were banished a week later.
29:34Because on the 8th of December, 1941, the Aras Commando came back.
29:40Once again, Jews were lined up in columns of a thousand,
29:43including this time the mother, sister and older brother of Magus Vestamanis.
29:50The Aras Commando then marched them out of the city.
29:55They served in the indispensable role of providing the cordon.
29:59In other words, clear the ghetto out, get the Jews set on their march towards Rumbula,
30:07make sure they don't escape.
30:09That is an absolutely vital, crucial, pivotal role.
30:14Without them, it couldn't have been carried off.
30:17As the columns reached Rumbula, even more Aras Commando, drunk on vodka,
30:26forced the Jews to strip and abandon their luggage.
30:30They then kicked them and punched them towards the trenches.
30:36The 12 German marksmen worked in shifts.
30:42Roughly 16 were killed every minute.
30:47While Yechelm gave orders from the head of the trenches,
30:50the Aras Commando organized the huge conveyor belt of victims.
30:5512,000 had been killed on the first day.
30:59This time, there were even more.
31:03A survivor later testified how a woman begged Victor's Aras for mercy,
31:08only to be told,
31:10today, Jewish blood must flow.
31:14No photographs or film was ever taken of this event.
31:19But the Rumbula stationmaster heard everything
31:23and later testified that the shooting finally stopped
31:27at a quarter to eight in the evening.
31:31Known as Bloody Sunday,
31:33it was the second largest single massacre of Jews in World War II.
31:39Over the course of two days,
31:42over 24,000 were killed and sardine packed,
31:47including the mother, sister and older brother of Magus Vestamanis.
31:54It took only 12 of Yechelm's men to shoot them,
31:58yet it required 1,500 Aras Commando
32:01to lead them to the killing grounds and stand guard.
32:05Magus Vestamanis and his father were spared,
32:09because they were deemed fit for work.
32:11But it was stark consolation.
32:14My father was unaware of atheism and vulgomorphism related to escape synopsis,
32:21because of the Polish inhabitants.
32:22Magus Vestamanis and the pros & hiasis Nagu in untuk 625.
32:27My descendants came when it wasburnt by the refugees.
32:29After that,
32:31I was Memorians up to 47.
32:32The six people of Vestamanis work without going close out.
32:33And my grandchildren were held together ā
32:34and their wives began all over the last
32:42But Jekylln and the Arras commando didn't stop at Riga.
32:50They turned their attention back to Lippaia.
32:56A ghetto had also been established there in June 1941.
33:01Now, on the 13th of December, the Arras commando began another roundup of Jews,
33:06locking them in the women's prison.
33:08The next day, they were marched to an old military training ground north of Lippaia,
33:15here at Schiedia, where more trenches had been dug.
33:20Some German soldiers had travelled especially to witness this festival of killing.
33:28This series of photographs were taken by an SS officer.
33:33Groups of Jews were manhandled towards the trenches,
33:37where they were ordered to strip by the Arras commando and Latvian police.
33:42Once naked, they were forced to the edge of the pits, where they were shot,
33:47this time by one of three units,
33:49one of Germans, one of Arras commando, and one of Latvian police.
33:55Any that did not fall into the trench were pushed down by so-called kickers.
34:01Each trench was then covered.
34:12In three days, over 2,700 Jews were killed.
34:17The outlines of the trenches are still visible today.
34:24Lippaia had been cleansed.
34:26Now, almost empty itself, the Riga ghetto was refilled with Jews from Germany.
34:39The ghetto had been divided with the surviving Latvian Jews living in one small corner.
34:43Lippa is not made of the
34:56David probably if the production of Clos pulled.
34:59Yes,
35:00it is not made of the process.
35:02Sale pur to live as a
35:03the Jewish pegar.
35:05As I professionals were done,
35:07the undergrowth of these years,
35:08I don't have any transport, which I don't have any transport.
35:15Each time the ghetto became overcrowded,
35:18it was cleared out by the Aras Commando.
35:22On the 15th of March 1942,
35:251900 German Jews were asked to volunteer for transfer
35:29to a fish canning factory.
35:32It was a joke that would have appealed to Friedrich Jeckeln,
35:36a sardine packer.
35:41The Jews were loaded into Aras Commando trucks,
35:44driven here to the nearby Bikerniecki forest, and shot.
35:49The next day, over 1,800 more Jews were transported
35:52from the nearby JĆ¼ngerhof concentration camp to the forest
35:56to join the dead from the Riga ghetto.
35:59With the help of the Aras Commando,
36:05the Nazis were hitting their targets in Latvia,
36:08and Walter Starlecker kept meticulous records.
36:11He drew up this map and sent it to Berlin to satisfy them
36:15he was following orders.
36:17It was called the coffin map.
36:23The number of dead in Latvia now stood at 35,238.
36:29The total number killed so far by the Nazis in the Baltic state as a whole
36:33was almost 200,000.
36:35But across Europe, the Nazis were dissatisfied with the rate of killing.
36:44This document revealed the numbers of Jews in Europe still to be exterminated.
36:49So the Nazis changed their murderous strategy.
36:53They built death camps in Poland, where all the Jews of Europe could be brought
37:02and gassed in massive numbers.
37:07There was no longer a need for ghettos.
37:10Their occupants were loaded onto trains and taken to the death camps.
37:14At the beginning of the German occupation, there were roughly 90,000 Jews in Latvia.
37:27Just over a year later, only a few thousand remained.
37:33With no more Jews to kill, the Aras Commando became redundant.
37:37According to war crimes records, their numbers plummeted to 50 or 60.
37:46But for this loyal, hardcore group, there was more work to be done.
37:50On the Eastern Front, the German army was driving deep inside the Soviet Union.
38:08But for all their success, the Germans faced a new threat.
38:11It came from attacks from partisans, militiamen who sabotaged supply lines and ambushed German soldiers.
38:26These Russian villagers, men and women, I and children too,
38:30fought an organised battle of wits, knowing well the certain penalty if caught, death.
38:35The Nazis now sought help from a gang of men who were experienced at rooting out enemies of the state and executing them.
38:48The Aras Commando.
38:50The mission of the Aras Commando changed to one of conducting anti-partisan operations.
38:56You could almost regard this as a euphemism for conducting reprisal actions.
39:03The Aras Commando were posted to Belarus with a very clear mission.
39:10Anywhere a German supply convoy or train had been blown up or derailed,
39:17or German troops, you know, coming up to reinforce the front had been shot at,
39:21the Aras Commando would go in and kill everyone in the nearest village and burn it down.
39:27But the Nazis didn't just need thugs, they also needed soldiers, men to reinforce the Eastern Front.
39:37So they formed the Latvian Legion.
39:44Despite the propaganda, most Latvians had to be press ganged into the Legion.
39:49But not the Aras Commando who, still led by Victor Zaras, volunteered and spearheaded one of the Legion's two divisions.
39:59Loyalty was cemented by the promise of a brighter future.
40:02The men were told, you are fighting for a renewal of Latvian independence.
40:09You are fighting for freedom for your native Latvia.
40:13And after the victory of the Germans, it will become an independent state.
40:17The two divisions were given different objectives.
40:22One part of the Latvian Legion remained in Latvia and the other part of the Legion was transferred to Germany to re-arm and re-equip and then be tossed back at the front.
40:39As a reward for their service, the Aras Commando was spared the horrors of the Eastern Front and remained in Latvia.
40:45But the tide of the war was turning against Germany.
40:58By the autumn of 1944, the Red Army was retaking the ground it had lost to the Germans.
41:07Now in retreat, the noose was tightening around the Nazis' necks.
41:15On the 13th of October 1944, the Soviet army recaptured Ria.
41:33In the north of Latvia, the Latvian Legion with the Aras Commando fought the Soviets for over six months.
41:40But to no avail.
41:42Because further south, the Red Army made rapid progress into Germany and reached Berlin on the 20th of April 1945.
41:51The Third Reich's days were over.
41:52The Third Reich's days were over.
41:56Facing Air Chief Marshal Tedder and Marshal Zhukov is a conquered German general.
41:57Only when Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the German surrender in Berlin on the 9th of May 1945,
42:01did the Latvian Legion lay down its arms.
42:16conquered German general only when Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the
42:23German surrender in Berlin on the 9th of May 1945 to the Latvian Legion lay down
42:29its arms at the end of the war partisans emerge from their hideouts and conducted
42:39reprisals against collaborators all across the Baltic states
42:46they would have been targets too but Herbert Suckers and Victor's Aras were nowhere to be found
42:57in fact Victor's Aras had managed to escape to Copenhagen which by then had been liberated by
43:04the British Aras now burned his papers changed into civilian clothing and surrendered to the
43:13Allied Army claiming to be just an ordinary soldier but while in a prisoner of war camp he was
43:25recognized by other Latvians and sent to a camp in Germany for former SS members a warrant for his
43:34arrest was duly issued by the court in Hamburg but somehow Aras had executed a baffling escape and was
43:41simply nowhere to be found in the camp when troops came to serve the warrant a hunt for Aras was
43:51launched rumors spread that he had escaped to South America or that he had even been recruited by British
43:57intelligence in fact cloaked beneath the chaos of post-war Germany he'd simply melted away
44:06and what of Aras is trusted henchmen Herbert Suckers known as the butcher of Riga Suckers somehow found his way to
44:17Brazil in 1946 he settled in Sao Paulo and started a business running tourist flights and boat trips
44:29there he remained undiscovered for almost 20 years his flying business was doing well and in 1965 Suckers took
44:39a telephone call from a new customer an Austrian businessman who requested a short sightseeing flight
44:46Suckers had no idea that Anton Kunzler his customer was not who he said he was but an agent in the Israeli
44:55secret service Mossad Kunzler arranged a meeting with Suckers at the marina where his boat was moored
45:04Suckers was very suspicious all the time told him I can take you for a flight around the Sao Paulo and
45:15see what's going on and he said okay and they went for a short flight and after this Suckers was
45:24enough impressed by by Anton Kunzler's hints that he's a businessman and he's looking for for investors
45:32and he's looking for partners etc he invited him to have a drink on his small boat and from this
45:39moment on Suckers started eating the bait that Kunzler gave him after gaining Suckers trust Kunzler
45:48lured his prey to the city of Montevideo in Uruguay waiting at a suburban house were other members of the
46:01Mossad team the plan was to restrain Suckers hold a brief trial then kill him but they hadn't counted
46:13on Suckers will to live they were equipped with a gun with a silencer a handgun with a silencer which at
46:25the beginning didn't work so the struggle was real really physical struggle you know as far as I
46:31understand there was also a very heavy five kilo hammer involved in it he said something in German
46:39last mission let me let me talk let me talk but then the gun with a silencer came back to action and they
46:50shot him twice in the head
47:03eleven days later police entered the house inside the body had been left in a trunk on top was a
47:12folder it contained a note that said Suckers had been condemned to death by those who will never forget
47:19Suckers assassination remains the only state-sponsored murder ever admitted to by Israel
47:30ten years later the hunt for Victor's Aras sprang back to life in 1975 German police were told that
47:43Aras had been found and assassinated by Soviet hit squad the case was reopened because this seemed like
47:52definitely something that needed to be looked into first off it involved a murder second of all second
47:57of all it had international espionage implications in fact Aras was found alive and well and living in the
48:10German city of Frankfurt prosecutors easily located Aras very shortly thereafter living under the laughably
48:20transparent alias of his own first name and his wife's maiden name in what they called in in in the
48:30police documents a tumble-down attic apartment in Frankfurt where he had been working as apprentice printer
48:37menial menial menial job in in Frankfurt for for 20 years after a four-and-a-half-year trial in which
48:46Aras initially would not speak and persistently claimed ill health he was convicted of participating in the
48:53murder of at least 13,000 Jews he was sentenced to life imprisonment but served just nine years in Germany's
49:03castle prison before collapsing and dying from heart failure age 78
49:09the case of Latvia's worst Nazi collaborator was closed
49:16today Latvia is still coming to terms with its past
49:32in 1935 the Jewish population of Latvia had been just over 90,000 by the end of 1941 75 percent had been
49:47exterminated but before German occupation the Latvian people had not been known to be anti-semitic to change
49:56the Latvian's view of Jews in their country it took an extremely effective coordinated and concerted barrage of Nazi propaganda
50:05it worked on a people who are already fiercely nationalistic they were deceived into believing that
50:14the Jews had collaborated with their worst enemy the Soviets and had participated in mass murder
50:21Victor Zara's and his thuggish gang succumbed easily to this propaganda but were also attracted by the violence and the prospect of easy money and endless vodka
50:36and endless vodka
50:37as a token of reconciliation memorials to the Holocaust have been built at Lepaia
50:43Rumbula Bika Njeki and the Riga ghetto
50:51and the Riga ghetto
50:54But these memorials are hidden away and not well publicized they've also been desecrated
51:01More disturbingly groups like the Fatherland and Freedom Party still gather up a lot ofaudience
51:18in the past few years
51:19And these memorials are hidden away and not well publicized. They've also been desecrated
51:22They've also been desecrated.
51:26More disturbingly, groups like the Fatherland and Freedom Party
51:30still gather on Latvia Day each year
51:33to pay homage to those who fought alongside the Nazis,
51:38including the Aras Commando.
51:43The Holocaust in Latvia is still often denied
51:46and until recently was not even taught in schools.
51:50Latvia has come a long way since the dark days of World War II,
51:53but it still has far to go to fully accept its role in the Holocaust.
52:19Transcription by CastingWords
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