The trials War crimes trials in Soviet Estonia

1 trials

1.1 accused
1.2 crimes
1.3 witnesses
1.4 verdict

the trials
the accused

ain-ervin mere, commander of estonian security police (group b of sicherheitspolizei) under estonian self-administration, tried in absentia. before trial active member of estonian community in england, contributing estonian language publications. @ time of trial held in captivity, accused of murder. never deported , died free man in england in 1969.
ralf gerrets, deputy commandant @ jägala concentration camp
jaan viik, (jan wijk, ian viik), guard @ jägala concentration camp singled out prosecution out of hundreds of estonian camp guards , police particular brutality. testified throwing small children air , shooting them. did not deny charge.
a fourth accused, aleksander laak, commandant of jägala concentration camp, discovered in canada committed suicide in 1960.

the crimes

while accused may have been involved in other crimes against humanity during german occupation of estonia, trial focused on events of september 1942. according testimony of survivors, @ least 2 transports 2,100–2,150 people, arrived @ railway station @ raasiku, 1 theresienstadt (terezin) czechoslovakian jews , 1 berlin german citizens. around 1,700–1,750 people, jews, not selected work @ jägala camp taken kalevi-liiva , shot.

transport 1.9.1942 theresienstadt arrived @ raasiku station on september 5, 1942, after five-day trip. according testimony 1 of accused, gerretts, 8 busloads of estonian auxiliary police had arrived tallinn. selection process supervised ain-ervin mere, chief of sicherheitspolizei in estonia; not selected slave labor sent bus execution site near camp. later police in teams of 6 8 men execute jews machine gun fire, on other hand, during later investigation guards of camp denied participation of police , said execution done camp personnel. on first day total of 900 people murdered in way. gerrets told had fired pistol @ victim still making noises in pile of bodies. whole operation directed obersturmführer heinrich bergmann , oberscharführer julius geese.

usually able bodied men selected work on oil shale mines in northeastern estonia. women, children, , old people executed on arrival. in case 1.9.1942 however, ones chosen labor , survive war small group of young women taken through concentration camps in estonia, poland , germany bergen- belsen, liberated. camp commandant laak used women sex slaves, killing @ least 1 refused comply.

according article published journal contemporary european history in 2001,

in 1942, transports of jews other countries arrived, , murder , incarceration in slave labour camps organised , supervised german , estonian officials (including mere , german head of a-iv). final acts of liquidating camps, such klooga, involved mass-shooting of 2,000 prisoners, committed estonians under german command, units of 20.ss-division , (presumably) schutzmannschaftsbataillon of kds. survivors report that, during period when jewish slave labourers visible, estonian population in part attempted jews providing food , on.

the estonian international commission investigation of crimes against humanity rests responsibility such crimes on 2.5–4 % of estonian omakaitse civil defence units , estonian security police.

witnesses

a number of foreign witnesses heard @ trial, including 5 women, had been transported on 1.9.1942 theresienstadt.

the verdict

the accused mere, gerrets , viik actively participated in crimes , mass killings perpetrated nazi invaders on territory of estonian ssr. in accordance fascist racial theory, sicherheitspolizei , sicherheitsdienst instructed exterminate jews , gypsies. end in august–september 1941 mere , collaborators set death camp @ jägala, 30 km tallinn. mere put aleksander laak in charge of camp; ralf gerrets appointed deputy. on 5 september 1942 train approximately 1,500 czechoslovak citizens arrived raasiku railway station. mere, laak , gerrets selected of them should executed , should moved jägala death camp. more 1,000 people, children, old, , infirm, translocated wasteland @ kalevi-liiva monstrously executed in special pit. in mid-september second troop train 1,500 prisoners arrived railway station germany. mere, laak, , gerrets selected thousand victims condemned them extermination. group of prisoners, included nursing women , new-born babies, transported kalevi-liiva killed. in march 1943 personnel of kalevi-liiva camp executed fifty gypsies, half of under 5 years of age. executed 60 gypsy children of school age...

quoted verdict passed on 11 march 1961, published in Немецко-фашистская оккупация в Эстонии. 1941–1944. tallinn, 1963. pages 53–54.

original documents related mere-gerrets-viik trial found in estonian state archives – party archives branch – era pa, collection 129, boxes 63–70.