Mad March: Nazi SS ‘glorified’ in Latvia

— Nearly 1,500 Latvians paid tribute on Friday to soldiers who fought in Nazi Germany’s Waffen SS divisions, while nearby Russians held a counterprotest to recall war crimes committed against Jews and other minorities.

For many Latvians the annual procession from a Lutheran cathedral to the Freedom Monument in downtown Riga, the capital, is a memorial event for Latvian SS soldiers, known as Legionnaires, who fought for independence during World War II.

However, Latvia’s minority Russians, who make up about one-third of the nation’s 2.1 million people, consider the ceremony an insult to the millions who fought and died in the struggle against Nazi Germany.

This year about 100 Russians held their counterprotest about 30 yards (meters) from the Freedom Monument. Though quiet, the demonstrators hung large photographs of harrowing Holocaust scenes on wooden poles resembling gallows.more