The Estonian authorities have inaugurated a restored monument to two Waffen-SS veterans who fought on the German side against the Soviet Army in World War II, local media reported on Wednesday.
The memorial, which dates back to 1996, was dismantled and moved to a local military museum in 2009 after the local authorities decided it “did not fit in with the environment of Johvi.”
According to a regional branch of the newspaper Postimees, local officials and activists in the northern town of Johvi attended a ceremony to restore a monument to Major Georg Sooden and Lieutenant Raul Juriado, who served in the 20th Estonian SS Volunteer Division. Both died on the battlefield west of the strategic chokepoint of Narva in the summer of 1944 as the Third Reich struggled to contain the Soviet advance.
Speaking at the ceremony, Vallo Reimaa, the chairman of the local council, said the primary goal for him and his colleagues has long been to restore the monument to those who died in what he called the “War of Independence.”
Meelis Kiili, a retired major general and MP, hailed the monument, saying Estonia “will remember an entire generation of men and women whose lives were taken by the Bolshevik terror.” He added that his countrymen “must preserve our freedom” for the sake of future generations who will “speak Estonian and carry on the Estonian spirit.”
Johvi is located in Ida-Viru County, where ethnic Russians make up the bulk of the population, according to Statistics Estonia.
Georg Sooden was a career member of the Estonian Army before World War II, joining the Red Army in 1940 after Estonia was absorbed into the Soviet Union. In late July 1941, weeks after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he defected to the Nazi military and rose to the rank of battalion commander. In 1944, his battalion was incorporated into the 20th Estonian SS Volunteer Division.
As for Raul Juriado, available data indicates that he was a junior officer in Sooden’s unit.
The 20th Estonian SS Volunteer Division was part of the Waffen-SS Estonian Legion, which was actively involved in anti-partisan actions and numerous atrocities. A total of 70,000 Estonians were enrolled in various units, though many were conscripts.
Russian officials have for years sounded the alarm over the resurgence of Nazi ideology in the Baltic states, claiming that these countries are engaged in revising history by portraying their collaboration with Hitler’s Germany as a fight for independence.