Richard Rashke - Useful Enemies

17 “We were actually frightened”: Quoted by Allen, Nazi War Criminals, 10.

17 Einsatzgruppe C engaged: Deposition of Nazi Paul Blobel, Mendelsohn, vol. 10, 131–34.

17 Einsatzgruppe A description and quotes are from: Mendelsohn, vol. 10, 248–49.

18 The Himmler story comes from Edeiken, 2.

18 Although Nazi collaborators may have numbered in the hundreds of thousands, they represented only a minority of citizens from their respective homelands. Furthermore, it would be unfair to single out Balts, Belorussians, and Ukrainians as collaborators. Other occupied countries not annexed by the Soviet Union, such as Croatia and Hungary, also had militia groups that worked closely with the Nazis. Croatia had the Ustashi; Hungary had the Arrow Cross.

18 “As the firing started”: Arad, Einsatzgruppen, 8.

18 “Indispensable”: This conclusion is generally voiced both by Holocaust scholars and by Nazi administrators.

18 Over 70 percent: The DP Story, 243. A further breakdown is Poland/Ukraine (34 percent), Latvia (9.3), Lithuania (6.4), and Estonia (2.6). Belorussia is lumped with Russia. From Table Three, 366.

Angrick, Andrej, and Peter Klein. The ‘Final Solution’ in Riga. New York: Berghahn Books, 2009.

Dean, Martin. Collaboration in the Holocaust: Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine. New York: St. Martin’s Press in association with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2000.

Ezergailis, Andrew, ed. The German Occupation of Latvia: 1941–1945: What Did America Know? Riga: Historical Institute of Latvia, 2002.

——. Symposium of the Commission of Historians of Latvia. Vol. 5, The Occupation of Latvia, 1941–1945. Riga: Historical Institute of Latvia, 2002.

Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust. New York: William Morrow, 1993.

Gitelman, Zvi, ed. Bitter Legacy: Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.

——. The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. New York: Henry Holt, 1985.

Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985.

Inimical List. Washington, DC: Displaced Persons Commission, June 21, 1951.

Lowe, Keith. Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

Lumans, Valdis O. Latvia and the Holocaust. New York: Fordham University Press, 2006.

Press, Bernhard. The Murder of the Jews in Latvia, 1941–1945. Translated by Laimdota Mazzarins. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2000.

Records of the U.S. Army Adjutant’s Office, Classified Decimal File 1948–50, NA, 341–342. 1, Box 3659, and Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, NA, RG 407.

Sayer, Ian, and Douglas Botting. America’s Secret Army: The Untold Story of the Counter Intelligence Corps. New York: Franklin Watts, 1989.

Simpson, Christopher. Blowback. New York: Macmillan, 1988.

Snyder, Timothy. The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003.

U.S. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and International Law. Alleged Nazi War Criminals. 95th Cong., first session, August 3, 1977.

——. Public Law 597. An Act to provide for the enlistment of aliens in the Regular Army. 81st Cong., 2nd sess., June 30, 1950.

Weiss-Wendt, Anton. Murder Without Hatred: Estonians and the Holocaust. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2009.

20 Special session of Congress reported in NYT: “Bill Will Combat DP Discrimination,” July 20, 1948; “Senate Bills Seek To Change DP Law,” July 29, 1948; WP: “Text of Truman Message to Special Session of Congress,” July 28, 1948; CSM: “President Demands Special Session of Congress,” July 27, 1948; Mary Hornaday, “New Measures to AID DP’s Revises Rigid Quota Basis,” July 27, 1948; AP: “Truman’s Box Score,” Aug. 13, 1948; WSJ: “Congress to Hear Truman Ask Today for Passage of Bills on 11 Subjects,” July 27, 1948.

20 “Abhorrent intolerance [and] if Congress”: NYT: “Truman’s Statement in Refugee Bill,” June 26, 1948. For a clear analysis of the prewar and postwar DP acts see: “Immigration and Naturalization Law Relevant to Alleged Nazi War Criminals,” found in the appendix to the August 3, 1977, Hearings.

21 All but swallowed Germany: The description is taken from Sayer, 269. For more detailed descriptions of the chaos and misery at the end of the war see, Lowe, Savage Continent.

22 “It is impossible to”: Ibid., 270.

22 Inimical List: DPC listed the names of inimical organizations country by country. The list was used by U.S. immigration screening officers. Long categorized as “Secret,” it was declassified in 1980. When statements in the following chapter call an organization “inimical,” they are referring to this list. Some of the typed entries are not legible.

23 Latvian Relief, Inc.: NA, Adjutant General (AG), Classified Decimal Files 1948–50, Box 48. Although Latvian Relief was pleased with the DPC decision exempting the Baltic Legions, it was not pleased with DPC’s determination that conscription began in January 1944. Latvian Relief argued that conscription actually began in mid-1943. Latvian Relief lost the argument. The chairman of the DPC in 1950 was Ugo Carusi.

24 Besides Hilberg and Gilbert, the Estonia and Latvia summary accounts are based on: Angrick, Dean, Ezergailis, Gitelman, Lumans, Press, and Weiss-Wendt.

25 Didn’t bother to wait; and “incite other Latvians”: Lumans, 234–35.

25 The following Estonians were convicted in absentia in Estonia in 1961: Ralf Gerrets, Ain-Ervin Mere, Jaan Viik, Juhan Jueiste, Aleksander Laak, and Ervin Vits.

26 “To participate in”: Ibid., 237.

26 “Drunken orgies”: Ibid., 239–40.

27 “First the policemen”: Press, 103.

27 The description of the massacre is from Angrick and Press.

27 Latvian volunteers ringed: Angrick, 144. For an analysis of the current controversy over who was responsible for the genocides in Latvia and Estonia, see the work of Ezergailis.

28 For more information about the armed services support of the Lodge Act see: U.S. Congress. House. Relating to the Enlistment of Aliens in the Regular Army and Air Force. 86th Cong., 2nd sess., 1960. Report No. 1776; U.S. Congress. House. Extending the Authority for the Enlistment of Aliens in the Regular Army. 85th Cong., 1st session, 1957. Report No. 689; U.S. Congress. Senate. Providing for the Enlistment of Aliens in the Regular Army. 81st Cong., 1st sess., 1949. Report No. 946; U.S. Congress. House. Providing for the Enlistment of Aliens in the Regular Army. 81st Cong., 2nd sess., 1950. Report No. 2188; U.S. Congress. House. Extending the Authority for the Enlistment of Aliens in the Regular Army. 84th Cong., 1st sess., 1955. Report No. 834; U.S. Congress. Senate. Extending the Authority for the Enlistment of Aliens in the Regular Army. 85th Cong., 1st sess., 1957. Report No. 541; U.S. Congress. House. Full Committee Hearing on S 2269, an Act to Provide for the Enlistment of Aliens in the Regular Army. Committee on Armed Services, Jan. 24, 1950.

28 As an army officer: See Senator Lodge’s testimony during the Jan. 24, 1950, hearings.

Blum, Howard. Wanted! The Search for Nazis in America. New York: Quadrangle, 1977.