Mēs esam kā starp vārtiem,

Starp vārtiem uzcēluši savas mājas

Kur tautām pāri staigāt.

      We are as if between gates,

      Between gates we have built our home

      For other peoples to trample over.

—Anna Brigadere, Latvian poet

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The historical mission of the Baltic provinces is to serve as a battlefield for the problems of the highest politics in Europe. —Russian Governor-General of the Baltic Provinces, Count Shuvalov

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The great tragedy of World War II was Latvia's being invaded and occupied three times by two competing powers—powers which had divided the Baltics and Eastern Europe between themselves and in doing so, precipitated the war. Both powers extolled their historic ties with Latvia in their propaganda even while they exploited and murdered Latvian citizens—irrespective of their heritage—with both using each other's atrocities to their own propagandist benefit. The legacy of those invasions and occupations is still painfully manifested today:

• in the notion that inhabitants of the Baltics were eagerly slaughtering Jews before the Nazis even arrived (Nazi propaganda)—the results of falsified reports sent by Nazi commanders as part of the organized effort in the Baltics to paint strong support for the Nazis;
• that the Waffen SS were fascists "convicted at Nuremberg" who swore personal allegiance to Hitler and were responsible for the Holocaust (Soviet propaganda, and the official position of the Russian government today*)—these military units were only organized in 1943 to fight on Germany's Eastern Front; in particular,
• they are incorrectly equated with the earlier SD units which did collaborate in the Holocaust.

That the horror of the Holocaust was inflicted upon the Baltics, and that the Nazis had their willing collaborators, is undeniable. Beyond that tragic truth unfortunately also lies a realm of fiction—particularly that of anti-Baltic nationalist Soviet propaganda ironically built on top of Nazi propaganda.

LATVIA under German Occupation in 1943, published by the Latvian Legation in the U.S. in 1944, informs us of Latvia's third year under Nazi occupation, recounting still-fresh events—free of post-war historical interpretations.

The impact of the Nazi occupation is often lost in comparison to the Soviet's unprovoked invasion, mass deportations and murder, and half century of illegal occupation and annexation. This focus on Soviet wrong-doing is often, wrongly, taken to be a minimization of Nazi atrocities—yet another misinterpretation. We hope to expand our collection of materials from this painful and often misrepresented period of Latvia's history.

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* The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a memorandum on February 13, 2004 titled: "Involvement of the Lettish SS Legion in War Crimes in 1941-1945 and the Attempts to Revise the Verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal in Latvia".

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We respectfully request that you attribute these materials appropriately if you use them further.