Russia's chief rabbi: Estonia and Latvia conducting ex-SS officers rehabilitation policy

A state-supported policy to rehabilitate ex-SS officers, involved in the mass elimination of Jews, is being conducted in Estonia and Latvia, chief rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar /representing the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR)/ said Monday at a press conference in RIA Novosti. The statement was made in relation to Estonia's building a monument to fighters for the liberty of Estonia, who perished in World War II.

According to the rabbi, "they are trying to glorify the Nazi criminals, turn them into national heroes and an example for the younger generation." These trends, laying the groundwork for xenophobia and anti-Semitism, are not duly taken into account by European states, which seem "ready to permit access to the EU and NATO for the countries that have forgotten the lessons of World War II, first of all the Holocaust," Alexander Brod, Director of the International Bureau for Human Rights in the ex-USSR, asserted.

According to Brod, a collective address to Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been drawn up asking the Premier to assess the state of affairs in the Baltic countries and thwart the rehabilitation of Nazi criminals.

The activists have also decided to turn to the EU mission in Moscow, particularly Richard Wright, Brod pointed out