ADL rips Estonian march honoring Nazi SS division

The Anti-Defamation League is urging Estonia officials to condemn a march there honoring a division of the Nazi SS.

The march in Vaivara, the home of the largest of the 22 concentration and labor camps established in Estonia by the Nazis during World War II, is scheduled for July 31 to honor an Estonian division of the Nazi SS that fought in a 1944 battle against Soviet troops.

“Opposing Soviet repression is one thing, but celebrating the Nazi SS is quite another,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director, in a statement released Wednesday. “Unfortunately, in the past we have seen Estonian officials participate in such events rather than oppose them.

“Vaivara should evoke mourning and reflection, not celebration,” said Foxman, a Holocaust survivor. “A telling choice once again lies before Estonian officials. They, along with responsible members of Estonian civil society, should unequivocally condemn the planned march in Vaivara.”