Arajs Kommando

The Arajs Kommando (also: Sonderkommando Arajs), lead by SS-Sturmbannführer Viktors Arājs, was a unit of Latvian Auxiliary Police (Lettische Hilfspolizei) subordinated to the Nazi SD. It is one of the more well-known and notorious killing units during the Holocaust.

It was established in early July 1941, immediately following the German capture of Riga, by Walter Stahlecker, the commander of Einsatzgruppe A and Commander (Befehlshaber) of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD (BdS) for Reichskommissariat Ostland.

The unit actively participated in a variety of Nazi atrocities: the killing of Jews, Roma, and mental patients, as well as punitive actions and massacres of civilians along the Latvia's eastern border in Russia and Belarus. The Kommando killed around 26,000 Jews in total. Most notably, the unit took part in the mass execution of Jews from the Riga Ghetto, and several thousand Jews deported from Germany, at Rumbula on November 30 and December 8, 1941.

Some of Arājs's men also served as guards at the Nazi concentration camp at Salaspils.

As can be seen in contemporary Nazi newsreels, the Arajs Kommando figured prominently in the burning of Riga's Great (Choral) Synagogue on 4 July 1941. Commemoration of this event has been chosen for marking Holocaust Memorial Day in present-day Latvia.



The unit numbered about 300 men during the phase it participated in killing of Jewish population in Latvia, reaching between 500–1,200 members at the height of its involvement in anti-partisan operations in 1942.

In the final phases of the war, the unit was disbanded and its personnel transferred to the Latvian Legion.

After successfully hiding in West Germany for several decades after the war, Viktors Arājs was eventually arrested, tried, and imprisoned for his crimes. More recently, the governements of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia were involved in the attempt to extradite Konrads Kalējs, a former officer of the Arajs Kommando, to Latvia for trial on charges of genocide. Kalējs died in Australia before the extradition could proceed.

Literature

 * Andrew Ezergailis. The Holocaust in Latvia: Preface
 * Foreign Ministry of Latvia: The Holocaust in German-Occupied Latvia
 * Foreign Ministry of Latvia: The Holocaust in German-Occupied Latvia
 * Foreign Ministry of Latvia: The Holocaust in German-Occupied Latvia