Need to check this. Anyway, I wouldn't consider opinions from USA to USSR or USSR to USA in 1950 as unbiased. Have you ever heard about parades of NKVD veterans in Moscow? After USSR collapse? You can't blame Red Army for Katyn. The difference is simple: SS was acknowledged as criminal organization by Nurenberg trial. Red Army wasn't. And it wasn't criminal organization.
Sure, except the opinion was not given from USA to USSR but from USA Commission to USA government regarding formerly hostile party.
I'll make checking easier as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_(1st_Estonian)
Baltic Waffen SS units were combat units. Nothing more, nothing less. The above link also (under part "modern controversy") also shows that Waffen-SS was considered criminal with certain exceptions - and that Baltic Legions were one of such exceptions.
As for "neutral"
lol
viewpoint of Estonians - it's because you weren't considered as untermenshen by Nazis, unlike Slavs. Ask Jews who was better for them, and what is their attitude to your SS parades. You'll hear neutral point of view.
Why neutral with
? We were occupied, harassed and conscripted by both sides, unlike Jews were. Why should the opinion of the Jews be relevant to Estonians? They have right to their own opinion of Nazis and I do not argue about that. However, most Jewish people I've spoken to, actually very well understand difficult situation and difficult choices small nations must face between larger powers. They have both firsthand experience and intelligence for that, so it is no surprise really. About "our SS parades"... random Jew living abroad can't really be expected to make fine distinctions between "SS" units or know first thing about
our history. In few years, there will be no veterans left to gather anyway, so this problem will wane anyway.
For Red army veterans who was involved in murders - you won't believe, but there were trials, and many people were imprisoned even during WW2. As Estonians were. But for you, all of them certainly were victims of Stalin's repressions.
With my bolded question, I was actually referring to that one specific event:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_Massacre
The Soviet Union continued to deny the massacres until 1990, when it finally acknowledged the massacre by the NKVD, as well as the subsequent cover-up.[3][9] The Russian government admitted Soviet responsibility for the massacres, yet does not classify this action as a war crime or as an act of genocide. This acknowledgement would have necessitated the prosecution of surviving perpetrators, which is what the Polish government had requested.[3][10] In addition the Russian government also does not classify the dead as victims of Stalinist repression, which bars formal posthumous rehabilitation
But yes, I am sure about many facing trial during the war. In another thread, I referred to a particular order given my Zhukov to execute families of those Russian soldiers fallen prisoner, for example.
I also believe, that those who participated in war crimes were often punished. For example, some claim that soldiers buried under our infamous "Bronze Soldier" were actually Red Army soldiers caught marauding and executed by Soviet officers - since Tallinn was retaken by Red Army without battle.
. And rallies were held in his support in Russia and Latvia (by local Russians) as well.
