Teaching Remembrance 
Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes in Estonia
I. Pact of 1939 between the Soviet Union and Germany. Occupation of the Republic of Estonia* by the Soviet Union in 1940 and by Germany in 1941
II. Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes in Estonia in 1940-1941
III. German Occupation in Estonia. Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes
IV. Soviet Occupation from 1944. War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity
The crimes against humanity in Estonia should be treated along with the war crimes committed here, because during WWII Estonia was occupied by totalitarian countries – the communistic Soviet Union and the Nazi Germany. In war with each other the Soviet Union and Germany did not recognize the Hague Convention of 1899/1907 or the Geneva Convention of 19291 on military activity valid at that time, thus the conventions did not prevent them from committing war crimes against the civilian population, prisoners of war or other people.
The following overview has been compiled based on the definitions of crimes against humanity and war crimes that are recognized by the United Nations as the principles of Nuremberg and that are provided in the Charter of the International Military Tribunal attached to the London Agreement of August 8th, 1945.
I. Pact of 1939 between the Soviet Union and Germany. Occupation of the Republic of Estonia* by the Soviet Union in 1940 and by Germany in 1941 
* Until 1918, the territory of the Republic of Estonia was a part of the Russian Empire: the main territory was divided between the provinces of Estonia and Livonia, the city of Narva belonged to St. Petersburg and a part of South-Eastern Estonia to the Pihkva province. On April 12th, 1917, during the second Russian revolution, the Temporary Government of Russia decided to unite the Estonian counties of the province of Livonia with the province of Estonia as an autonomous national province and declared the elections of the Temporary Country Council of the Province of Estonia. The Temporary Country Council of 62 members, which was the highest local power, convened on July 1st, 1917 and formed the Country Government. On November 7th, 1917, the Bolshevists seized power in Russia, including Estonia. On November 15th, 1917, they dissolved the Country Council and the War and Revolution Committee of Estonia under the control of the Bolshevists took power. According to the regulation of the Country Council, the Senior Council acted in between the sessions of the Country Council, which continued its activity. At the joint session of the Senior Council and the Country Government on February 19th, 1918, the Rescue Committee of Estonia of three members was formed. In October 1917, the German troops had conquered the Estonian islands. On February 19th, 1918, the German troops started aggression on the entire Russian-German front and conquered Estonia by the beginning of March. On February 24th, when the Bolshevists had left Tallinn and the German troops had not yet invaded Tallinn, the Rescue Committee issued the Manifest to All People of Estonia which declared Estonia an independent republic. The Temporary Government was formed. The next day, German troops occupied Tallinn. The German army command did not recognize the independence of Estonia or the Temporary Government. In November 1918, the German troops left the occupied territories. On November 19th, 1918, August Winning, German commissioner in the Baltic countries, recognized the independence of Estonia de facto until the peace conference. On November 27th, 1918, the new Temporary Government of the Republic of Estonia was formed. On November 28th, 1918, the Red Army conquered Narva. The war between the Soviet Russia and the Republic of Estonia was ended by the Tartu Peace Treaty concluded on February 2nd, 1920, by which Soviet Russia recognized the independence of the Republic of Estonia.
During the second half of the 1930’s, the Soviet Union and Germany started to approach each other. At the negotiations held on August 23-24, 1939, a non-aggression pact was concluded between Germany and the Soviet Union. With the confidential protocol of the Pact it was decided to divide Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. The Republic of Estonia was included in the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union.2
As a result of this, on September 28th, 1939, the Soviet Union forced the Republic of Estonia to sign the Agreement on Mutual Assistance between the Republic of Estonia and the Soviet Union, according to which the Soviet Union obtained the right to establish military bases on the Estonian islands and in Paldiski and to locate Red Army units in Estonia. On October 18th, 1939, 25 000 Red Army soldiers were brought to Estonia.
On October 6th, 1939, Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of State of Germany held a speech in which he invited all Germans living in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Soviet Union and Italy to resettle in Germany (Umsiedlung). In pursuance of the Protocol on Resettlement3 signed between Germany and the Republic of Estonia on October 15th, 1939, ca 14 000 people left Estonia from October 1939 to May, 1940.
On June 16th, 1940, the Soviet Union submitted an ultimatum to Estonia and demanded the permission to bring additional Red Army units to the territory of the Republic of Estonia and to form a new government. The reason given for the ultimatum was the alleged violation by the Republic of Estonia of the terms and conditions of the Agreement on Mutual Assistance concluded on September 28th, 1939. In foreign political isolation the Government of the Republic of Estonia decided to accept the ultimatum. On June 17th, 1940, in addition to the previous 25 000 soldiers, 70 000 supplementary Red Army soldiers and officers and 10 000 seamen of the navy were brought to Estonia. On the same day, the Estonian government resigned. On June 19th, the special representative of J. Stalin, Andrei Ždanov arrived in Estonia. By June 21st, 1940, A. Ždanov prepared, in the Embassy of the Soviet Union, in cooperation with some Estonian functionaries, the list of the new government. The new government (Prime Minister Johannes Vares) was established in office by K. Päts. On July 14th – 15th, the new lower chamber of the parliament, the Riigivolikogu, was elected under the control of the Soviet representatives (the upper chamber, the Riiginõukogu, was dissolved and the new one was not formed). The only persons who were allowed to be put up as candidates, under the control of the representatives of the Soviet Union, were the candidates of the Union of Estonian Working People. Every electoral district had one candidate. On July 21st – 23rd, 1940, the first session of the new Riigivolikogu was held, which declared Estonia a Soviet Socialist Republic, submitted the application for accession to the Soviet Union, discharged Konstantin Päts from presidency, declared the land reform and the nationalization of large industry and banks. On August 6th, 1940, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union accepted the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic as a member country of the Soviet Union. On August 25th, 1940, the Riigivolikogu adopted the new Constitution made according to the Constitution of 1936 of the Soviet Union. The unicameral Supreme Soviet (chairman of the presidium Johannes Vares) became the highest legislative body and the Council of People’s Commissars (Chairman Johannes Lauristin) became the executive body.
The destruction of the Republic of Estonia was continued. By the end of 1940, the legislation and the financial and economic system of the Soviet Union were enforced in Estonia. As early as June 1940, the imprisonment of politicians, civil servants, military men, police officers, local government functionaries, people of public life, members of the Defense Union, etc., of the Republic of Estonia was started.
In pursuance of the agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany concluded on January 10th, 19414, around 7500 more Germans and persons of German origin were taken to Germany from January to April, 1941.
On June 22nd, 1941, the war between Germany and the Soviet Union started. On July 7th, German troops crossed the Estonian border. They conquered Tallinn on August 28th and Hiiumaa Island on October 21st. On December 6th, 1941, the last Red Army units left Osmussaare Island.
II. Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes in Estonia in 1940-1941
The purposes of the Soviet Union for the occupation of the Republic of Estonia were the correction of the front line in case of war with Germany, liquidation of the Republic of Estonia and sovietization of Estonia. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian society where human rights and personal freedoms were not respected. The state was governed by the Politburo of the All-Union Communist (Bolshevist) Party (ÜK(b)P) Central Committee of some members. The analogue in Estonia was the Bureau of the Estonian Communist (Bolshevist) Party (EK(b)P) Central Committee. The innocence presumption did not apply in the Soviet Union; the criminal code was applied in retrospective, etc. Those who were imprisoned in Estonia were accused for example that they, as citizens of the independent Republic of Estonia worked in the civil service, army or were members of citizens’ associations. In the years 1940-1941, the following crimes against humanity were committed by order and participation of ÜK(b)P and EK(b)P (Secretary of Central Committee was Karl Säre), executed by the Soviet Union People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), from 1941 also by the Soviet Union People’s Commissariat of National Security (NKGB), as well as by the Red Army and special units of the Baltic Navy and by the decision of various tribunals of special meetings of the so-called national tribunals, the Supreme Court and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR, NKVD, the Red Army, the Baltic Navy and the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs:
1) sentence to death and execution of at least 179 persons before the German conquest;
2) imprisonment of about 6700 persons and their deportation to prison camps of the Soviet Union. Of these people at least 4200 were executed or died;5
3) deportation of over 10 000 persons to the Soviet Union on June 14th, 1941;6
4) alienation of private property and land, closing of citizens’ associations, enforcement of preliminary censorship, closing of editorial offices of newspapers and journals, reorganization of the educational system according to the Soviet model, etc.
After the war started between Germany and the Soviet Union, the following war crimes were committed in Estonia from July to October, 1941 by the Red Army, the Baltic Navy and the paramilitary units (destroyer battalions) by order of the party and military authorities of the Soviet Union:
1) killing of at least 2000 civilians;
2) deportation of Estonian qualified workers and civil servants to the rear of the Soviet Union along with the enterprises and institutions (the so-called evacuation; ca 25 000 persons; this number includes the people who had arrived from the Soviet Union and who returned, and the persons escaping from the German troops (the so-called communist activists, as well as a large part of Estonian Jews), who have to be separated from the rest of the group);
3) deportation of men in the age of military service (over 32 000 men). The recruitment by force of Estonian men to the Red Army cannot even be considered as mobilization of the population of an occupied territory which is in contradiction to international law, because the men were not sent to military training and the front but to the labor camps of the Camps Office of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD Gulag), where at least a fourth of them had died by the spring of 1941. The purpose of the deportation of men from Estonia in the summer and autumn of 1941 was not the formation of the Estonian units of the Red Army in spring 1941. This decision was made later;
4) destruction of the economy by the retreating Red Army units and by the NKVD destroyer battalions (implementation of the “tactics of burned land” declared by J. Stalin).
5) formation of the 22nd Estonian territorial corps of the Red Army from the former army of the Republic of Estonia and its application in military activity in summer 1941.
III. German Occupation in Estonia. Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes
By autumn 1941, German troops had conquered the whole of Estonia. Until December 5th, 1941, Estonia was under the control of the military government that was executed by Franz von Roques, Infantry General and Rear Commander-in-Chief of the “Nord” army group, through the 207th security division and the field commandant’s offices. The secret police special military unit Einsatzkommando 1a led by Martin Sandberger under the control of the Head Office of the National Security and SD acted independently from the military government.
After the Red Army had left, the citizens of the Republic of Estonia started to restore the Estonian state, local government and police institutions in hope that the German leaders would restore the independence of Estonia or would give autonomous status to Estonia. This did not happen. On September 15th, General F. von Roques gave the mandate to establish the Estonian Self-Government which had to execute local power under his control.7
On November 29th, 1941, by order of A. Hitler the territory of Estonia was submitted to the German civil government as of December 5th.8 The civil power was executed by the Commissar General of Estonia (Karl Sigmund Litzmann, also Lietzmann) subordinate to the State Minister of Occupied Eastern Territories, who had his own administration. The Estonian Self-Government was subordinated to the Commissar General as of December 5th, 19419. In parallel with the civil government, the German political police institutions were also active in Estonia under the control of Heinrich Himmler, SS Führer and Police Chief. The general governor of Estonia was Heinrich Möller, SS and Police Chief in Estonia, who was responsible for the work of the police and the recruitment of units of local people. He commanded the Head of Police of Public Order (Colonel von Thaden), who controlled the German secret state police in cities and gendarmerie in the countryside, as well as the field police and Self-Defense formed of Estonians. In parallel with the SS and Police Chief, Martin Sandberger, Head of Security Police and SD (from September 1943 Bernhard Baatz) was active in Estonia, who controlled both German and Estonian criminal and political police that were united in 1942 to the Security Police with German and Estonian branches. The direct responsibility of the IV department of the Security Police (the former political police, later the parallel structure of the Gestapo in Estonia), was the fight against political enemies of Germany. Other police units and Self-Defense were also used for the execution of security and police actions.
The Estonian General Commissariat that was subordinated to the civil government maintained its military importance due to its closeness to Leningrad. For this reason the rear units of the “Nord” army group (the 207th security division and field commandant’s offices subject to it) continued their activity in Estonia, being mainly active in guarding and maintaining military prison camps, in supplying the army and in arranging the accommodation of the units taken from the front to the rear. In 1943 in Vaivara, a concentration camp was formed under the control of Allgemeine SS (headed by Hans Aumeier), which commanded camp units all over Estonia from Klooga to Pankjavits.
During the German occupation the following crimes against humanity were committed in Estonia10:
1) Killing of about 8000 Estonian citizens and residents. Separate attention should be made to about 1000 Estonian Jews and at least 243 Estonian gypsies killed, who were imprisoned and killed based on their national identity;11
2) Imprisonment of Estonian citizens and residents on political reasons and their deportation to prison camps (labor and education camps) in Estonia and concentration camps in Germany and in other territories occupied by Germany (the number, including the number of people who died in Germany, is not known; from July 1941 to June 18 893 persons were arrested, of whom 7485 were released, 5627 were sent to prison camps and 5634 were executed (the executed persons are included in the above-mentioned number); in 1942-1944, after the first “clean-up,” the number of arrested persons was many times smaller);12
3) Employment by force in labor service in Germany of citizens of the Republic Estonia (number of people unknown);
4) Killing of imprisoned civilians, mainly Jews, brought from Europe, in camps located in the territory of Estonia
a) Kalevi-Liiva 1942-1943, 2000-3000 Jews brought from Theresienstadt (Terezini) concentration camp and their family members of other nationalities;
b) Vaivara concentration camp 1943-1944. In total there were about 10 000 Jewish prisoners in the camp, brought from the ghettos of Kaunas and Vilnius. In autumn 1944, hundreds of them were killed in the Ereda and Lagedi camps that were part of the Vaivara concentration camp (exact number unknown) and 1800-2000 persons were killed in the Klooga camp. To these people are added prisoners who died from epidemics or from working too hard in 1943-1944 (exact number unknown). In autumn 1944, those Jews who survived were taken to the Stutthof concentration camp in the territory of Poland;
c) Execution in Tallinn in summer 1944 of about 400 Jewish prisoners brought from France.
5) Detention in labor and other camps located in Estonia of persons brought from the Soviet Union (“Eastern workers”, Ingrians evacuated from the Leningrad region and others) (exact number unknown).
During the German occupation the following war crimes were committed in Estonia:
1) inhuman treatment of war prisoners in prison camps located in Estonia (in Estonia there were about 30 000 war prisoners of the Red Army of whom about 15 000 died);
2) intentional destruction of industrial enterprises and living space while retreating from Estonia.
3) mobilization of Estonian citizens to the German army by threat of punishment (to police units and Waffen-SS), as well as sending policemen and members of Self-Defense who had been recruited for order maintenance in Estonia to the front:
a) mobilization of men of 1919-1924 age class (5000 men, were sent to the Estonian SS-Legion) announced on February 24th, 1943;
b) mobilization of men of 1925 age class announced on October 26th, 1943, which on December 10th was extended to the 1924 age class not mobilized so far (in total 4000 men, were sent to complement the 3rd Estonian SS-Brigade, Narva, Eastern and Defense divisions of SS-battalions;
c) mobilization of 15-17 year old boys and girls to the air force support service announced on August 2nd, 1944;
d) formation of defense battalions from Self-Defense in barracks duty and sending them to the front from December 1st, 1942;
e) formation of police battalions on the basis of field police from spring 1943;
f) sending units of officers serving in police and local government institutions to the front from March 1943.
IV. Soviet Occupation from 1944. War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity
From July to November in 1944, the Red Army conquered the territory of Estonia. In Estonia the Soviet institutions and the social order established in 1940 were restored and sovietization was continued.
During and after WWII, the following war crimes were committed in the territory of Estonia under the control of the ÜK(b)P Central Committee and the Red Army, as well as special units of the NKVD:
1) killing of civilians during the conquest of Estonia (in winter 1944 during the so-called Meriküla landing, during the Meerpalu-Mehikoorma landing in February 1944 and during the conquest of Estonia in summer 1944);
2) bombing of Estonian towns without any military need (in 1943 Tartu, in 1944 destruction of Narva and bombing of Tallinn);13
3) in 1944-1950, using German prisoners of war in the reconstruction of industrial enterprises and infrastructure located in the territory of Estonia, of whom many people were killed from inhuman living and working conditions (exact number unknown);
4) formation of the Estonian Rifle Corps in 1942 of citizens of the Republic of Estonia in the rear of the Soviet Union, and its application in military activity.
After the re-conquest of the Republic of Estonia the following crimes against humanity were committed in Estonia under the control of the ÜK(b)P, from 1952, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (NLKP) and by the security institutions of the Soviet Union:
1) Deportation of the Germans who had remained in Estonia on August 15th, 1945 (439 persons of whom 13 died in Russia);14
2) Repatriation by force from Germany and other European countries to Estonia of persons who had left Estonia (1945-1947). Some of them were imprisoned and sent to prison camps in Russia. The total number of the repatriated persons was 20 500. It is not known how many of them were repatriated by force or by swindling. The number of imprisoned persons is provided in item 7;
3) Killing and imprisonment of persons hiding in forests and/or performing armed resistance against Soviet institutions and their deportation to prison camps in Russia (these people were not treated as combatants but as criminals who were accused of banditry); the total number of killed persons and persons who died in prison camps was about 3000. The number of imprisoned persons is provided in item 7;
4) Deportation of about 21 000 persons to Russia on March 25, 1949 of whom 2404 died in Russia;15
5) Deportation of 1415 persons to Russia from territories separated from Estonia and Latvia and attached to the Pihkva region (it is not possible to distinguish the citizens of Estonia and Latvia);
6) Deportation to Russia of 268 persons on religious reasons in 1951 (Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.) of whom 21 died;16
7) Imprisonment of people for political reasons (including over 25 000 persons in 1944-1953 of whom at least 3400 persons were executed or died in camp)17;and their deportation to prison camps in Russia.
8) Destruction of Estonian society: collectivization of agriculture and liquidation of farms, nationalization by force of small enterprises and dwelling houses, total censorship, politicization of education system, etc.)
The governments of the totalitarian Soviet Union and Germany are responsible for the crimes against humanity and the war crimes committed in the territory of the Republic of Estonia. Crimes against humanity and war crimes were inseparable parts of the political program of both governments. The criminal responsibility for these crimes is borne by those who have committed them. Besides citizens of the Soviet Union and Germany also citizens of the Republic of Estonia are among these people.
