To: The Honorable President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump.
From: Yosef Mendelevich, former “Prisoner of Zion.”
Dear Mr. President:
When Avital Sharansky and I met with President Reagan and Vice-President Bush in the White House in 1981 regarding the plight of Soviet Jewry, they told us that the United States would stand by us in our mission to make the truth known to the world. Now, President Trump, I appeal to you to help us continue to raise the beacon of truth on high on a matter which screams out to Heaven for justice...
I want to draw your attention to the growth of Nazi sentiments in Latvia, a country with which the United States has normal relations.
I live in Jerusalem, but I was born in Latvia. My extended family was exterminated by the Nazis in Latvia. Only my parents miraculously managed to escape the Holocaust. Latvian Nazis took an active part in the extermination of Jews. Two SS brigades were formed from among Latvians. Almost the entire Jewish population of Latvia was brutally exterminated.
In addition to my underground activities in the struggle to rescue Soviet Jewry, in Latvia I fought against the Soviet occupation and was sentenced to 12 years in prison as a freedom fighter.
Latvia gained its independence largely thanks to our struggle.
We fought for a free and democratic Latvia. Therefore, I feel that a terrible injustice is about to be committed by the Latvian government in their effort to glorify Nazi criminals.
As I write this letter the Latvian authorities are trying to whitewash the Nazi past of Heberts Cukurs who was a principle figure in the mass murder of Jews in the forests of Riga. Cukurs is describes in Wikipedia as follows:
"Herberts Albert Cukurs (17 May 1900 – 23 February 1965) was a Latvian aviator and Nazi collaborator. He served as the deputy commander of the Arajs Kommando, a collaborationist unit that carried out the largest mass murders of Latvian Jews during the Holocaust. Although Cukurs never stood trial, the accounts of multiple Holocaust survivors credibly link him to personally supervising[ and committing war crimes and crimes against humanity for the duration of the German occupation of Latvia. His crimes included shooting Jewish children and babies in captivity, burning Jews alive, and sexually assaulting Jewish women.
“Two decades after World War II, Cukurs was identified in Brazil by a Holocaust survivor who alerted the authorities after seeing Cukurs' face on the cover of a magazine. Following the discovery, Cukurs was investigated and, in 1965, assassinated by Nazi hunters who were working for Israeli Mossad. In the aftermath of the assassination, Israeli journalist Gad Shimron and one of the Mossad agents ("Künzle") who killed Cukurs co-authored a book on the subject, titled ‘The Execution of the Hangman of Riga.’ In it, they referred to Cukurs as the Butcher of Latvia, a name later used by several other sources.”
Presently, the Latvian prosecutor's office has announced that it has found no evidence to categorize Herberts Cukurs as a Nazi criminal. The Latvian government intends to move Cukurs' body from South America to Latvia, give him an honorable funeral, and proclaim him a national hero, citing his aviation achievements before World War II.
Along with friends who survived this horrible episode of world history, I ask you, Mr. President, to take all measures to ensure that the Latvian government stop their attempts to glorify the crimes of Nazism.
With respect,
Rabbi, Dr. Yosef Mendelevich, Prisoner of Conscience.