In the days before the capture of Riga by German forces the deportations and murders of Latvians by the Soviet NKVD had reached their peak.[22] Those that the NKVD could not deport in time before the arrival of the Germans were shot in the Central Prison.[22] RSHA's instructions to their agents to unleash pogroms fell on fertile ground.[22] After the entry of Einsatzkommando 1a and part of Einsatzkommando 2 into the Latvian capital[23] contact between Viktors Arajs and Brigadeführer Walter Stahlecker was established on July 1. Stahlecker instructed Arajs on that same day to set up a commando that obtained an official name Latvian Auxiliary Security Police or Arājs Kommando.[24] The group was composed of students and former officers of far-right wing orientation; all the members of this group were volunteers, and free to leave at any time.[24] The following day on July 2 Arajs learned from Stahlecker during a conference that the Arajs commando had to unleash a pogrom that looked spontaneous[22] and pogrom-like disorders broke out before German occupation authorities had been properly established.[25]
The Einsatzkommando influenced[26] mobs of former members of Pērkonkrusts and other extreme right-wing groups began mass arrests, pillage and murders of Jews in Riga, which lead to death of between 300 to 400 Jews. Killings continued under supervision of SS Brigadeführer Walter Stahlecker and ended when more 2,700 Jews had been murdered.[22][25] The activities of the Einsatzkommando were constrained after the full establishment of the German occupation authority, after which the SS made use of select units of native recruits.[23] German General Wilhelm Ullersperger and Voldemar Weiss, a well known Latvian nationalist, appealed to population via a radio address to attack "internal enemies". During next months, activity of Latvian Auxiliary Security Police was primarily focused on killing Jews, Communists and Red Army stragglers in Latvia as well as in neighboring Belorussia.[24] The group alone murdered almost half of Latvia's Jewish population,[27] about 26,000 Jews, mainly in November and December 1941.[28]
The creation of Arajs Kommando was "one of the most significant inventions of early Holocaust",[27] that marked transition from German organised pogroms to systematic killing of Jews by local volunteers (former army officers, policemen, students, Aizargi).[25] That helped to resolve a chronic problem with German personnel shortages, and provided the Germans with relieve from psychological stress of routinely murdering civilians.[25] By the autumn of 1941, SS deployed Latvian "Police Battalions' under Leningrad, where they were consolidated as Latvian Second SS Volunteer Brigade.[29] In 1943, this brigade, which would latter become a Latvian Nineteenth SS Volunteer Division, was consolidated with Latvian Fifteen SS Volunteer Division to become the Latvian Legion.[29] Although formally Latvian Legion (Schutzmannschaft or Schuma) was a volunteer Waffen-SSmilitary formation, it was voluntary only by name, because only approximately 15-20% of personnel voluntarily joined the legion the rest being conscripted.[30]
The Einsatzkommando influenced[26] mobs of former members of Pērkonkrusts and other extreme right-wing groups began mass arrests, pillage and murders of Jews in Riga, which lead to death of between 300 to 400 Jews. Killings continued under supervision of SS Brigadeführer Walter Stahlecker and ended when more 2,700 Jews had been murdered.[22][25] The activities of the Einsatzkommando were constrained after the full establishment of the German occupation authority, after which the SS made use of select units of native recruits.[23] German General Wilhelm Ullersperger and Voldemar Weiss, a well known Latvian nationalist, appealed to population via a radio address to attack "internal enemies". During next months, activity of Latvian Auxiliary Security Police was primarily focused on killing Jews, Communists and Red Army stragglers in Latvia as well as in neighboring Belorussia.[24] The group alone murdered almost half of Latvia's Jewish population,[27] about 26,000 Jews, mainly in November and December 1941.[28]
The creation of Arajs Kommando was "one of the most significant inventions of early Holocaust",[27] that marked transition from German organised pogroms to systematic killing of Jews by local volunteers (former army officers, policemen, students, Aizargi).[25] That helped to resolve a chronic problem with German personnel shortages, and provided the Germans with relieve from psychological stress of routinely murdering civilians.[25] By the autumn of 1941, SS deployed Latvian "Police Battalions' under Leningrad, where they were consolidated as Latvian Second SS Volunteer Brigade.[29] In 1943, this brigade, which would latter become a Latvian Nineteenth SS Volunteer Division, was consolidated with Latvian Fifteen SS Volunteer Division to become the Latvian Legion.[29] Although formally Latvian Legion (Schutzmannschaft or Schuma) was a volunteer Waffen-SSmilitary formation, it was voluntary only by name, because only approximately 15-20% of personnel voluntarily joined the legion the rest being conscripted.[30]