how much assistance did the latvians give the German Einsatzgruppen?
Latvians gave substantial, but not uniform , assistance to the German Einsatzgruppen in 1941. The main help came from locally recruited auxiliary police and the Arājs Kommando, which helped identify, round up, guard, and in some cases kill Jews and other victims during the early phase of the Holocaust in Latvia.
What the assistance looked like
- Local auxiliary police in Latvia assisted the Einsatzgruppen in locating and arresting Jews.
- The Arājs Kommando, a Latvian volunteer killing unit, worked with German forces and was involved in mass murder.
- German sources and later summaries describe Latvian collaborators as helping with guarding ghettos, transporting victims, and providing manpower for killings.
How much, in practical terms
The exact amount is hard to measure precisely, but the assistance was significant enough to make the killings much faster and more efficient than German forces could likely have managed alone. In Latvia, collaborator units were deeply involved in the destruction of much of the Jewish population, and one source says that within six months, Arājs and collaborators had murdered about half of Latvia’s Jews.
Important nuance
This was not the behavior of “all Latvians.” Some Latvians collaborated, some were coerced, some resisted, and many were bystanders living under brutal occupation and Soviet-German terror. So the fairest answer is that a significant minority of Latvian collaborators gave major operational help to the Einsatzgruppen , but that does not make their actions representative of the whole population.
Rough scale
One historical summary says German-organized Latvian auxiliary police alone numbered about 3,000 men early on, and later Latvian manpower for German military and security formations grew much larger. That does not mean all of them were Einsatzgruppen personnel, but it shows the Germans relied heavily on Latvian local forces for occupation and repression.
Bottom line
The Latvians who collaborated gave the Einsatzgruppen very important on-the- ground support , especially in identifying victims, guarding prisoners, and carrying out mass shootings, but the level of involvement varied widely across individuals and units.
TL;DR: A significant number of Latvian collaborators helped the Einsatzgruppen in a major way, especially through auxiliary police and the Arājs Kommando, but this was not the behavior of all Latvians.