Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, condemned the decision this month by the Prosecution Office of the Republic of Latvia to close the investigation into the "infamous Latvian war criminal and Nazi collaborator" Herberts Cukurs for his role in the Holocaust and involvement in the killing of tens of thousands of Jews.
"The decision is baffling because Cukurs' horrific war crimes are indisputable and Yad Vashem is ready to provide documents from its archive," the center stated.
"Cukurs held a senior, operative position in the Arajs Kommando, the unit that from June 1941 until March 1942 carried out mass killings against Jews and other civilians. Among other crimes, at the end of 1941 he personally participated in murder operations in Riga’s ghetto and the nearby Rumbula killing site, where Jewish men, women, children and infants were murdered indiscriminately.
"Yad Vashem denounces the repeated attempts to rehabilitate Cukurs’ image in Latvia by those distorting and ignoring historical truth," Yad Vashem's statement concluded.