Monument to Nazi collaborators shows need for more Holocaust education, special envoy says

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A monument at an Ontario kid’s camp honouring Nazi collaborators shows the need for better education about the Holocaust, the federal government’s special envoy on combating antisemitism says.

The memorial at Seedrioru, a camp for Estonian-Canadian children and teens in Elora, near Toronto, celebrated “Estonian heroic freedom fighters.” It was engraved with the names of four men who served with the Waffen SS and collaborated with Adolf Hitler’s genocidal regime. As recently as July 8, photographs posted on the organization’s webpage showed young campers and staff laying wreaths at the monument.

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The memorial, uncovered by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, has prompted disgust from the Jewish community over the glorification of Nazi collaborators and calls for the removal of the stone monument.

Deborah Lyons, the federal government’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, said news of the existence of monument showed the need for further education. “This situation reinforces the importance of comprehensive Holocaust education, not only in our schools, but also among the broader Canadian public,” she said in a statement to the Ottawa Citizen.

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said the four individuals whose names were etched on the monument had roles in murdering Jews during the Holocaust. The four men also later served in an Estonian Waffen SS division.

In an earlier statement, Lia Hess, volunteer head of the board of directors for the Estonian Summer Camp Society Inc., told the Ottawa Citizen the monument didn’t honour specific individuals.

“The purpose of this monument is solely to remember our homeland and those that died in battles to defend Estonia’s freedom from 1941-1945,” she wrote in an email. “Some concerns were recently expressed within our own community about displaying names, so all names of individuals were removed with no objections,” added Hess, who is also a director with the Estonian Central Council in Canada.

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But after the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center issued its news release about the monument, the Estonian Central Council in Canada responded with its own statement condemning what it called “disinformation and lies.” It also suggested that the concern raised by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center was Russian disinformation.

Historical records, however, show the four men honoured on the monument were well-known members of the Estonian Waffen SS, each having been fêted for receiving Nazi Germany’s top military award.

Harald Nugiseks, one of those honoured, was buried with full military honours in Estonia when he died in 2014. In a 1993 interview, Nugiseks said he volunteered for the Waffen SS because he supported what Nazi Germany was doing in Europe.

Claims that Estonians or the SS soldiers were involved in rounding up and executing Jews is nonsense, he said in the interview published by a far-right website honouring the Waffen SS. “What happened to most Jews was brought on by their actions,” Nugiseks said, adding that those who were killed were enemies of Estonia.

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The other Estonian Waffen SS veterans honoured by the monument were Harald Riipalu, Paul Maitla and Alfons Rebane.

Rebane was also on the radar for Canadian government officials, who noted his Nazi past. “Estonia has received significant international criticism for allowing ex-SS veterans to march in parades,” a Canadian Heritage official wrote in a 2021 email. “More recently, it was criticized for erecting a plaque that commemorates Alfons Rebane, an SS officer and Nazi collaborator, who did, however, fight the Soviets.”

The documents, obtained by the Ottawa Citizen using the Access to Information law, involved discussions over concerns that the names of Nazi collaborators could be on the Victims of Communism memorial in Ottawa.

Neither Hess nor the Estonian Central Council in Canada responded to a request from the Ottawa Citizen to provide evidence that the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center was working with the Russians or that the four men honoured on the monument were not members of the Waffen SS.

Kirzner-Roberts said the Estonian council’s claims were ridiculous. “Instead of using this moment to reflect on its history of wrongdoing, this camp has chosen to deny incontrovertible facts, make lame excuses, and smear Jewish community advocates with absurd accusations,” she said in an email. “Not for a moment has the camp taken responsibility for its role in glorifying Nazi war criminals in the eyes of Ontario’s children over the course of many decades. Not once has the camp shown a desire to address the harm it has caused. Everything about the camp’s response to our research has made this story even more sad and disturbing.”

Some Holocaust scholars have noted that, besides fighting for the Nazis, the Estonian SS division’s soldiers were involved in the executions of as many as 2,000 prisoners at the Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, subscribe: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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