The Lavian musical production honoring the memory of Latvian aviator and Nazi war criminal Herbert Cukurs, which has been condemned by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, has outraged Jews in Latvia and abroad.
Cukurs joined a Nazi killing squad during World War II and infamously became known as the “Butcher of Riga” for his atrocities against Jews in the Riga ghetto. He is believed to be responsible for murdering 30,000 people, mostly Jews, during the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation of Latvia.
The musical is touring theaters across Latvia until February. Critics have argued that the show is attempting to whitewash the legacy of the Nazi, who was assassinated in Montevideo, Uruguay by a squad of Mossad agents in 1965.
However, producer Juris Millers claims that because Cukurs never stood trial due to the fact he fled to South America, his participation in the atrocities committed during the Holocaust remain unclear.
“Herbert Cukurs is still innocent if we are looking at him from a court system point of view,” Millers told The Associated Press. “There are a few people who testify that he was a killer and others who say that he was a hero.”
The Jewish community of Latvia strongly disagrees.
“There’s nothing to prove. He was a killer,” said Vitali Gotlib, a senior member of the Latvian Council for Jews. “To do a musical on this man in a civilized country is unacceptable.”
The group has condemned the play for glorifying a war criminal. Dozens of protesters dressed concentration camp uniforms stood outside Riga’s Concert Hall where the musical was shown earlier this month.
Latvian government officials have also condemned the show, describing Cukurs as a war criminal with prosecutors continually denying requests by his family for his memory to be rehabilitated.
Eyewitness accounts corroborate that Cukurs took part in the killing of Jews and the burning of synagogues in Riga. However, Millers compared the Nazi to Oskar Schindler, making the claim that Cukurs helped a handful of Jews escape.
“His story is similar to that of Schindler because he was working for the German forces and saving Jews at the same time,” Millers stated.
Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, has called the comparison absurd. He says there is testimony given shortly after the war by survivors describing how Cukurs was personally involved in the torture and killing of Jews in Latvia.
“No matter which way you look at this issue there is no doubt that Herbert Cukurs is a major war criminal,” Zuroff said.
Boris Maftsir, a Latvian-born Israeli film-maker, attended the musical during a recent visit to Riga, and said he was more disturbed by the reaction of the crowd.
“What shocked me was that after the show, they all gave it standing ovations. Hundreds of people, they applauded,” said Maftsir, whose maternal grandparents were killed in Riga during the Nazi’s occupation of Latvia. “Suddenly this Nazi officer can be a national hero. For me it was shocking.”