Latvia’s Past
As the son of a Latvian Jew whose family was almost entirely annihilated by Latvian and German Nazis during World War II, I feel I have the right to discuss the murder of my people, a right Peteris Gaide seems to question (Letters, Jan. 31).
After exhaustively researching my play “Riga” in the United States, Germany, Russia and Latvia, I can honestly say that, with very few but notable exceptions, the Latvian Christian population were by and large either eagerly cooperative with their Nazi overlords during the Holocaust or utterly indifferent.
While it is true that Latvian Christians suffered enormously under the Nazis and the Soviets, their suffering does not excuse collaboration with mass murder. While Latvia is indeed a tiny country, the Jews in Latvia were an even tinier minority, and were offered little comfort, safety or help by the majority.
It is time for Latvia to own up to its past, as has Germany, and even Switzerland, although kicking and screaming all the way.
WILLIAM M. HOFFMAN
New York
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