Soviet Repression and Estonian Forest Brothers

Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 assault bombers over the Baltics

20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS

Former SS-Schütze Ülo Altermann of the Estonian Forest Brothers

The Red Air Force conducted an air raid, leveling the historic town of Narva on March 6 1944. Soviet air assaults against civilians in Estonian towns were a part of the offensive, aimed at forcing the Estonians away from supporting the German side. Nevertheless, the European Waffen-SS volunteers succeeded in holding the western bank of the Narva River throughout the spring of 1944. Hundreds of thousands Baltic nationals took refuge from the Soviet army by fleeing to Germany and Sweden. For the next fifty years the people of Estonia would pay for their complicity with the Reich, a debt paid by their inclusion in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As Stalinist repression intensified over the following years, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans, known colloquially as the Forest Brothers, waged unsuccessful guerrilla warfare against the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II in a bid to regain their nations' independence (1944-1953). Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's authorization of a full withdrawal from Estonia in mid-September 1944 allowed any soldiers of his Estonian forces, who wished to stay and defend their homes to do so. Many Estonian Waffen-SS men evaded capture and fought as Forest Brothers in the countryside for years after the war. Captured freedom fighters often faced torture and summary execution while their relatives faced deportation to Russian Siberia. Top image: Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircrafts, also called Sturmovik, of the 6th Assault Aviation Corps in flight over the Baltics in 1944. Credit: Olga Shirnina. USSR photo. Middle image: Estonian SS volunteers getting ready to be sent to the northern parts of the Eastern Front to fight off the Soviets in 1944. PD. Bottom image: Estonian Forest Brothers cleaning their German guns in Järva County in Estonia in 1953. At front is SS veteran and leader of the squad Ülo Altermann 1923-54 and behind him is Erich Aleksander Teor 1924-54, Voldemar Juga/Johanson 1928-53 and Elmar Martins 1929-54. By the late 1940s and early 1950s the Forest Brothers were provided with supplies, liaison officers and logistical coordination by the British MI6, American and Swedish secret intelligence services. Credit: Julius Backman. PD.