Position:Home>History> WWII. "Judenfrei" (free of Jews) areas.?

Because Estonia had a much smaller Jewish population, approx 4,300 prior to the German Invasion, the Nazi Death squads after slaughtering approx 2,500 of them felt confident declared Estonia to be Jew Free!. Both bravado and as a birthday gift for Himmler!.

The Jewish populations of Lithuania and Lativia were larger and in Lithuania there were more places to hide so some Jews were able to avoid the death squads!. Jews were not so lucky in Estonia where a predominately Roman Catholic population eagerly helped the Nazis to hunt down Jews!.

http://depts!.washington!.edu/baltic/paper!.!.!.
"""Of the approximately 4,300 Jews in Estonia prior to the war, between 1,500 and 2,000 were entrapped by the Nazis!. These Jews also met their death at the hands of the German Einsatzgruppe!. Estonia was declared "Jew free" by that group!.

Survivors and Aftermath

There were only about 25,000 Jewish survivors of the war in Latvia!. 18,000 of these survived by fleeing into central Russia!. 5,000 were able to flee elsewhere, while there were only around 200 who survived by being hidden by gentiles!. Other Jews survived by joining the partisans or the Red Army forces, most notably the Latvian Strelki 130 Corp!.

In Lithuania, there were approximately 17,000 Jewish survivors!. Approximately 1000 Jews were rescued by the non-Jewish population!. 10,000 were members of the partisans, 1,600 joined the Lithuanian Rifle division of the Red Army of which about half were Jews, and 2,000 participated in the war as soldiers in other Soviet forces or the Polish forces!. 2,000 others survived as resistance fighters in the labor camps and Ghettos!. The Catholic church in Lithuania forbade help to the Jews, and in fact, members of the clergy sent Hitler a congratulatory note on the event of the invasion (Levin, p!.334)""

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