Figure 1.--Here we see Alex in his Waffen-SS uniform and we think his savior, Sgt. Jekabs Kulis. We are unsure about the soldier on the white. He may be a RAD youth, thry wee sometimes used in labor battalions and wore white uniforms. They are at a train station. Note the boxcars in the background. They look like the ones used to transport Jews.

As a Latvian Waffen-SS mascot, Alex witnessed terrible attrocities. Alex saw attrocities in the German occupied areas of the East. He saw SS Einsatzgruppen killing operations beginnning with the one in his home village. He remembers one terrible action when the battalion rounded up dozens of women and children and barricaded them in a synagogue. They then set it on fire. This was the infamous Slonim massacre . Some 1,600 Jews were burned alive. Alex recounts how, "Soldiers were prodding people into the synagogue, then they hammered wooden planks across the doors and windows. They put bunches of burning sticks and branches against the building and in a flash it caught fire. The flames spread quickly and then terrible wails began. Women and children broke out, running into the road in flames. No one helped them, they burned where they fell." Those who escaped were shot by three soldiers. One of the shooters was Sgt. Kulis, the man who was protecting him. Alex tells how he was used by the soldiers. He was told to hand out candy outside transport trains. This helped calm down Jews being transported to the death camps, making them easier to handle. We see Alex here in front of some of the transports (figure 1). I do not know if he knew what happened on the other end or to what extent the men talked about it. Having witnessed killing operations, he mist have assumed thst they were being trabnsported to their death.

Created: 5:39 AM 6/28/2012
Last updated: 5:39 AM 6/28/2012