Jewish advocacy group takes issue with monument for Estonian Nazi veterans at summer camp

The Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (SWCHS) said there is a Nazi monument on the property at the Seedrioru Estonian Summer Camp, located south west of Elora near Inverhaugh.

They allege on it are the names of Estonian military leaders that fought for the Waffen-SS in World War II, the military wing of the Nazi Party.

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy of SWCHS, told The Mike Farwell Show her organization learned about the monument from a tip from the public. They immediately launched an investigation.

“We started doing a lot of research about the history of the camp and we were able to identify at least fifteen of the founders of the camp who were themselves members of the SS. It looks like SS combatants that managed to make their way into this country after the war, formed this camp.”

The camp told 570 NewsRadio Kitchener in a statement that, “Estonians will always condemn all war crimes and acts of terror perpetrated by both the Nazi and Soviet regimes.”

“The Estonian and Jewish communities share a common hatred and disgust of all totalitarian and oppressive regimes.”

The statement also says that the camp has operated on private property as a non-profit organization for close to 70 years and has focused on teaching and preserving the Estonian language, customs and traditions.

“We reiterate that the Estonian Summer Camp does not now and has never honored Nazi collaborators and our children have never been indoctrinated into worshipping Nazi leaders as alleged,” the statement reads.

According to the camp, the statue was installed in the 1980s by Estonian war veterans who came to Canada as refugees in the late 1940s and 1950s.

“On the front, is the most essential plaque with the wording from our Epic folk legend “Kalevipoeg”  Vahvamaida Varjuseina Kodumaada Kaitsemaie. Translation:“ like a brave protective wall, we will defend our Homeland.”

Kirzner-Roberts said SWCHS reached out to camp leadership in hopes of establishing a dialogue but those calls went unanswered.

According to Lia Hess, the camp’s chairperson, she reached out to to Kirzner-Roberts on behalf of the board of directors. Allegedly Hess was met with what she calls “hostility and further accusations.”

“As a volunteer at the camp, I was expecting a respectful discussion regarding her inaccurate accusations of the Estonian children’s camp’s purpose,” she said in the statment.

Kirzner-Roberts told 570 NewsRadio Kitchener that a the camp deleted “evidence” of the monument from its website.

Before the images was removed, SWCHS was able to capture pictures that show children laying wreaths at the monument. Kirzner-Roberts said that is wildly inappropriate.

“They were Nazis and they perpetrated the holocaust in Estonia. They were responsible for implementing the genocide of Jews in Estonia. These are not people that should be honoured and commemorated here in Canada, least of all by children.”