The Germans did succeed in forming Latvian and Estonian SS legions. The Germans, encouraged by this success, urged the Lithuanians to follow their Baltic neighbors. In January 1943, the SS Police Chief Maj. Gen. Wysocki conferred with Lithuanian colonels Antanas Rėklaitis and Oskaras Urbonas, both veterans of the liquidated Lithuanian army. The purpose was to enroll them into the SS. Rėklaitis relates his meeting with Wysocki:
"After a few introductory comments, general Wysocki turned to me, saying 'Herr Oberst (Colonel) Rėklaitis, you are assigned the Chief of the Lithuanian SS First Regiment, which will be the nucleus of the whole legion.
'You will receive the rank, uniform and pay of a colonel in the German army. After the war you will receive one of the best estates in the Ukraine.
'Do you agree to organize the Lithuanian SS First Regiment?'"
Rėklaitis, just like Urbonas, categorically refused to organize Lithuanian SS units.
The Germans did not easily give up their intentions to organize 30-40 thousand professionally trained Lithuanians for the German war efford. These Lithuanian units were to have been stationed outside Lithuania, possibly in Poland. Apparently the Germans were unwilling to station armed Lithuanians in Lithuania because they still remembered the 1941 Lithuanian revolt against the Soviets. Favorable circumstances could have again allowed Lithuanians to shake off the German occupational forces.
Starting in early 1942, the Generalkomissar for Lithuania, Dr. Adrian von Renteln, attempted to mobilize the Lithuanians with Lithuanian hands. This would have made it appear that the Lithuanians themselves were mobilizing to aid the Germans. The fact became evident in a meeting where the author was a participant. From the Lithuanian point of view, immediate action was necessary to prevent the German plans from reaching fulfillment.
The Lithuanian General Councilors (Tarėjai), as local administrative officials of occupied Lithuania, took the initiative. In an illegal meeting February 16,1943, Lithuanian Independence Day, the councilors and other participants unanimously decided to send a memorandum to the Supreme Command via von Renteln. The memorandum stressed that Lithuania was an occupied country, as defined by the regulations of the Den Haag Peace Conference of 1907. According to the laws laid down at this convention, men from occupied countries cannot be mobilized to the front.
Nevertheless, the Germans established the headquarters for forming a Lithuanian SS legion in the city of Kaunas in early 1943. The office used all available media for its propaganda, urging the youth to join the legion. Extravagant rewards were promised in the recruitment campaign. The Lithuanian underground publications, reflecting the greatest divergence of ideological and political views, opposed the recruitment without exception. The youth did not join, as if boycotting the SS legion. The Germans again did not achieve their goals.
Renteln then attempted to obligate the local Lithuanian administration into mobilizing Lithuania. He sent selected councilors to meet with the Reichskomissar for Ostland, Heinrich Lohse, in the capital of Latvia, Riga. Lithuania was part of the German administrative unit Ostland which included the Baltic republics and Byelorussia. There the councilors met with the SS Obergruppenfiihrer and police general Friedrich Jackeln, who demanded a Lithuanian SS legion to be immediately formed. The representatives avoided the demands imposed on them any way they could. They withheld the pressure. Jackeln, infuriated, stated that the Germans would undertake the mobilization themselves. Their attempts were unsuccessful: Only the bow-legged and hunchbacks, unfit for service, responded to the conscription.
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Still, Renteln did not give up. He called the Lithuanian councilors (to a meeting held February 28,1943. The author was also present at this meeting. In addition to the Lithuanians, Renteln's entire staff was present. Also present was the military commander for the Lithuanian protective zone, Maj. Gen. Emil Just with his staff. He, a long time representative to the Republic of Lithuania before the war, was reserved at the meeting.
Renteln started the meeting with a long speech about Hitler's aims of liberating Europe from the Bolshevic threat Hitler, according to Renteln, was to determine the status of occupied nations after the war. Naturally, the Germans had no doubts about victory. All in all, his speech was a "love song" for Lithuanian ears. It seemed as if he cared for Lithuania much more than the Lithuanians did themselves. The speech was wonderful, had clever rhetoric, but the conclusion was an overused cliche: The Lithuanians need to scratch Germany's back for the kindness it has shown. This would be an appropriate gesture of thanks on part of the Lithuanians. The only kindness Germans had shown was foggy promises. In other words, the general councilors themselves were to mandate the conscription of recruits into the SS.
The councilors retorted well to the demands. First of all, the councilors were not legally competent to conscript the nation because they were not a constitutional body with such rights. Second, the Lithuanians knew very well that Lithuania was occupied. They would not listen to the orders of a foreign influenced, unconstitutional administration.
This, of course, infuriated the Germans. They retaliated against the Lithuanians harshly. Renteln ordered 46 prominent figures, including those who voiced their opposition in the meeting, to be deported to the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig. The arrests and deportations occurred March 25-26, 1943. A list of these individuals, including the author, is given in the appendix. In addition, many schools of higher education were closed. These included the universities in Kaunas and Vilnius, the Lithuanian Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academies of Veterinary Medicine and Agricultural Sciences, the Art School, the Institute of Education, the Institute of Applied Arts, the Vilnius Philharmonium, the Conservatory of Music, the Teachers' Seminar.
Nationalists march in Vilnius 2012
Originally Posted by AlbertoLT
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