Jewish group says monument at Elora summer camp honoured Nazis

ELORA – A Jewish group dedicated to Holocaust education allege an Estonian children’s summer camp in rural Centre Wellington has a monument honouring Estonian leaders involved with the Nazi military.

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) said it has uncovered evidence that a monument at Seedrioru, an Estonian children’s summer camp on Eighth Line west of Elora, honours four Estonian leaders of the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the Nazi Party and other military units involved in Nazi atrocities in World War II. 

According to its website, Seedrioru was established in 1955 and is an overnight summer camp dedicated to promoting Estonian cultural and social interests in southern Ontario.

FSWC said in a press release the monument erected in the 1970s at the camp is shaped like a sword and lists the names of Colonel Alfons Rebane, Harald Riipalu, Paul Maitla and Harald Nugiseks with the emblem of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 1st Estonian, engraved at the bottom. 

The four were the only Estonians awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award given to military personnel by the Nazis. 

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, FSWC’s senior director of policy and advocacy, said in an interview she was skeptical of this when first tipped off from a source.

“Frankly, it seemed too crazy to believe but indeed it was true,” said Kirzner-Roberts. “There is a monument honouring Nazi war criminals, military leaders that were involved in implementing the Holocaust in Estonia…We actually even have photos as recently as two weeks ago that show children honouring the monument and laying wreaths.”

Lia Hess, volunteer chair of the camp’s board, said in an email statement the camp does not and has never honoured Nazi collaborators. She said the monument was not erected by the camp specifically as Estonian history or politics are not part of the camp’s programming.

“The memorial was erected in the 1970s during the period of Soviet occupation. It was initiated and installed by Estonian war veterans who came to Canada as refugees in the late 1940s and 1950s. All have passed away,” Hess wrote. 

“Our understanding was that the purpose of a monument was only to remember the fallen who died in those specific battles defending Estonia.”

She said over the years Estonian community members have questioned the monument’s relevance and the names on it and therefore they had decided to remove the names on it with no objections.

FSWC said after attempting to engage with Seedrioru, all references to this monument were removed from its website.

Kirzner-Roberts said she wondered why a children’s camp would have such a monument but things became clearer as FSWC began researching the camp’s origins as the FSWC alleges 15 individuals involved in founding and running the camp themselves fought for the SS. 

“This is an insult, not just to the Jewish community but to all of Canada,” she said.

Hess did not respond to this allegation but told the Ottawa Citizen Seedrioru has no knowledge of this research or the identities of the 15 individuals alleged by FSWC to have founded the camp.

“One of our campers from the 1960s, Markus Hess, initiated the Global Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communist/Stalinist and Nazi regimes,” Hess said. 

“This official day of Remembrance in Canada is referred to as Black Ribbon Day and observed on Aug. 23 together with over 50 countries around the world.”

In World War II, Estonia initially declared neutrality but was first invaded by the Soviet Union and later Nazi Germany, the latter viewed by some as liberators from the Soviets.

“Estonians were caught up in a war they did not start or want and had no control over,” Hess wrote. “Tiny Estonia was run over and occupied first by the Soviet red army, then Nazi Germany and finally again by the Soviets who occupied Estonia for the next 50 years.”

Kirzner-Roberts said Estonian Jews were almost “entirely wiped out in the genocide.”

The FSWC has reached out to camp leadership, said Kirzner-Roberts, in the hopes of having a dialogue about this but their efforts were rebuffed.

Hess said she was unaware of earlier attempts to reach her but has reached out to FSWC to meet with them, discuss issues of mutual concern and strive to find solutions to this situation that has drawn unfavourable attention to the camp.

Kirzner-Roberts said she’d still like reconciliation to happen but called this a “stain on Canada” and emblematic of an ongoing problem with former Nazis in Canada living a life denied to millions of Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.

“It’s a legacy of these policies of tolerance and lenience towards Nazis in Canada in the post war period that have left us today with a situation where we have small children laying wreaths at a Nazi monument,” she said.