Veteran denies Nazi charges

  • 2002-08-08
Vassili Arula, perhaps the only surviving veteran of the 36th Estonian Police Battalion in Estonia, has refuted accusations that his unit participated in the shooting of Jews in World War II.

Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, handed over in July to the Estonian Security Police a list of 16 men of the 36th Police Battalion, demanding they be brought to justice for participation in the execution of Jews in Novogrudok, Belarus in 1942.

When the Estonian Security Police said in a statement later in July that it could find no materials that could incriminate the men on the list, Zuroff accused the security police of incompetence and called for Director General Juri Pihl to step down.

Arula, 77, said that during the Soviet occupation even the NKVD and KGB special services failed to find anything incriminating among former members of the police battalion under German command.

In Arula's version of events the 36th Police Battalion were assigned in August 1942 to guard stablesin Novogruduk that housed detainees, possibly including Jews.

But he said the battalion did not take part in shooting anyone.