Russian Defense Ministry Publishes Documents Revealing Nazi Atrocities In Estonia

The Russian Defense Ministry published a number of documents on Saturday, revealing the atrocities committed by the Nazi troops in Estonia in 1944 amid the 75th anniversary of the operation to liberate Tallinn from the German occupation

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2019) The Russian Defense Ministry published a number of documents on Saturday, revealing the atrocities committed by the Nazi troops in Estonia in 1944 amid the 75th anniversary of the operation to liberate Tallinn from the German occupation.

Earlier in the day, the ministry opened the access to a multimedia project on its website dubbed "Tallinn liberation..." dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the city from the Nazi occupants. The publication comes amid yet another accusation from the Estonian authorities concerning the damage inflicted on Estonia during the so-called Soviet occupation (when Estonia joined the Soviet Union in 1940, as a result of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact) and the demand for compensation.

"The documents published as part of the historical project revealed that on September 19, 1944, when the units of the Leningrad army group were rapidly advancing to the Nazi concentration camp in the Klooga, the Hitlerite butchers committed a mass slaughter killing almost all captives in the camp in an attempt to cover up their atrocities," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the witnesses, the Nazis shot down and burnt alive about 3,000 people, including civilians, war prisoners of various nationalities, women and children. Before the execution the captives were forced to collect woods and told that after that they would be sent to Germany, but in reality they were looking for the woods for the mass burning of themselves.

The documents also revealed that Nazis were massively executing the Jews in Estonia. Just several days before fleeing Tallinn, the Nazis evacuated all Jews held in captivity and drowned them in the sea.

The experts say that during the Great Patriotic War 61,000 civilians and 64,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in Estonia by the Nazis and their collaborators.