Cukurs Case Is a Prime Example of Mistaken Identit

Herberts Albert Cukurs was a Latvian aviator, aircraft designer, a national hero of Latvia… and an alleged serial mass murderer. He allegedly served as the deputy commander of the notorious Arajs Kommando, a collaborationist unit that carried out the largest mass murders of Latvian Jews during the Holocaust.

The only problem is that there is not a shred of evidence that proves the abovementioned capital charge. Only statements of witnesses who can easily make colossal mistakes – especially given their genuinely hellish experiences.

Moreover, there was absolutely nothing in the pre-war life of Herberts Cukurs that even hints at any kind of anti-Semitism (let alone such a murderous one that he was charged with).

As a pioneering long-distance pilot, Cukurs won national acclaim for his international solo flights in the 1930s (Latvia-Gambia and Riga-Tokyo). He was awarded the Harmon Trophy for Latvia in 1933, and was rightfully considered a national hero, like Charles Lindbergh in the USA.

Cukurs designed and built at least three aircraft. In 1937, he made a 45,000 km tour visiting Japan, China, Indochina and India, flying the monoplane of his own design. Now why would such an accomplished man whj always stayed out of politics of any kind want to mass murder Jews???

Cukurs designed the Cukurs C-6bis prototype dive bomber in 1940. After the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, Cukurs was summoned to Moscow in an attempt to recruit him to build planes for the Soviet Union.

Ever being a Latvian patriot, he said “no” … but surprisingly was let go – he did not spend even an hour in jail. However, it is possible that Stalin got his revenge in a different way – he ordered a smear campaign that ultimately resulted in savage murder of Cukurs by Mossad agents.

In this campaign, NKVD used Holocaust survivors who got so fanatically insane (not surprise here given the genuine Hell that they lived in for years) that they essentially forced the Israeli government to go after Cukurs.

During the war, Cukurs allegedly worked for Luftwaffe (which was probably true) so, not surprisingly, in 1944 he retreated to Germany with German forces and after the war fled to Brazil via the proverbial ratlines.

In Brazil, Cukurs established a business in S;o Paulo, flying Republic RC-3 Seabees on scenic flights. While living in South America, he neither hid nor tried to conceal his identity). Which was another proof that he had nothing to hide.

What really happened in 1965, is still shrouded in mystery. The most likely scenario is that some overzealous Holocaust survival got so vocal about Cukurs that he essentially forced the Mossad to dispatch a team to South America to kidnap Cukurs (Eichmann-style) and bring him to Israel to stand trial (ditto).

Agents found Cukurs (which was easy as he was not hiding from anyone) and persuaded him to travel to Uruguay under the pretense of starting an aviation business. Mossad agent Yaakov Meidad who had taken part in the capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, cabled Cukurs from Montevideo.

Cukurs was invited to a house in a remote suburb of the city that had just been rented by a man from Vienna… and then a genuine Hell broke loose. The Hell was triggered by a message from Israel that there was not enough evidence to convict Cukurs of anything and that the operation must be aborted (I sincerely doubt that Mossad director ordered the brutal murder of Cukurs – it was not Mossad style).

The Jewish fanatics who somehow got into Mossad (the latter prefers level-headed agents) would have none of it. So, they attacked Cukurs, who – ever a hero – bravely fought back.

According to the coroner’s report, he was beaten to death with a hammer and shot several times post-mortem. His body was found in the trunk of an abandoned car; next to his body, several documents were left that allegedly proved to his involvement in the murder of Jews in the Riga Ghetto.

In 2006, Latvian Prosecutor General’s Office opened an official (as supposed to amateurish) investigation into Herbert Cukurs’ possible involvement in the serial mass murder of Jewish civilians in Latvia.

It sent requests for documentary and other evidence to Russia, Germany, Brazil (where Cukurs lived after the war) and Israel. The prosecutor’s office considered the documents received from Russia to be forgeries – as was just about all “documentary evidence” in all political trials in the Soviet Union under Stalin.

Israel did not respond (no surprise, given that rogue Mossad agents brutally murdered an innocent man based on hearsay), and based on the Brazilian and German documents, investigators ruled that none of the charges could be proven.

More specifically, there was no proof that Cukurs participated in the Rumbula shooting or the burning of the Riga synagogues. There is not a shred of evidence that Cukurs had been at the pits at Rumbula, and that it has not been proven that he was “the most eager shooter of Jews in Latvia”… or that he shot even one Jew.

After 13 years of investigation, the case was closed.