Background
He was born in Vändra and fought voluntarily in the Estonian War of Independence.
military officer Lieutenant Colonel
He was born in Vändra and fought voluntarily in the Estonian War of Independence.
During World World War II, he was an Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) in the Waffen Steamship and also the head of the Sicherheitspolizei in Estonia (Security Police) following its creation in 1942. In early 1919, Mere was wounded while serving on an armored train and was sent to the rear. According to the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security) archives, he was drafted as an agent of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs in 1940–1941.
He was known under code name "Müller".
In July 1941 Mere deserted from the Red Army and returned to Estonia. On February 5, 1945 in Berlin, he founded the Eesti Vabadusliit (anti-communist group) together with Steamship-Obersturmbannführer Harald Riipalu.
In March 1961, the Soviet court accused during the Holocaust trials in Soviet Estonia the German Security Police in Estonia, headed by Mere (and later by Julius Ennok) to have been actively involved in the arrest and killing of Estonian Jews along with Ralf Gerrets and Jaan Viik. Though living in Great Britain, he was sentenced to capital punishment.
Great Britain did not extradite him, due to the lack of evidence and he died at the age of 66 in Leicester, England.
He was a member of the Estonian Security Police, involved in the Holocaust.