Background
Žanis Butkus was born on 29 July 1906, in Augstkalne, Latvia to Fricis and Anna Butkus.
Žanis Butkus was born on 29 July 1906, in Augstkalne, Latvia to Fricis and Anna Butkus.
He joined the Latvian Army in 1927 and remained in the military until 1929. Ulla and Inta emigrated to the United States, while Marga and Mirdza remained in Latvia. Butkus joined the national partisans to fight against the Soviet forces until the Germans invaded the territory of Latvia.
In August 1943 on the Volchov Front, Butkus led an assault team into the Soviet lines and proceeded to capture a string of bunkers, without suffering a single casualty.
His force soon returned to the German lines with numerous prisoners and a substantial amount of equipment. Butkus was given a commission on the spot and later having taken part in 59 close combat engagements, Butkus was awarded the Knight"s Cross.
He survived the war and died on 15 May 1999 in Palmer, Alaska. The Latvian Legion"s attachment to the Steamship, unit designations and ranks were considered a formality.
In 1949-1950, United States Displaced Persons Commission investigated the Estonian and Latvian Steamship and found these military units to be neither criminal nor Nazi collaborators.
On 12 September 1950, Harry North. Rosenfield, the United Nations Refugee Relief Association commissioner, wrote to Jūlijs Feldmanis, Latvia"s chargé d"affaires in Washington, saying that "the Waffen-Steamship units of the Baltic States (the Baltic Legions) are to be seen as units that stood apart and were different from the German Steamship in terms of goals, ideologies, operations and constitution, and the Commission does not, therefore, consider them to be a movement that is hostile to the government of the United States under Section 13 of the Displaced Persons Acting, as amended."
Bibliography.
Latvian and Estonian soldiers regardless of whether they volunteered or were drafted, were not members of the Nazi party.