Aleksander Laak | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1907-08-24)24 August 1907 |
| Died | 6 September 1960(1960-09-06) (aged 53) |
| Cause of death | Suicide by hanging |
| Other names | Alexander Laak |
| Known for | Commandant ofJägala concentration camp |
| Motive | Nazism |
| Details | |
Span of crimes | 1942–1943 |
| Country | German-occupied Estonia |
| Location | Jägala concentration camp |
| Killed | 2,000 – 10,000 |
Aleksander (Alexander) Laak (24 August 1907 – 6 September 1960)[1] was a lieutenant and the commander of theJägala concentration camp during theGerman occupation of Estonia.[2]
The estimates for the number of killed at Jägala concentration camp vary widely. TheSoviet investigators reached the conclusion that 2,000–3,000 were killed in Jägala andKalevi-Liiva taken together, but the number 5,000 (as determined by theExtraordinary State Commission in 1944) was written into the verdict.[3][4]
In modern sources, the number 10,000 occurs.[5][6][7] Some commentators have also given figures ranging from 100,000 (Michael Elkins,[8]Jonathan Freedland[9]) to 125,000 to 300,000 (Warren Kinsella), however, such figures contradict the findings of theEstonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity and also the estimates of scholars who place the number of total Jewish victims for the Estonia of 1941–1944 at 8,500.[10]
Aleksander Laak was also known to have arranged drunken orgies with female inmates, who were forced to participate and then murdered.[11][12][13]
He emigrated to Canada after World War II, in 1948. In 1960, he was implicated in theHolocaust trials in Soviet Estonia,[14][15] and exposed as living as a naturalized Canadian citizen under the name ofAlex Laak in suburbanWinnipeg, Manitoba, Canada by the Soviet news agencyTASS and Canadian journalists.[16][11][17][18][19]
Thereafter, after reading of the arrests ofJaan Viik andRalf Gerrets (both of whom were later convicted of war crimes, sentenced to death, and executed in 1961) for mass killings of mostly Jewish East Europeans while under Nazi occupation, and being himself identified as a mass murderer, he apparently committed suicide by hanging himself in the garage of his home or carbon monoxide asphyxiation[20] at the age of 53, on 6 September 1960.[9][11][16][17][14][21][22][23][24][25][26] Prior to his death, Laak admitted to being a collaborator, but said he had nothing to do with Jägala.[20][27]
It has been speculated that Laak was killed by vigilantes.[28] Israeli journalist Michael Elkins claimed that Laak was in fact confronted one day after his wife had left their house to go to the movies, by aJewish Avenger squad that clandestinely murdered Nazis. He was, according to Elkins, confronted with his crimes, and their intended punishment, and he accepted their offer of being allowed to commit suicide rather than be killed.[9][13][17][29] An investigation of the death was reopened in 1991.[17][26] Laak's friends said he killed himself to protect relatives in Canada and back in Estonia from potential reprisals.[30]
Aleksander Laak.
