Alfons Rebane

Alfons Vilhelm Robert Rebane (24 June 1908 – 8 March 1976) was an Estonian military commander. He was the most highly decorated Estonian military officer during World War II, serving in various Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units of Nazi Germany.

World War II

Rebane served as an officer in the Estonian Army until Soviet troops occupied the country in 1940. The Soviets disbanded and absorbed most of the Estonian Armed Forces and arrested and executed the entire Estonian high command. Many junior officers, such as Rebane, were dismissed due to their lack of "political reliability" and were liable to be deported. For a while, Rebane worked in construction, then fled into the forests when the Soviets began mass deportations in 1941. He established and led a group of Forest Brothers in Virumaa (Northern Estonia) in May 1941.

After Germany had taken control of Estonia, Rebane joined the German Wehrmacht where he served in its combat formations in Northwestern Russia, subsequently becoming the captain of the 184th Security Battalion, which was later renamed to the Estonian 658th Eastern Battalion. In February 1944 Rebane's unit was transferred to the Narva Front and attached to the Wehrmacht's 26th Army Corps on 2 March. On 27 April 1944, the unit was released from the Wehrmacht. Rebane, after initially refusing, was forced to join With most of the Estonian forces captured by the Soviet Army in Czechoslovakia, Rebane managed to reach the British Occupation Zone with a number of his men at the end of the war. Rebane became one of the most decorated Estonians. During his days in the Estonian Army, he was awarded the Defence League White Cross 3rd Class and the Latvian Aizsargi Cross of Merit. In the German army he was awarded the Iron Cross first and second class, the War Merit Cross with swords second class, the Eastern Front Medal, the silver Infantry Assault Badge and the silver Ostvolk Medal for bravery. Rebane was also decorated with the silver Close Combat Clasp, awarded for hand-to-hand fighting by unsupported infantry for a total of 30 days. In February 1944 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and in April 1945 he was promoted to Waffen-Standartenführer and awarded the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves for extreme bravery on the battlefield.

Post war In 1947 Rebane moved to England and joined the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) as the Estonian expert at the Intelligence School in London. There he played a key role in assisting the armed resistance to the Soviet rule in Estonia and other Baltic countries. He led the Estonian portion of MI6's Operation Jungle well into the 1950s. In 1961, Rebane retired from the British intelligence services

Legacy

Document from Moscow archive to Estonian SSR that declares that they don't have any information suggesting that Alfons Rebane participated in any war crimes. 1965. In 1977, and Beate Klarsfeld alleged Rebane was a war criminal. According to a 2005 report published by the Estonian State Commission on the Examination of the Policies of Repression, investigations conducted by the KGB after World War II found no documents confirming the accusation against Rebane and his "army unit".

The return and reburial of Rebane's ashes with military honours at a national cemetery in 1999 in Estonia sparked a controversy. The American Jewish Congress protested that the reburial served as an "indication that fascist ideology is recognized in Estonia". A tombstone to Rebane, unofficially erected in 2004 but unveiled before Pärnumaa District Parliamentarian and former Foreign Minister Trivimi Velliste, was protested by Russia's Chief Rabbi, Berl Lazar and the Russian Jewish Congress.

The Estonian authorities assert that the Estonian Waffen-SS units engaged solely in combat operations at the front to defend Estonia's independence and had nothing to do with punitive operations in the territories occupied by the Nazi Germany. According to the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves "We are witnesses to the information war against Estonia which already reminds of an ideological aggression". According to the editor of Virumaa Teataja newspaper Rein Sikk: "Alfons Rebane was a good soldier according to our historians. He was never convicted of war crimes and [the allegations] are just a political game to try to show that Estonia has lots of fascists." The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested the unveiling.

Awards Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (9 April 1943) 1st Class (9 November 1943) 875th Oak Leaves on 9 May 1945 as Obersturmbannführer and commander of Waffen-Grenadier-Regiment of the SS 46