The USSR’s takeover of Latvia from 1940-1941 is referred to in the country as the Soviet Occupation, with the Soviets enforcing harsh policies, banning all political parties except the Communist party, and deporting thousands of Latvians to Siberian gulags, or forced labor camps built mainly for political prisoners. The main groups targeted in these initial deportations were intellectuals, army officers and members of the Latvian government, along with their families. On the 14th of June, 1941 more than 15000 Latvians were sent to the gulag, one of many waves of deportations.
Workers in a gulag (Source: visitberlin.de)
Despite the signing of the non-aggression pact in 1939, after defeating France Nazi Germany turned on the Soviets and launched Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941. Stalin had refused to believe that Hitler was planning to attack him, and so the USSR was caught completely unprepared, and the German army advanced all the way up to the outskirts of Moscow. Because of the illegal Soviet takeover and the harsh rules they implemented, many Latvians welcomed the Nazis as liberators, thinking they would restore Latvia’s independence. The truth was actually the exact opposite, as Hitler had no plan to rebuild these countries, and Latvia was instead placed under the control of the Nazi province of Ostland, which also included Belarus and the other Baltic states.
A map of the German invasion during Operation Barbarossa (Source: sembury.weebly.com)
Both the Soviets and the Nazis used Latvian soldiers against each other, with the Nazis creating a volunteer Waffen-SS unit, the Latvian Legion. The SS was the armed wing of the Nazi party, and served as Nazi Germany's special forces. However, as the Latvian volunteers were not “pure" Germans, these soldiers were SS only in name, and most of them signed up to fight the Communists, who they viewed as a bigger threat than the Germans.
Latvian Legionnares (Source: wikipedia.com)
Eventually the tides of the war on the Eastern front turned when Germany lost the battle of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, and the Soviets started pushing them back. As the Soviet army approached many Latvians began to panic and thousands fled to Sweden and Germany, with many of these refugees immigrating to the US and Canada after the war. By the 13th of October, 1944 the Soviets had retaken Riga, and the rest of the German army in Latvia retreated to Kurzeme, an area in Western Latvia, where they held out until the end of the war.
Jews being executed in Latvia (Source: yadvashem.org)
The Holocaust was also carried out during the German occupation of Latvia, and while most Latvians didn’t actively participate in it, most also did nothing to help the Jews. The Nazis used propaganda to co-opt the populace, as there was not had not been very much anti-Semitism in Latvia before the German occupation. The Nazi regime killed 70000 Latvian Jews, the overwhelming majority of Latvia’s Jewish population, and 20000 more Jews brought in from other German occupied areas that were by train. After Germany surrendered the Soviet army immediately reoccupied Latvia and restored the Communist rule.