Iron wolf
The Iron Wolf ( Geležinis vilkas ) was a fascist fighting league that was founded in 1927 under the authoritarian government of the Lithuanian President Antanas Smetona and the Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras .
history
Originally founded as a sports club, the Iron Wolf was paramilitary from the start - like its role model, the Italian Black Shirts. The organization's chief of staff was Algirdas Sliesoraitis , but the iron wolf was in fact subordinate to Voldemaras, who tried to secure his power with the help of the Kampfbund.
In the years from 1927 to 1929, the Iron Wolf made a name for itself primarily through violent riots. In 1929 there was an accumulation of anti-Polish and anti-Jewish riots, which culminated in the "Excesses of Slobodka" of August 2, 1929, during which members of the Iron Wolf systematically hounded Jews through Kaunas and beat them up. In 1932 there was an indictment and on May 26 the verdicts were pronounced. Among the 17 defendants were four detectives, eight police officers and five members of the fascist Kampfbund Eisener Wolf . All officers were sentenced to several months in prison.
After Voldemaras' overthrow by Smetona in late 1929, the Iron Wolf openly sided with Voldemaras, whereupon the organization was officially dissolved. Under the command of Sliesoraitis, however, the association remained active underground and planned several coups as early as 1930 to overthrow Smetona and enable Voldemaras to return to the center of power. In 1934 there was finally a coup attempt by the Lithuanian air force officers planned by the Iron Wolf, but this was suppressed.
The Iron Wolf, who had been openly fascist from the start, increasingly sought contact with the German National Socialists and the Lithuanian social philosopher Antanas Maceina , who in turn had been strongly influenced by the nationalist movement . On the eve of the Second World War , numerous members of the Iron Wolf organized themselves in the openly National Socialist League of Lithuanian Activists ( Lietuvių aktyvistų sąjunga - LAS), the Lithuanian Activist Front ( Lietuvių aktyvistų frontas - LAF) and the party of Lithuanian nationalists ( Lietuvos nacionalistųija ), whose members took part in massacres of the Jewish population of Lithuania during the Second World War .
Web links
- Artūras Svarauskas: Lietuvos politinės dešinės radikalizacija XX. a. ketvirtame dešimtmetyje
- Gediminas Rudys: Antisemitinės tendencijos voldemarininkų judėjime 1928-1940 m. (DOC file; 77 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jewish weekly. The truth. XLVIII. Volume, Vienna, June 3, 1932, number 23, p. 3 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.4 MB), accessed on April 6, 2013
