Ants Kaljurand | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Mugshot of Kaljurand in mid-1900s | |
| Nickname(s) | Terrifying Ants [1] |
| Born | 20 October 1917 Tallinn, Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire |
| Died | 13 March 1951 (aged 33) Tallinn, Estonia |
| Allegiance |  Estonia (1938-1940) Nazi Germany (1942-1944) RVL (1945-1949) |
| Service/ | Estonian Defense Forces Estonian Defense League Omakaitse Waffen-SS Armed Combat Union |
| Known for | Being a Forest Brother |
| Battles/wars | Guerrilla war in the Baltic states Summer War |
Ants Kaljurand (20 October 1917 – 13 March 1951)[2] popularly known as Terrifying Ants, (Estonian: Hirmus Ants), was an Estonian Nazi collaborator, anti-communist, and forest brother during and after World War II.
Ants Kaljurand was born on 20 October 1917 in Tallinn.[2] His mother Juula was born in 1887. There is no information about his father.[2] Kaljurand grew up in the village of Teesu near Pidula Bay on the island of Saaremaa. He graduated from Pidula Primary School.
In 1935, he went to Koonga Parish (now Lääneranna Parish) in Pärnu County to work as a farm laborer on Sepa Farm. In 1938, he served in the Estonian Defense Forces and then continued on as a laborer on Sepa Farm.[3]
Kaljurand joined the Forest Brothers and in the summer of 1941, attacked Soviet forces in Lääne and Pärnu Counties.[2] Between 1942 and 1944, during the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany, he served in the collaborationist paramilitary Omakaitse and later on the front as part of the Waffen-SS.[4] After the retreat of the Germans in 1944, he remained a prisoner of war on Saaremaa, but escaped from the prison camp in December of the same year and continued his activities in the Forest Brothers.[2]
During Estonia's Soviet era, Kaljurand served as the local leader of the Armed Combat Union (Relvastatud Võitluse Liit), founded under the leadership of Endel Redlich, in Soontaga.
It was not until midsummer 1949 that the NKVD arrested him.[2][5]
On 24 June 1949 Ants Kaljurand and two members of his squad were discovered sleeping in the woods near the village of Võitra. Forest Brother Aleksander Valter and Arved Pill were seriously wounded in an exchange of fire. Ants tried to escape, but was wounded with a bayonet and captured.[6]
Kaljurand, Pill and Juhan Metsaäär were sentenced to death, others to from ten to twenty-five years in a prison camp. They were executed on 13 March 1951.[2][7]
On 10 July 2011 a memorial stone of Ants Kaljurand was unveiled at the Mihkli Church in Koonga Parish, Pärnu County, on the initiative of the Estonian Defense League.[8]
