Erhard Kroeger

Erhard Kroeger or Kröger (24 March 1905, Riga – 24 September 1987) was a Baltic German SS officer involved in the resettlement of Baltic Germans before World War II. He commanded an Einsatzgruppe in 1941, and was later attached to General Andrey Vlasov and the German sponsored Russian Liberation Army of World War II. He was convicted of war crimes in 1969. Early years Erhard Kroeger grew up in Riga, Russian Empire, a member of the historic Baltic German minority there. In his youth, he played ice hockey with Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt. Kroeger made his name as an SS activist challenging the conservative Baltic German leadership of Wilhelm von Rüdiger and trying to Nazify the Latvian German minority before 1939. “In July 1937 the new VOMI chief ordered Eric Mundel, who in 1935 had replaced Rüdiger as the leader of the Volksgemeinschaft [Latvian German minority association], to bring Kröger into the leadership.”