Aviation career (1930s–1941) As a pioneering long-distance pilot, Cukurs won national acclaim for his international solo flights in the 1930s (Latvia-
Gambia and
Riga-
Tokyo). Cukurs built at least three aircraft of his own design. In 1937, he made a tour visiting
Japan,
China,
Indochina and
India, flying the C 6 wooden
monoplane "Trīs zvaigznes" (registration
YL-ABA) of his own creation. The aircraft was powered by a
De Havilland Gipsy engine. Cukurs also designed the
Cukurs C-6bis prototype
dive bomber in 1940. After the
Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, Cukurs was summoned to Moscow in an attempt to recruit him to build planes for the
Soviet Union.
Participation in the Holocaust (1941–1944) In mid-1941, during the
German occupation of Latvia, Cukurs became deputy commander of the newly formed Latvian Auxiliary Police unit, the
Arajs Kommando. After the war, surviving witnesses reported that Cukurs had been present during the ghetto clearance and fired into the mass of Jewish civilians. According to other eyewitness sources, Cukurs was also the most recognizable Latvian SD man at the scene of the Rumbula massacre. Ezergailis states that "although Arājs' men were not the only ones on the ghetto end of the operation, to the degree they participated in the atrocities there, the chief responsibility rests on Herberts Cukurs' shoulders." Cukurs was described as follows: Later, Ezergailis retracted these interpretations, saying that in light of new documents, it would be wrong to claim that Cukurs had participated in the Rumbula shooting or the burning of the Riga synagogues. During interviews with the press, Ezergailis stated that there was no evidence that Cukurs had been at the pits at Rumbula, and that it had not been proven that Cukurs was "the most eager shooter of Jews in Latvia". However, according to eyewitness accounts, Cukurs had participated in the
burning of the Riga synagogues and the killing of Jews that he had dragged out of their houses, locked inside the synagogue on Stabu Street, set it on fire and shot with his revolver anyone who broke the windows from inside and tried to get out of the burning building.
Time reported at the time of Cukurs' death in 1965 that his crimes included setting the Riga synagogue fire, executing over 1,200 Jewish civilians (including infants) forced to stand over a lake (so victims fell into the water) in just one of many massacres he carried out, kidnapping and raping Jewish girls and young women at the Arajs Kommando Headquarters, and his participation in the
Rumbula massacre in a forest near Riga. Multiple eyewitnesses said they saw Cukurs snatching infants from the arms of their mothers and shooting them. but it identified three minor children: Gunārs, Antinea and Herberts. In Brazil, Cukurs established a business in
São Paulo, flying
Republic RC-3 Seabees on scenic flights. While living in South America, he neither hid nor tried to conceal his identity. An acquaintance named "Anton Künzle", in reality the disguised Mossad agent
Yaakov Meidad who had taken part in the capture of
Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, cabled Cukurs from
Montevideo. He was invited to a house in a remote suburb of the city that had just been rented by a man from
Vienna. Inside, he was ambushed by a group of men. Cukurs fought back against his attackers, and bit the finger of one of the hitmen so hard it was nearly severed. Ultimately, Cukurs was overwhelmed. He was subdued after one of the men hit him in the head with a hammer. Now helpless, Cukurs started pleading with the men to let him speak (yelling "Lass mich sprechen!") before they did anything else. He received no response and was promptly shot in the head twice with a
suppressed automatic pistol, killing him instantly. Media outlets in South America and Germany received a note stating: The note was initially dismissed as a prank, but then police were notified and the body was discovered. == Legacy ==