Ain-Ervin Mere


Ain Mere was an Estonian military officer and collaborator with Nazi Germany in World War II. During the German occupation of Estonia, he served in the German-controlled Estonian Security Police and SD.

Career

He was born in Vändra and fought voluntarily in the Estonian War of Independence. In early 1919, Mere was wounded while serving on an armored train and was sent to the rear.
According to the KGB archives, he was drafted as an agent of NKVD in 1940–1941. Mere's reports on the resettlement of Baltic Germans and the exposure of underground Estonian organisations reached the desk of Lavrenti Beria. In recognition of his performance Mere was appointed the director of a special department of the Estonian Rifle Corps. He was known under code name "Müller". In July 1941 Mere surrendered himself to the German military. He was a member of the Estonian Security Police under the Estonian Self-Administration and participated in the Holocaust.
On February 5, 1945, in Berlin, he founded the Eesti Vabadusliit, an anti-communist group, together with fellow Waffen-SS commander Harald Riipalu.

Trial in absentia

In March 1961, the Soviet court accused during the War crimes trials in Soviet Estonia the German Security Police in Estonia, headed by Mere to have been actively involved in the arrest and killing of Estonian Jews along with Ralf Gerrets and Jaan Viik. The police were also actively engaged in actions against Estonians deemed to be opponents of Nazi Germany. Though living in Great Britain, he was sentenced to capital punishment. Great Britain did not extradite him, due to the lack of evidence and he died at the age of 66 in Leicester, England.