Defender of Minorities

The Latvian-German politician and journalist Paul Schiemann was a passionate advocate of independence for the indigenous Baltic peoples. He unflinchingly resisted all forms of political extremism and wrote one of the earliest extended critical analysis of National Socialism. Schiemann vigorously opposed Nazi infiltration of the German minorities' movement and through this the European Nationalities' Congress. He also endured and commented bitingly on his experience of life under communist rule in the Baltic states. His memories, which he began to dictate to a young Jewish girl whom he was hiding, testify to his ideas on minority rights, extremism and Europe's future. Hiden's biography of this courageous man who battled against both Baltic and German nationalism opens up a little-explored chapter of Baltic history in a region today seen once more as the litmus test of the new Europe.