Death of Oskars Perro - Author of "Fortress Cholm"

[berlin45]

I received the sad news this morning from Arvil Perro, the son of Oskars Perro, that his father died peacefully in his sleep on Friday, May 2nd, 2003.

Many of you will recall Oskars as being the author of the only published first hand account (in book form) of a soldier in Cholm, entitled "Fortress Cholm". Perro was a volunteer in the Latvian armed forces which allied with Germany. His book offers a unique insight into the horrors of what those men went through, from one of the lucky ones who lived to tell about it.

After the war, Oskars emmigrated to Canada with little more than the clothes on his back, and lived a long and fruitful life there until his recent passing.

Kind of ironic that my first official post since joining this form specifically to investigate Cholm should be this one.

Regards to All
Dirk

[Stijn David]

sad news

Hello Dirk,


Thanks for bringing this sad news under our attention +> i do not doubt the integrity of Mr. Perro and he has written a nice book but it should not be accepted as the unlimited thruth as there are some gaps etc ... into his knowledge on Cholm.

For example he claims to be have been inside the pocket as a SS volunteer but untill now there is by my knowledge there has nowhere surfaced any evidence ( award documents Cholmshield, etc ... ) that there where in fact SS troops inside the encircled area , he could have been a straggler at some point being trapped inside Cholm but he probably was one of the very few then . Anyway this rises a interesting quest in search after real SS Cholmshield award documents

i have the book somewhere but can you give me the publishing year again ?


Cordial greetings,

[berlin45]

Hi Stijn

You're right about your observations on Mr. Perro. He makes a few factual mistakes in his book, his view of Cholm was extremely limited, and although he was clearly 'tossed in' as a colorful addition to what was already a rag-tag band of defenders, he was none-the-less out of place there.

I still find it fascinating to pick through the details, and during my previous visits to Cholm I have been able to confirm a number of them first hand. As for Latvians in the general vicinity of Cholm, the KTB of the 218. I.D. make specific reference to Latvian soldiers attached to their unit as they pushed toward Kusemkino and Cholm in early 1942 as they tried to relieve the defenders there. (the comments weren't particularly complimentary toward the reliability of the Latvians as soldiers though).

The book details are:
Copyright 1981 (Fifth Printing)
Kurland Publishing
491 College Street, Toronto, Canada

Regards
Dirk