Herberts Cukurs, once celebrated as a Latvian aviation pioneer and national hero, became one of the most notorious Nazi collaborators during the Second World War. Known as the "Hangman of Riga," he served as deputy commander of the Arajs Kommando, a Latvian auxiliary police unit responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust in German-occupied Latvia.

Cukurs was implicated in atrocities against Jewish civilians, including the mass killings at Rumbula Forest in 1941, where approximately 25,000 Jews were murdered. After the war, he escaped to Brazil, where he avoided prosecution despite accusations of war crimes.

In 1965, Israeli intelligence agents from Mossad tracked him down in South America, bringing the notorious Nazi collaborator face to face with his past.