Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians shared some common goals for participating in Adolf Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, but others were singular, products of particular circumstances. Some reasons for fighting were of recent origin, dictated by developments leading up to the campaign and then the vagaries of war, while others could be traced to the distant histories of these people and their region. In examining the motives for joining Hitler one is mistaken to regard the Baltic States and their peoples as a heterogeneous entity.