Speech #840058802

Latvia. and Lithuania were incorporated into the Soviet Union. The destruction of the Baltic nations liberty and independence was accompanied by many acts of violence against the innocent. Among these perhaps none was more horrible than the deportations. especially those of June 1941. Preparations for these deportations were made as early as 1939 in the infamous NKVD Serov order No. 001223. The plans of deportation were designed to accomplish a threefold objective: First. to remove all active and patriotic elements from the local population. second. to break the will of resistance by exposing examples of what results when one does not conform with Soviet requirements. third. to weaken the Baltic nations physically. The cruelty of the deportations was unspeakable. For instance. according to the Serov order. the operation was to take place at daybreak with the head of the operating group seeing that nothing in excess of 100 kilograms in weight was taken by those deported. This included clothing. cooking utensils. 1 months supply of food. money of the localityno foreign currenciesand a haversack. Male membersheads--of families were to pack their personal articles separately from the others and were not to be told of the separation of members of the families at the place of embarkation. Thousands Suffered this inhuman treatment in all three countries. In Lithuania. an operational staff of the Peoples Commissar for State Security of the Lithuanian SSR was formed in May 1941 for the purpose of "directing. preparing. and executing the operation of purging of the Lithuanian SSR from the hostile. criminal. and socially dangerous element." From June 14 to June 21. 1941. the number of Lithuanians deported to remote areas of Siberia and the arctic totaled 34.260. In Estonia on the night of June 14. 1941. approximately 10.000 men. women. and children were deported by cattle cars to Siberia and northern Russia. Records found in Riga. the capital of Latvia. which the Communists failed to destroy when retreating from the Germans in the latter part of June 1941. disclosed lists of deportees in June 1941. These names included: farmers. engineers. factory owners. transport. automobile. railway. and other workers and operators. defense and police forcesin which 1.085 missing or murdered army officers were included. government offlcials. intellectuals. pensioners. houseowners. students and schoolchildren. housewives. and others of unknown occupations. This totaled about 34.000. Of these. 23.016 were men. 7.218 women. and 4.016 children. Transportation records disclosed 824 railway coaches and freight cars were used in deporting Latvians to Soviet Russia between June 1317. 1941. The savage. inhumane treatment suffered by these Baltic States deportees is almost unbelievable. These atrocities are in the same category with the infamous death march of Bataan and the Nazi concentration camp horrors of Dachau and Buchenwald. Only God knows the harsh fate of all those unfortunate Batlic States deportees of 1940. 1941. and the years since. The Big Four plan to meet sometime next month to discuss world problems. I recommend that the talks include the forceful takeover of the Baltic States and their incorporation into the U.