R. It was only after the election that they showed their real hand. Immediately afterward we saw the beginning of one of the ugliest crimes against the Baltic people. that of the deportation of tens of thousands of innocent people to Siberia without any trial whatsoever. People from every walk of life. even old and dying people. women and children. were picked up at night and put on cattle freight cars for the 3week journey to Sibiria. As a rule. the head of the family was always separated from the rest of the family. and his whereabouts was never disclosed. During the hot summer months many people died on the journey. Besides the already abominable conditions. even water was denied them. The exact number of deportees is not known. It can only be estimated. It amounted to about 10 percent of the population. In the case of Lithuania that means about 300.000 people. In two nights alone in June 1941 about 34.000 Lithuanians were deported. And there were several waves of mass deportation throughout the Baltic States. Besides. these mass deportations about 200.000 people were deported each month when the prisons became overcrowded. In the slavelabor camps themselves conditions were and are terrible. Nobody can survive the slavelabor conditions for more than a few years.
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deported deportations deportation deportees