In June 1941. 30.500 members of the Lithuanian intelligentsia were transported to Siberia. under incredibly inhuman conditions. most of them never to see their homeland again. This tragic event signaled the beginning of Soviet Russias incorporation of Lithuania into her own country. Deportation has been a typical weapon of the Russians in their "liberation" of racial groups. By this they exterminate the socalled unreliable and undesirable elements. and supply the slave labor needed by the Soviet state to foster its economy. The "liberated" Lithuanian people struggled valiantly against the cruel domination of the Russians. and in retaliation the deportations continued. In 1944. Lithuania was invaded for the second time by the hordes of the Red army. This was followed by still more deportations. The people deported might come from any walk of life. Children. professional people. intellectuals. political leaders. anyone who incurred the suspicion of the Communists was subject to deportation. The condition of the camps to which these people were taken was most primitive. The inmates worked up to 16 hours daily. without pay. The maximum life expectancy of several years is understandable when these conditions are considered. In 194849. the Lithuanian people were hardest hit by deportation when about 10 percent of the population was forced to Siberia because of their resistance to the collectivization of the farmlands which had always belonged to them and been their source of food and livelihood. Today. June 15. 1961. we remember the tragic fate of those first Lithuanians who were forced to leave their homeland.
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deported deportations deportation Deportation