On June 15. 1940. the Soviets demanded immediate formation of a "friendly" government and occupied the country. In August of that year the Baltic States were deprived of their independence and incorporated into the U.S.S.R. by means of force and fraudulent elections. The Soviets prepared to put into effect their plans to wipe out all opposition by means of murder and mass deportations. On June 14. 1941. the Soviet police began the deportations. It is estimated that between June 14 and 21 close to 40.000 personsyoung and old. men and women and childrenwere forcibly torn from their homes and loved ones and shipped off to slave labor camps in remote areas of Siberia and the Arctic. Several thousand more were executed when the Soviet forces retreated in haste under German attack. When the Soviet retook the country in 1944 new waves of mass deportations followed. The United States has never recognized the forceful incorporation of Lithuania and her neighbors by the U.S.S.R. We have denounced this crime of aggression and refused to recognize Communist claims to these people and their territories.
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deportations