Since then. for 21 years. unhappy Lithuanians have not known freedom either in their homeland. or in other parts of the Soviet Union. When the Red army marched into the country and the Communist Russians set up a regime completely subservient to Moscow. they rounded up all known and suspected public servants and popular leaders in the country. placed them in boxed freight cars and shipped them off to distant Siberia. This was done under terrifying conditions. and on such a massscale that in the course of 1 year some 50.000 prominent Lithuanians were uprooted from their homes and found themselves in prison camps in Asiatic Russia. There these helpless souls were during the war. and if they are still alive. there they may be today. That event. the arrest. imprisonment. and exile of these Lithuanians. marked the tragedy of Lithuania. and today its anniversary is being observed in all Lithuanian communities throughout the free world.