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. 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 Soviets retook the country in 1944 new waves of mass deportations followed. The United States has denounced this crime of aggression and consistently refused to recognize the Communist claims to these people and their territories. On the anniversary of these inhuman crimes against the people of Lithuania and the other Baltic States. it is only right that we should pay tribute to these brave. freedom loving people who have endured so much.
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deportations