Latvia. and Estonia and shipped them to slave labor camps in Siberia. There is no reliable way of determining the fate of these unfortunate souls. but we do know that a great many of them died. This was only the beginning. too. for the mass deportations resumed when the Red army reoccupied the Baltic in 1944 behind the retreating German troops. A total of at least 500.000 persons from the three former republics are known to have been deported. Among these torture. disease. starvation. and insanity took a heavy toll. The passage of time tends to deaden the memory of these horrible events. but for many people they retain their searing immediacy. I refer. of course. to the survivors of these deportations and to the relatives and friends of those who were never heard of again. In a more general way. all Lithuanians. Latvians. and Estonians remember these Soviet atrocities. whether they have continued to live in their homeland or have sought freedom in the West. These memories. however painful. have strengthened the Baltic peoples determination to resist continuing efforts to extinguish all traces of their national character and spirit. Totalitarian systems can brook no diversity and the Soviets are impelled to suppress the national minorities of the U.S.S.R. and to force the Baltic peoples to conform to the Soviet pattern. But these gallant. independentminded folk have withstood many threats to their existence. most notably the mass deportations and exterminations of the wartime occupation and immediate postwar period. This is a heartening fact. for it inspires confidence that their continuing struggle for freedom and happiness will be crowned with success.
Keywords matched
deported deportations