But this was just the first act of the tragedy. On June 14. 1941. a wave of terror began which had no parallel in the histories of these tiny nations. Mass deportations of men. women. and 6hildren to the slave labor camps of Siberia were undertaken with ruthless efficiency. In the single night of June 1415 it has been estimated that 15.000 Latvians and 30.000 Lithuanians were herded into waiting cattle cars for the long cruel trip into slavery. Under the pretext that these people were Nazi sympathizers. the Russiansthemselves in secret negotiations with Hitlergathered up thousands upon thousands of the peoples of these poor nations and sent them to Siberia. Many years have passed since those tragic days. A whole generation has grown up which has never heard of the mass deportations of Baltic peoples into Russian slavery. Many do not even know that Latvia. Estonia. and Lithuania ever existed on the face of the earth as independent and free nations.
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deportations