Latvia. and Lithuania and occupied these brave little states. Their cherished independence was ruthlessly ended. in defiant violation of Soviet mutual assistance pacts with each of them. Scarcely a year after the Soviet Union had crushed the independence of the Baltic States. the Communist overlords carried out one of the most gruesome acts of deportation in all history. During the night of June 14. 1941. more than 60.000 citizens of these countries. including men. women. and children. were arrested. Families were torn apart as men were packed into cattle cars and sent to forced labor in distant regions of the Soviet Union. Women and children were sent elsewhere. those lucky enough to survive unlikely to see their husbands. fathers. and brothers again. The devastating tides of war subjected the Baltic States to Nazi occupation and later to reoccupation by the Red army. with further deportations and further repression. Yet after all this suffering. the stalwart Baltic peoples have yet to regain their freedom. I deem it a privilege.
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deportations deportation