Speaker. this month marks one of the saddest events in the history of civilized man. the infamous Baltic holocaust. It was 40 years ago that the Soviet Armies stormed across the borders of Estonia. Latvia. and Lithuania and began a mass deportation of the Baltic people to slave labor camps in Siberia. No Baltic family in that region was left untouched by the Soviet rape of June 14 and 15 in 1941. The tragic deportation program undertaken by the Russians brutually ended the years of national freedom and sovereignty which had begun in 1918 for Estonia. Latvia. and Lithuania. The aim of the Soviets in this purge was clear. the elimination of all who might provide resistance to Russian domination over the Baltic area. The first to go were the government leaders. the educated. and military personnel. Later. the deportations spread to relatives of the original victims and those whom the Soviets simply distrusted. No segment of Baltic society was protected from the ravages of the Soviet purge including the young and old and the rich and poor. It was not unusual for the deportees to be herded into railroad cattle cars for the arduous journey to Siberia. Many lost their lives to the ravages of malnutrition and exposure. Estimations are that in 1941. some 100.000 Baltic persons were deported. By 1949. that total had reached 850.000. Mr.
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deported deportations deportation deportees