Speaker. this month. Americans of Lithuanian descent will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Baltic Holocaust. June 15 marked the beginning of a mass deportation effort conducted in the Baltic States 40 years ago by the Soviet regime. In the wake of this campaign of terror. virtually no Baltic family was left untouched by the tragedy. The deportation campaign had been planned in Moscow before the Soviet armies occupied Lithuania in 1940. ending their years of national freedom and sovereignty which had begun in 1918. It was a purge of broad scope. designed to eradicate all elements which might impede the sovietization of this country. The deportations began on June 14. 1941. The now infamous midnight arrests occurred simultaneously throughout the Baltic States. The people were tersely informed of their arrests by the KGB. but were not told of the charges against them.
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