80 Years of June deportations

In June 1941, within one week about 95 000 people from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Bessarabia (Moldova) were deported to the Soviet Union.

This mass operation was carried out simultaneously in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – between 14 and 17 June 1941.

The operation saw the arrest of all people who were still at liberty and considered a thorn in the side of the occupying forces, mainly members of the political, military and economic elite who had been instrumental in building the independence of their states. They were taken to prison camps where most of them were executed or perished within a year. Their family members, including elderly people and children, were arrested alongside them, and they were subsequently separated and deported to the “distant regions” of the Soviet Union with extremely harsh living conditions. To cover their tracks, the authorities also sent a certain number of criminals to the camps.

Read more: https://vm.ee/en/80-years-june-deportations