* World War II European Theater -- Soviet deportations Baltics








World War II: Soviet Deportations--The Baltics (1940-41)


Figure 1.--We see this image being used as eye candy on countless web poages duiscussung Sibirt deportations from the Baktucs abd Kithunaia. Occassiinally it is even used for NAZI deportatiins. But we have not found actual details about the image which is unfortunate becaise the available historucalk record is so limited on Sovietb NKVD attrocuties. We know, thanks to the idenbtification marking (CCCP and ahammar and cycle) on the carriage that this was a Soviet box car and we see it is carrying peoole. This means it was being used for the deportatiions. We believe that it was beung used in th Baltic depprtations, but we do not know which of the three Baltuc republics.

As in Poland, the Soviet Union after seizing the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latviam and Lithuania) inleased the NKVD conducted terrible attrocities. Large numbers of people were arrested. Here there were individuals identified, but most were simply members of targeted groups deemed unreliable pr poopded to Sobiet rule.. This included intlectuuals, univrsity orofessirsm police =, priests and other ckerics, politicians, miliitary, police, government offiiuals, teachers, journalits, aristocrats, land owners, businessmen, and many more. Some were murdered, especially men. Although on the NAZI AB Actions, the men were short, but the families not deported, in psrt because there was going to be while-sale elininatins of non-German populations in Eastern Euyrope after the War--Generalplam Ost. The Soviets as brutal as they were, unlike the Germans did not commonly shoot women and children and there was no gassing. The families of the men executed were commonly deported. This is one reason there were so many children among the deportees. While not shot, the deportations were conducted under such dreadful conditions that large numbers if the deportees perished. Unlike the German deportations, the Soviet deportations and killing operations were not extencibely photographed. The Germans were proud of what they were doing and wanted to capture imnages. The Soviets were not so proud. The NKVD banned photography. Of sourse the Soviets because of the poverty of the Soviet Union were less likely to have cameras. There are written accounts memoirs, but the bphotographic record is sparse. One particukarly moving acciunt is the story of Lina, a Lithuanian girl deported to Siberia. im her case a work canp above the Arctic Circle. [Sepetys] We have developed some unformation on the deportment of Estonians

Spurces

Seprtys, Euta. Between Shades if Gray. Seprtys is a Lithuanian-Americam writer specialising in historical fiction. The book is based on interviews with many Lithuanian survivors who were themselves teenagers during the deportations and had a greater will to live than many of their adult counterparts at the time.







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Created: 6:40 AM 5/5/2020
Last edited: 3:03 PM 5/5/2020