Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communist Terror

Memorial DayOn the night of June 13-14, about 15,500 Latvian residents – including 2.4 thousand children under the age of 10 – were arrested without a court order and deported to remote areas of the Soviet Union. Families with leadership positions were mainly selected.

The men, totaling about 8,250, were separated from their families and exiled to gulag labor camps. Women and children were taken to so-called "administrative settlements" as family members of "enemies of the people."

Not a word about these events was mentioned in the Latvian newspapers controlled by the Soviets. They had no way of knowing what had happened to the deportees. No agency, including the police, could provide information or assistance. Only a small proportion of those deported in 1941 later returned to Latvia.