On the 14th of June 1941, Estonia experienced one of the darkest days in its history. During the early hours of the morning, innocent people were forcibly removed from their homes, packed into cattle trains and deported to remotes parts of Siberia. Over 10,000 Estonians were taken - men, women, children, the elderly, babies, no-one was spared if their names appeared on the list. Most of these people perished, some in transit, some from hunger but many from being subjected to harsh conditions in rural Russia. This horrific event not only took place in Estonia, the occupying Soviet forces orchestrated this evil act in Latvia and Lithuania too. Ultimately over 100,000 people had their lives robbed from them in this manner.
We must never forget these crimes committed by the Soviet Union. Nearly every Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian family lost at least one person to the deportations and today we remember and honour them.
