Dirva = Field. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1915-current, 1946-09-13
reprint from Inter Catholic Press
Agency Aug. 29)

Ao~~S ~ANo' -c(
The Soviet authorities are deport-
ing the inhabitants of Lithuania,
Latvia and Estonia, and replacing
them with colonists from Asia. i
This is reported by the Balts who
manage to escape over the Baltic
to Sweden in fishing boats.
The Baltic republics are under
the special supervision of the So
Wet authorities and ar governed
by the secret police, N. X. V. D.,
who look into all aspects of the
life of the inhabitants. Foreign
correspondents, representatives of
UNRRA and religious workers are
not allowed to enter the Baltic
countries.
The Bolsheviks are everywhere
using the same method of depor-
tation. Special agents of the NIX
V.D. in parishes and communities
prepare lists of healthy persons
between the ages of is and IS.
Then the men are pressed into the
Red Army and the women deported
to forced labor camps in Russia.
The main transit camps for the
Estonians are on the line Tallin-
Leningrad. From those camps the
different Soviet republics draw the
manpower.
Latvia is also in very difficult
situation. According to all reports
the Latvians are being exterminated
the same as the Estonians, A
Czech physician of Jewish descent,
was arrested in Latvia first by the
German Gestapo, and later by the
Soviet N.K.V.D., and remained for
many months in a prison in Riga.
After he had been released he
worked for awhile in a canteen Of
the secret police in one of the
transit camps near Leningrad. He
was able to make good his escape
| to Sweden. He tells of the man
ner in which he witnessed the Lat
vians being deported to Russia.
The Soviet police and the military
bring masses of people to transit
camps, which have been organized
near railway stations: Twice a
week long trains of box cars arrive
at the stations. Their doors are
guarded with barbed wire. The
men in the camps are separated
from the women. One train usual.
ly takes some 1900 persons. The
guards state that the deportees are
politically suspect Latvians, who are
being deported first to camps near
Leningrad, and then to labor camps
in Russia.
Often the arrests take place very
Unexpectedly. For instance on the
23rd of June the Soviet police ar
rested and deported the whole par
ish of Baptists in Ventspil, gather
ed at Sunday religious services.
Riga, capital of Latvia, is now
almost a completely Russian town
if one can call Russian the colonists
brought in from the depths of Asia
The Latvian language is scarcely
heard any more in the streets. On
the contrary, Russian and asiatic
idioms predominate. Towns are de-
prived of physicians, dentists and OF
teachers. The most striking aspect
in the villages, where Soviet colo
nists have not yet arrived, is the lack
of male youth. Those young men
who have not been deported are
hiding in the forests. Skirmishes
between these forest people and the
Soviet police are continuous. Re-
gular army contingents are often
used in such battles.
Lithuania is rapidly dying. The
national and religious life exists
no more. The Soviets have applied
the same system there but even
more ruthlessly. At the beginning
| Lithuanians were allowed to pose
Observation-Disclosures