Dirva = Field. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1915-current, 1948-02-06
A Saga Of the Baltic People
Some Facts You Should Know about the
Baltic People

scription years and two more years
of school boys, totalling about 100
900 Latvian citizens. A similar num-
Der were deported to forced labor
in Germany, but insubordinate pa
triots who organized a resistance
front were either shot or placed in
concentration camps. In the Stutt-
.hof concentration camp near Dan
zig some $500 Latvians were i'm
prisoned, and many thousands were
tortured to death.
The same events took place in
Lithuania and Estonia with the same
dreadful results for their inhabitants.
THE BALTS FORCED TO LEAVE
THEIR HOMES
IN THE fall of 1914, when the
second Russian occupation approach
ed, and when one atrocity followed
the other in the occupied areas, the
Baltic tragedy reached it's climax.
Overtaken by new dangers of war
and driven from their homes by the
military authorities, tens of thou
sands of people from the Baltic
States were compelled to leave their
country in accordance with the or
ders of the German authorities.
Thus was created the large num-
ber Of Baltic refugees and displac-
ed persons, of whom approximate
ly $4,000 found refuge in neutral
Sweden and Denmark, but the vast
majority totalling about 100000,
were forced to go to Germany and
Austria. 1t should be remarked
that the number of Baltic refugees
given officially by UNRRA is 199-
OCO, but it does not include those
who were compelled to remain in
the Russian zone of occupation by
rapidly moving events, neither those
living privately in Germany or sup
ported by the Red Cross or the
military authorities, nor those COM
PEELED to live in the Netherlands,
Belgium, France, the French zone
of occupation, and Italy.
Liberated by the victory of the
Western Allies and supported with
the aid of UNRRA in several hun
dred camps, the Baltic refugees
await the further determination of
their fate. However, not for a
single moment do they abandon the
hope to return to their native coun-
tries to which reestablishment of in
dependence was promised by nu-
merous declarations of the great
powers, including the Atlantic Char
ter
BALTIC ORIENTATION -
WESTERN DEMOCRACIES
Just as during their independence,
the Baltic peoples in the second
World War remained faithful to
the ideals of the Western Democra-
cies, but as their national armies
had been abolished by the Russian
occupation authorities and most Of
the officers had been deported had
been deported to Siberia, the Baltic
States were unable to fight with
armed forces in the ranks of Great
Britain and the United States. Even
the Baltic military units (so-called
legionnaires) forcibly mobilized by
the nazis never fought against the
armies of the Western Democracies,
either joined the resistance move
ment or surrendered as soon as they
came into contact in Germany with
the British, American or French
armies. The Baltic peoples paid
for their belief in the ideals of the
Western Democracies and for their
fight for these beliefs with the lives
of tens of thousands of individuals,
deportation to forced labor and to
concentration camps, inexpressible
destruction and invaluable losses of
country and property. The accusa-
tions frequently heard to the effect
that the Baltic refugees and dis
placed persons are pro-fascist or
pro-nazi, are false both in form and
in content, and such accusations
should be refuted as political dema-
gogy. The numerous screenings in
! - r