Brivais Laveitis, November 15, 1948

              FREE LATVIAN
Th is is a Special p ubication
for our English-speäking
friends.
FREE LATVIAN .OJVTVIAN
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER for
_NORTH AMERICA
LATVIA BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN
L a t v i a i s the greateF?t of
the three B a l t i c countries,
In 1939, its populAtion
nuiDbered 2,001.900. The
iiatTian speak t h e i r own
language, which i s a branch
of the B a l t i c group of the
Indo-European family of
languages, It i s c l o s e ly
r e l a t e d to the Lithuanian
language.
The people of L a t v i a are
hard-worlcing and democratic.
ttaving inhabited their
country for centuries, the
Latvians always struggied
hard to inaintain their
independence, constantly
threcitened by e i t h e r Ger­many
or Russla, the two
mighty neighbours ever bent
on expan s1on and con que g t.
L a t v i a was often u t t e r ly
devastated by wars, and
I t s population suffered
from incessant s t r i f e and
invasions. J)espite of the
p o l i c y of a s s i n i l a t i o n pur-sued
by both the Germans
and the Russians, the i,at-vians
managed to survive as
a well-defined n a t i o n al
e n t i t y.
L a t v i a became an Indepen­dent
State a f t e r World Wari,
s u p p o r t e d e f f e c t l v e l y by the
United States, Great B r i ^
t a i n , and France. -rhrough
twentytwo years of politlo-callndependence
the Latvian
people s u f f i c i e n t l y p r o v e d
t h e i r a b i l i t y to exist as
a free nation. Kelations
with the Soviet Union were
regulated by several treatles
by which the Soviet govern-ment
solemnly promised to
respect the i n t e g r i t y and
independence of L a t v i a.
The Soviet occupation of
L a t v i a was denounced by "
both the United States and
Oreat B r i t a i n . iror the L a^
vian people the occupation
meant the beginning of ruth-leSS
oppression and s u f f e r -
ing. The Soviet pattern of
roass deportations was thonxgi
l y applied to Latvia and at
l e a s t 34250 Latvians were
immediateiy selzed and de-ported
into the i n t e r i o r of
the Soviet Union. The NKVD
f i l e s , l e f t behind during
the Soviet r e t r e a t in June,
1941, disclosed that the
ooviet government intended
to deport about 800.000
i^oreign k i n i s t e r of the
Soviet Union
uiiuer such circumstances ov
over 14.000- Latvians sought
a haven In Western Euro pe
as p o l i t i c a l refugees.
The second act of the Latvi­an
tragedy opened wlth the
outbreak of the German -
Soviet war in June 22, 1941.
From that d<ite u n t i l 1945,
the Nazis pursued a p o l i cy
of r a e i a 1 a n n i h l i a t I o n of
Latvians and t h e i r u a l t ic
brothers, the Lithuanians
and Esthonians. The ofaclal
German p o l i c y toward Latvia
mzn
Train loaded \vifh Latvian deportecsdestined for USSR ai. the slalion.or Ogre in the
fnorning of June 14th 1941. Relalives of the unfortunate people .are trymg ,to .suppl>^
them Avith clothing and food, but are merci-lesslv dxiven away
But i n 1939, the Soviet
Union, with the knQwledge ,
and co-operation of Hitler s
Germany^ established k i l i -
t a r y S t a t i o n s i n L a t v i a as
w e l l as in the two other
B a l t i c S t a t e D u r i n g the
jatvians, i n the f i r s t l i ne
i l l roembers of p o l i t i c al
»arties, a l i judges, police
ind army o f f i c e r s ; inerabers
Df r e l i g l o u s s o c i e t i e s and
; lergymen; manufacturers,
erchant s, landowners, and
rosperous peasants.
riks, f a c t o r i e s , buildingq
nd r e a l e state were "nat ion-
Mized** i . e. conf iscated by
the r u l i n g Comniuni s t mino-r
i t y , always support ed by
the Soviet armies.Gurrendes
negotiations i n the Kremlin ''ere devaluated, and al_l__
the Latvian Foreign types of values / bank
October 2,1939 deposits, machinery, rair
S t a l i n declared that r w i t h «n^terials, food stuffs
to the B a l t i c States etc./ were expropriated •
do not d i f f e r from »ncl taken to the SovieV .
lUnion. A •»National AseanlJiir
eiected by a group of tent»
i s t i c ComraunistSj hurriadly
with
k i n i s t e r,
regard
our Tiews
those of Germany*,
f a r as Germany i s concerned
we could pccupy you". This
and "as
threat of Stalin wa8 actualirfproclaimed a Sovietized
r e a i i z e d on June 1:6, 1940. Latvia to be a member oi
While the Western deroocracfe
were undergoing one of jthe
severest c r l s e s i n t h e ir
histöry, Soviet troops swarnl
ed into a l i three
States.
the Union of Soviet SodÄU^
Republics.
This ruthless Sovietization
B a l t i c n^as supervised by Andrey
Ivishinsky, later Deputy
was outlined in a book,
Small and Great «ation s " by
F r i e d r i c h Lange /Zentralver-lag
der NSDAP,1943/. On pag^
89, he wrote:
"•.. The small B a l t i c bor-der
states of Lithuania, La4
via, and Estonia f e e l safe
3linging to England, s s k i r ts
and think they are strong
enough to provoke, more or
le SS, the German Government.
In a l i the three countrles,
but most c r u e l l y and Inso-l
e n t l y in Latvia, the Ger­man
language, l o c a l as we11
as German Reich art, and
p o s s i b i l i t i e s of existehce
for German s were suppressed..
This passage t y p l f i e s the
Oersan attitude tolrard the
Baltic States. Latrian
econoray wa» driTen tp cos-plete
rul» by constant re-q
u l s i t l o n s of the OerBans.
In 1943 and 1944 the Hatls,,
under penalty of oourt ^
martTaiy forcibly drafted
Latvians into their ar«S«ö,
to a t o t a i of about 100^ OOG
A 8 i m i l a r numtoer were depor-ted
to work as slave labo-r
e r s In Germany. Subsequently
a resistance movement sprang
up. kany of i t s p a r t l e i -
pants dled i n German con-centration
camps, e s p e c i a l -
l y i n the Stutthoff camp
near Danzig.
In 1944, when German r e s i s -
tance on the Eastern Front
was breaking down and Soviet
troops were approaching the
Latvian border, the Nazis
issued ^evacuation orders"
The people were forced to
f l e e with the German troops.
In Riga as w e l l as in other
Latvian c i t i e s , people igno-r
i n g these prders were selz­ed
i n the streets and in
t h e i r home s by special Gesta­po
units, and then brought
to the evacuation centers. •
uther people, in deathly
fear of the Russians,fled
westward of t h e i r own accord
to i:ind refuge under tVie
protectlcn of the Western
deroocracles part of Lat­vian
y-outh were mobilized
by the Nazis. ihese people
dld not v o l u n t a r i l y serve
the Nazis. They e i t h e r were
compelled to f i g h t within
the German ranks, or in their
own "Latvian Leglon"., to
which they were f o r c i b ly
mobilized by the desparate
German High Comraand,' only '
/Continued on page 4/
_One of many clearings in forests,
which provided a resting place
for many. murdered "Latvian pa-triots.