People of Lithuania,
The 14th of June is the day which Lithuanian people will never forget. It will remain in our hearts and memories and in the hearts and memories of our future generations forever.
This day marks the greatest tragedy of our nation. Its darkest page. The most painful experiences that we still remember well. The wound has not healed and will never heal. It is painful and will be painful. And it will make us go back to 1940 again and again, when the indifferent destruction mechanism pointed its tentacles to Lithuania.
Deportation to distant Siberia was conducted in stages. They first started with intelligentsia: Lithuanian President Aleksandras Stulginskis, Speaker of the Seimas Konstantinas Ðakenis, Prime Minister Pranas Dovydaitis, ministers, writers, priests and journalists of independent Lithuania. All those who contributed to creation, development and strengthening of their state were deported from Lithuania.
Persecution, arrests and detention of our people started well before 14 June. But on the day, or to be more precise, on the night of 14 June 1941 deportation mechanism started operating at its full capacity. There was no hiding about the first wave of deportations. On that day the message was sent to the world that destructive actions in Lithuania were carried out on a massive scale.
Everyone, with no exception, was a target of genocide. All strata of society. Men and women, senior citizens, children and even babies. All those whom occupants labelled as socially alien elements were divided into two groups: A – heads of families, B – remaining family members.
Lithuanians had to face hostile natural conditions, cold, famine, exhaustion, diseases and torture in distant Siberia and other remote areas of Russia.
These shocking facts, testimonies and stories personally touched a large number of our families or relatives. Many Lithuanians never returned from the places where they had been sent against their will by the genocide perpetrators. Our obligation is to remember them forever. Remember the people who contributed to our freedom. Who paid that price of their lives.
May I ask you to honour the memory of all those killed with a MINUTE OF SILENCE.
Thank you.
Today we mark the Day of Mourning, Occupation and Genocide, and also the Day of Hope. Hope which lifted up the spirits of imprisoned people. Hope which was there till the very last breath even though people realised they would never be able to go back to their motherland. Hope that remained despite the deaths and loss of parents, brothers and sisters.
Hope was what helped deportees survive even when it seemed impossible. It helped them survive so they could return and tell the world about the Soviet genocide. So it would never be repeated again, in any form.
Hope united those who were sent to exile and those who remained and resisted long years of violence, suppression and destruction. This strong and unconquerable feeling led to Lithuania’s victory and its freedom.
I want to give a new meaning to the word Hope today. Hope must be a warrant, a reassurance that sufferings of our ancestors are not only their sufferings or sufferings of their families. We must make sure that not only those who were born and lived during the Soviet era, but our younger generation too know the history which started more than seventy years ago.
We must tell them everything. They must know what happened and why. They must find out the pure and unembroidered truth in order to understand and appreciate what we have today.
We, people of the older generation, still get shudders when we hear the word Siberia. Do younger generations feel the same? I believe, they do, because we pass our experiences to the next generations with our blood. That is how we feel about it and no one can change it.
There are plentiful examples showing that the younger generation attaches great importance to cherishing and protecting our past. Mission Siberia is probably the best but not the only example. Many are interested in the mission; it enjoys large numbers of candidates, broad media coverage and attention to the smallest details, which obviously demonstrates that even those who were born after 1990 still want to discover their identity emerging from the past.
Let’s help them. Let’s encourage them. Let’s talk to them. Let us all cherish what belongs to all of us, what makes the history and identity of the nation and what is invaluable.
Thank you.
