Akryl, metalplade. Masonit, karton.

136.000 litauere, ud af en samlet befolkning på 2.5 mio., blev tvangsdeporteret til Sovjetunionen under 2. verdenskrig og Den Kolde Krig. Deportationerne foregik i lukkede og overfyldte kreaturvogne. Turene tog normalt flere uger og krævede mange dødsfald især blandt børn, gamle og gravide – 1-5 personer døde i hver vogn. Vognene var uden frisk luft. Et hul i gulvet var toilet. Lidt vand og dårlig suppe var eneste føde.
Destinationerne gik dels til GULAG-lejre, der var fangelejre med hårdt slavearbejde – eller til isolerede slavelandsbyer med primitive træ- og jordhytter. Blandt de deporterede var 40.000 børn og 50.000 kvinder. 28.000 døde af sult og sygdom, heraf 5.000 børn.
Det hemmelige politi NKVD (senere kendt som KGB) stod for arrestationer og brutale forhør, der ofte også resulterede i henrettelser. 30.000 partisaner og støtter blev myrdet i selve Litauen.
Den Røde Hær deltog i deportationerne. De deporterede blev betegnet som ”socialt fremmede elementer” eller ”nationalistiske klassefjender”
Det var:

Acryl, sheet metal. Masonite, carton.

136,000 Lithuanians, out of a total population of 2,5 million, were forcibly deported to the Soviet Union during World War II and the Cold War. The deportations took place in closed and overcrowded cattle wagons. The trips usually took several weeks and resulted in many deaths, especially among children, the elderly and pregnant women – 1-5 people died in every carriage. The carriages had no fresh air. The toilet was a hole in the floor. The only food was a little water and bad soup.
Some were sent to the GULAGs, which were prison camps with hard labor and others to isolated slave villages of primitive wood and earth huts. Among those deported were 40,000 children and 50,000 women. 28,000 died of starvation and disease, including 5,000 children. 50,000 were unable to return to Lithuania when the Soviet Union collapsed.
The secret police or NKVD (later known as the KGB) were responsible for arrests and brutal interrogations, which often also ended in executions. 30,000 partisans and supporters were murdered in Lithuania itself.
The Red Army participated in the deportations. Control over the Lithuanian society involved monitoring, prosecuting and removing “national and class enemies” including:

• Partisans and members of underground organizations and supporters. Labelled ”bandits” and ”bourgeois nationalists”.
• Independent farmers. Labelled ”kulaks”.
• Institutional employees (teachers, intellectuals etc.) and people with positions in the former independent Lithuania. Labelled ”politically and socially unreliable elements”.
• Catholic clergymen. Labelled “reactionary Catholic clergy”.

Acryl, Metallblech. Masonit, Karton.