The Seimas will hold a commemoration in the historic March 11 Act Hall on Friday, with an opening speech from Seimas Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen. Other speakers will include exile Algimantas Simonaitis, historian Paulius Subačius, the head of Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum, Marius Pečiulis, theatre director Eglė Svedkauskaitė and Aleksas Bartkus, pupil from Marijampolė Sūduva gymnasium and author of the book „Asmenybės okupacijų labirintuose“ (Personalities in the Labyrinths of Occupations).
A minute’s silence will be held in memory of the victims of the occupation just before noon, at 11.59 a.m.
At noon, a ceremony will take place in Independence Square, followed by a procession from Independence Square to Aukų Street to lay flowers at the monuments to political prisoners and exiles.
Later in the day a nearly 24-hour historical remembrance action called „Atminties neištremsi“ (Memories will not be Exiled) will start outside the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Vilnius.
Events commemorating the tragic losses and resistance during the Day of Mourning and Hope and the Day of Occupation and Genocide will also take place on Friday at the memorial of Naujoji Vilnia railway station.
A Mass will be celebrated at the Vilnius Cathedral Basilica on Friday evening.
On 15 June 1940, the Soviet Union began its occupation of Lithuania and a year later, on 14 June 1941, carried out the first mass deportations of Lithuanians to Siberia. At the time more than 30,000 people were forcibly put into cattle wagons and brought out of the country by rail.
During the Soviet occupation, Lithuania lost a total of around 800,000 of its population. Approximately 300,000 people suffered the horrors of the communist regime – prisons, camps, exile in Siberia and the far north. One in three of those arrested died from torture, starvation or the harsh climate there.
More than 440,000 citizens fled Lithuania to escape the communist terror.
