File:Parade commemorating the Soviet Mass Deportations of June 14 1941 (14428550204).jpg

English: The commemoration of the Soviet deportation of Latvian citizens on June 14, 1941, outside the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.

An estimated 131,500 were deported during the first Soviet occupation, including thousands of Latvian Jews. The deportations were swift and efficient and came in the middle of the night. Deportees were given an hour or less to get ready to leave. Families were taken to the railway station where they discovered that the men were to be separated from the women and children. Packed into barred cattle cars, with holes in the floor for sanitation, the deportees were taken to Gulag camps in Siberia. Many died before even reaching their final destination because of harsh conditions. Many more perished during their first winter. The Gulags had no heat, light, no washing facilities or proper sanitation. Hard manual labour for 16 hours a day meant many died of sheer exhaustion.

After the death of Joesph Stalin, many were rehabilitated and allowed to move back to Latvia. Many stayed in Siberia, where they married locals and lived in towns and rural areas. Today there are still few hundred deportees and their children and grandchildren living in Siberia.