Great care was needed to bury with appropriate honours the martyrs who had died for their country. Many had been robbed before their deaths, their shoes removed. Many had been stripped of their clothing. However, even more had had their human appearance removed. Many were scarcely recognizable. They had been disfigured by blows. Their faces were contorted and transformed by indignities after death.

The hands of many victims were tied behind their backs. Who could be threatened by these unfortunate, tortured, exhausted people?

The corpses were undressed.

In 23 years, since their bloody start in 1917, the communists had not changed. The scene of the opened mass grave was similar to those uncovered in 1919, after the first Bolshevik invasion of Latvia.

The rows of those found murdered at Baltezers.

Murdered Latvians found in Krustpils airport after the communist withdrawal.

Again and again, new gravesites gave up their victims. Victims unearthed in Riga at Cross Church.
At the time when the walls of basements muffled the screams of martyrs, when shots in the night extinguished many lives.

The remains of Latvians shot to death discovered after inspection in Dreilini.

The big wigs saw no evil. From left: members of the Supreme Council -- V. Lacis, Party Secretary Z. Spure and the president of the puppet government Prof. Kirchensteins take part in the Bolshevik celebrations.

In the vicinity of Riga, numerous gravesites of shooting victims were found. Each contained 10-30 corpses, sometimes more. Such sites were found in Bikermieki, Dreilini and other places.

How many such graves of those cruelly murdered were and still are hidden beneath Latvian soil? The names of many of those buried in these graves are not known and the fates of innumerable people who just disappeared cannot be traced even today.

Identification of corpses in Bikenieki.

The row of dead victims in Dreilini.

At the start of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik terror intensified, reaching the level of open slaughter. The most horrible fate befell Latvian soldiers. The ones deemed politically unreliable were dismissed from the service. As they departed from the station, they were lured into a trap and summarily shot.

In the community of Balvi, on June 29, 1941 three soldiers were murdered: Vilis Lapins, Peter Krauja and an unidentified soldier.

Near the Army camp at Litene were found these soldiers shot to death: from left, E. Vilkajs, J. Pinka, V. Leja, V. Tumasevics, and A. Tumasevics.

This copy of his death sentence was found on murdered student Gedimins Frankevics. "For offences committed by Frankevics, Gedimins, son of Sigismunds, due to their severity, and according to USSR Penal Code, paragraph 18.58.9 application -- the highest degree of punishment. He is sentenced to be shot with the confiscation of all personal property." This short text signalled the extinction of the life of a young man and cut another branch from the Latvian nation's tree of life.

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The corpse of Gedimins Frankevics. The contusions to the head are mute witnesses to the torture he endured before the deliverance of death.

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