The Day of Mourning and Hope on 14 June commemorates the first Soviet mass deportation of Lithuanians in 1941.
Around 17 500 people were deported in June 1941. In total over the period of 1940 – 1953 approx.131 000 Lithuanians were sent to Siberia and an additional 156 thousand were imprisoned in Soviet prisons or labour camps.
The deportations of June 1941 were simultaneously carried out in all three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).