In remembrance

In Remembrance of the sufferings

Of fellow countrymen

Deported from their homelands

To Siberia

By the Soviet Communist Regime

On 14^th June 1941

These trees were planted by

The Estonian Latvian and Lithuania

Communities of South Australia

On 13^th June 1959

For many years the Baltic community has gathered to commemorate the June 13 & 14 deportations, in the Migration Museum courtyard.

In 1959 Juozas Lapšys, Baltic Council president organised for a memorial to be erected in the Glenunga Reserve, Connyngham street, Glenunga.  That year members from the Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian communities  planted three trees and erected the above plaque in a granite rock.

As the years passed their was concern that the plaque would be lost, stolen or forgotten, so the Migration Museum was approached to see if they would take ownership.

Janina Vabolienė, President of the Lithuanian Community said in 2003 regarding the June deportations;

‘When our parents, brothers and sisters journeyed to distant Siberia, the echo of the train wheels  resound in our ears and our hearts reiterate  our countrymen’s torment’.