Juozas Banionis (Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania)
The unity of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – was evidenced by the close cooperation of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian diaspora in proclaiming to the world their aspirations to become free and independent states. At least four such Baltic associations were active during the period under review: the Joint Baltic American Committee (JBANC), the World White Concentration (WBC), the Baltic Appeal to the United Nations (BATUN), the Baltic American Freedom League (BAFL). One of the oldest Baltic groups, the JBANC, based in Washington, DC, constantly reminded Americans of the Baltic cause and, as early as the early 1980s, got the US to declare June 14 as Baltic Freedom Day. Another Baltic group, the WBC, expanded its activities to other continents, organising Baltic demonstrations reminding the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian peoples, who were enslaved by the Soviets, of their longing for freedom. The raising of the Baltic freedom cause was a sign of rejection of the silence that had prevailed in the international arena, and argued that the Stalin-Hitler bargain of 1939 could not be more important than the Helsinki Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975. Another Baltic entity, BATUN, based in New York, where the UN was headquartered, also turned its activities to Europe, where, during the deliberations of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, there was an opportunity to highlight the situation of the Baltic States in the international arena. Finally, the BAFL is an organisation created by active US whites. Their commitment is to work with professional assistance to influence the US Congress to pass resolutions in favour of the Baltic States. It was important for the BAFL to show the heart of the problem – “national, physical, cultural and religious genocide by the Soviets” – because the right to emigrate does not solve the problem of the restriction of freedom. Such international exposure of the Baltic States’ problem only confirmed that the cause of freedom was alive and well, and testified to the fact that this cause was, in the words of F. D. Roosevelt, “only temporarily suspended”.