Shall Latvians Perish?AN URGENT APPEAL of the LATVIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL to the CIVILIZED WORLD, September 1948

Hitler in Paris, June 23 1940, two days after Stalin's Baltic takeover was complete

A year before the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin moved to occupy the Baltic states — all of which had declared neutrality before WWII — as the world was focused on the fall of Paris to Hitler on June 14th. Stalin delivered ultimatums to Lithuania on June 15th, to Estonia and Latvia on the 16th, invaded and by June 21st had installed "popular front" governments in all three Baltic states.

After the war, displaced Latvians were under the belief that the United States, Great Britain, and France would support the restoration of Baltic sovereignty and organized in pursuit of that goal. They could not know that the French and British had prior to WWII already acceded to the USSR taking over the Baltic states, and that Franklin Roosevelt, for one, had not only personally consigned them to Stalin but joked with him at the possibility of defending their sovereignty.

Latvian National Council

At the end of 1947 the Latvian Central Committee started to discuss the issue of joint political representation of all Latvian refugees, planned to be named the Latvian People’s Council. The Central Council of Latvia in its turn convened a conference of 11 organisations on 14 February 1948 in Esslingen, which elected the so-called Association of Latvian Organisations (LOA) with Arveds Švābe as a Chairman. On 18 March 1949 in Dietzenbach negotiations started between the delegations of the Central Council of Latvians and the Association of Latvian Organisations. During the negotiations an agreement was reached on that an umbrella refugee organisation should be established with the name of Latvian National Association that would comprise an equal number of delegates from the Central Council of Latvia, the Central Council of Latvians and representatives of former soldiers. At the session of the Central Council of Latvians on 8-9 April 1948 in Würzburg where representatives from the LOA also participated it was decided that the new global representation body was named the Latvian National Council (LNC) and its aim would be the liberation of Latvia, preservation of the nation and cooperation. Out of 14–16 organisations represented at the LNC with the total number of delegates 55–59, 36 delegates were of the Central Council of Latvia, Central Council of Latvians and soldier organisations (12 for each).

The first session of the Latvian National Council was held on 10 July 1948 in Esslingen, Roberts Osis was elected the LNC Chairman. The executive body of the LNC was the Presidium of 9 members.

The LNC had planned rather extensive operation, but the limited funding and lack of mutual trust among the members diminished the actual results. The LNC representatives participated in UN conferences in Paris and the meetings of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, performed information work to ensure protection of refugees and interned war veterans against coercive repatriation, assisted evacuation of refugees from the Soviet Zone around West Berlin, as well as supported the development of the “Baltic Guard”, collected books for European and other Latvian organisations and organised care for seniors.

The LNC activities ceased with the mass emigration of Latvian refugees, including the LNC delegates, from Germany. It was closed down in the autumn of 1951.

Read more

• How Stalin got the Baltic States — Prof. Vilnis Šveics' illuminating and myth-puncturing monograph
• Virtual exhibition, Camps in Germany for refugees from Baltic countries, 1944 - 1951
  • Latvian Central Council, Latvian Central Committee
  • Latvian National Committee in Bavaria
  • Latvian National Committee — source for above text

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