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War, Revolution and Freedom: The Baltic Countries in the 20th Century Slideshow

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letter
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Copy of an August 14, 1941, letter from Latvian envoy Alfreds Bilmanis to US Secretary of State Cordell Hull concerning the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany. (Alfreds Bilmanis papers, Box 3, Hoover Institution Archives)

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children
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Photograph from 1920 of children in Vilnius, Lithuania, waving American flags in appreciation for food and other assistance provided by the American Relief Administration.  (William Parmer Fuller collection, photo album, Hoover Institution Archives)

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Ona Šimaitė
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Photograph of Ona Šimaitė, a librarian who aided inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto in Vilnius during the German occupation of Lithuania during World War II. At great personal risk, she smuggled several Jewish children out of the ghetto. Arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, Šimaitė was sent to Dachau, an ordeal that she survived. After the war, Šimaitė lived in France.  (Ona Šimaitė collection, Box 1, Hoover Institution Archives)

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baltic_way_poster
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A Lithuanian poster commemorating the Baltic Way, a linking of hands across Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia (all then still part of the Soviet Union) that took place on August 23, 1989. The event marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact that led to the end of the first period of independence for the Baltic States. (Poster collection, Hoover Institution Archives)

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rally in Tallinn
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Photograph of pro-independence rally in Tallinn, 1988. By the late 1980s, Estonians had become emboldened to protest Soviet rule openly. (Wayne Holder papers, Box 8)

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Thomas J. Orbison
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Photograph of Thomas J. Orbison, head of the Latvian mission of the American Relief Administration (ARA), which provided badly needed food and medical aid to Latvia and the other Baltic States from 1919 to 1920. The photo shows Orbison in his Rīga office just after it was hit by an artillery shell on October 20, 1919. The shell was fired during an attack on Rīga by the Bermondt-Avalov army, which was made up of White Russian and German Freikorps forces opposed to an independent Latvian state.  (American Relief Administration-European Unit collection, Box 860, Hoover Institution Archives)

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