My family left in the 1930’s. They chose to disappear instead of join the communist party. I still remember the immediate celebration at my grandparents house when news came out of Lithuanian independence.

I’ve never been as proud of my ancestors willingness to resist than I am now.

My maternal grandmother and her family left Lithuania in 1940 when the USSR annexed the Baltic states and began deporting undesirables.

My grandmother's family wasn't forcibly deported, but they saw the writing on the wall and thankfully had family in the US to take them in.

My parents and grandparents left during the second world war. Canadians marched into my dad's town and helped families migrate west just the day before my dad and his parents were scheduled on a one way train to Siberia. Fucking Russians.