The languages of the Balts , or [Baltic Languages]? are classified as [East Baltic]? and [West Baltic]?. The Baltic Germans (Balten-Deutsche) were forced out of their homelands in Lithuania, Latvia and Esthonia (earlier "Kurland, Livland, Lettland )by Stalin . They were either brought to Siberia , killed or escaped to the West, along with fifteen to eighteen million other ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe.
Some orphaned children of the German Balts and of neighboring Eastern Prussia were taken in and hidden from communist authorities . Stalin's military troups had overrun the Baltic lands and all of Eastern Europe, starting in winter 1944 .The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania ,Latvia and Esthonia for fifty years . After the fall of the Iron Curtain these children, called "Wolfskinder?" (children raised by wolfs) now are attempting to find out their identity .
Today only the Eastern Baltic countries are called Baltic States , because the Western Baltic country of Prussia has been dismembered by the Soviet Union, now Russia asOblast Kaliningrad.The larger part of West and East-Prussia is submerged into Poland. While millions of the inhabitants were killed or forced to leave ,some have been able to remain in their homeland of East or West Prussia, despited greatest hardships.In 1946/47 they received classification as "Autochthones" by the communist occupation Polish administration authorities.
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