Discrimination against former deportees

Austra Zalcmane, and her elder sister especially, were faced with restrictions because of their background: daughters of an enemy of the people, resettled in Siberia, they had to fill in an autobiography before they could gain a university place or job and were often refused. They learnt to conceal their origins.

Austra also refused to deny her father’s memory and was not allowed to join the komsomol communist youth movement.