Latvians and Baltic Germans emigrated to Newfoundland as part of then Premier Joseph Smallwood's New Industries Program. Several families in Corner Brook built, operated and worked in the cement and gypsum plants that provided essential material for the creation of Newfoundland's infrastructure after Confederation. Destruction of cultural heritage in the Soviet Baltics (1945–1989) During the Soviet Baltic time, Soviet authorities governing the Estonian SSR and the Latvian SSR, politically empowered by their victory in World War II, were keen to erase any traces of ethnic German rule in past centuries. Numerous statues, monuments, structures or landmarks with German writing were destroyed, vandalized or left to ruin. The largest Baltic German cemeteries in Estonia, Kopli cemetery and Mõigu cemetery, both standing since 1774, were completely destroyed by the Soviet authorities. The Great Cemetery of Riga, the largest burial ground of Baltic Germans in Latvia, standing since 1773, also had the vast majority of its graves destroyed by the Soviets. 1989 to present The present-day governments of Estonia and Latvia, who regained their independence in 1991, generally take a positive, or sometimes neutral, view towards the contributions of the Baltic Germans in the development of their cities and countries throughout their history. An occasional exception to this comes with some criticism in relation to the major landowners, who controlled most of the rural areas of the Baltics, and the ethnic Estonians and Latvians, until 1918. After Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union on August 20, 1991, the exiled association of the German Baltic nobility sent an official message to the president-to-be Lennart Meri that no member of the association would claim proprietary rights to their former Estonian lands. This, and the fact that the first German ambassadors to Estonia and Latvia were both Baltic Germans, helped to further reconcile the Baltic Germans with these two countries. Cooperation between Baltic German societies and the governments of Estonia and Latvia has made the restoration of many small Baltic German plaques and landmarks possible, such as monuments to those who fought in the 1918–1920 War of Independence. Since 1989, many elderly Baltic Germans, or their descendants, have taken holidays to Estonia and Latvia to look for traces of their own past, their ancestral homes, and their family histories. Most of the remaining manor houses have new owners, and operate as hotels that are open to the public. Notable Baltic Germans Baltic Germans played leading