Story
The story of Ninth Fort
The name of this place is simply a number. By 1890 Kaunas was ringed by eight forts and nine gun batteries, and work on the Ninth Fort began in 1902, finishing on the eve of the First World War. From 1924 it served as the Kaunas Prison.
In 1940–1941 the Soviet NKVD held political prisoners here before sending them on to Gulag labour camps. Under Nazi occupation the fort became a place of mass murder: 45,000 to 50,000 Jews, most of them from Kaunas and largely from the Kovno Ghetto, were brought here and killed by Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators. In 1943 the Germans made special Jewish squads dig mass graves and burn the remaining bodies; one squad of 64 people escaped on the eve of 1944. In 1958 a museum was established here.
The memorial by the sculptor A. Ambraziunas, 32 metres high, was erected in 1984. On the grass field above the mass graves, a plain inscription in several languages records what happened.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
Hear this story on the spot, in a natural voice
On Sightlore, the story of Ninth Fort is narrated in a natural voice in 5 languages. When you arrive, say "I'm here" and get your passport stamp.
31 more stories from Kaunas in the app
More highlights in Kaunas
- Kaunas CastleRead its story →
- Kaunas Old TownKaunas Old Town is the oldest part of Kaunas, next to the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris rivers and Santaka Park. The Old Town had industry in the past, but it is primarily a residential, retail and leisure area in the 21st century.
- Seventh FortThe Seventh Fort or VII Fort is a defensive fortification built in Žaliakalnis district of Kaunas, Lithuania, during implementation of the first phase of the construction of the Kaunas Fortress.
- Church of St. GertrudeChurch of St. Gertrude is located in the Old Town of Kaunas and is one of the oldest Brick Gothic churches and buildings of Gothic architecture in Lithuania.
- Church of Vytautas the Great, KaunasChurch of Vytautas the Great or the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Roman Catholic church in the Old Town of Kaunas, Lithuania, and is the oldest church in the city and an important example of Gothic architecture in Lithuania, having the only Gothic…
- Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and PharmacyThe Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy is a medical and pharmacy history museum located in a restored 16th-century building at the Town Hall Square in the Old Town of Kaunas, Lithuania.