Description of the attraction
The ninth fort is one of the forts of the Koven fortress, located in the north of the city of Kaunas. In the Soviet years, it was adapted as a prison and a place of temporary residence of convicted citizens on the way to places of permanent confinement. During the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis set up a concentration camp in the fortress, where mass executions of Soviet prisoners of war, Jews and other prisoners took place. Currently, this place houses a museum in memory of the many victims.
By the end of the 19th century, Kaunas was fortified and by 1890 surrounded by eight forts and nine batteries of artillery. The construction of the IX Fort or the "Great Fort at the Kumpe Folwark" was started in 1902. Completed construction work by the beginning of the First World War. In 1924, the Ninth Fort fell under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior and was used as the Kaunas City Prison. However, its defensive function in case of war remained.
In 1940-1941, the Ninth Fort was used by representatives of the NKVD for temporary accommodation of political prisoners on their way to the Siberian camps of the GULAG. During World War II, Fort IX was the site of mass executions of people. Since those terrible times it has been called the "Fort of Death". After the war, the fort was used as a prison for some time. Since 1948, within 10 years, the fort was given to agricultural organizations.
In 1958, a Museum of the Ninth fort was founded in Fort IX. In 1959, the first exposition was prepared in four chambers of the fort, telling about the crimes of Hitler during the Great Patriotic War on Lithuanian territory. In 1960, a study of the sites of massacres was organized, and exhibits were collected to supplement the museum. In 1965, the second exposition appeared in the museum.
Not far from the ancient ninth fort, a museum was built with metal gates and buildings in the original style. In 1984, expositions were opened in the new museum. In the same year, a monument to the victims of the Holocaust, tortured and killed in the camps, was erected on the territory of the IX fort. The sculpture is 32 meters high and was created by the sculptor A. Abraziunas.
The place where the mass burial of the victims of the camp was carried out is marked with a simple memorial made of wood, on which you can see a plaque on which it is written in several languages: "At this place, the Nazis and their accomplices killed more than 30,000 Jews from Lithuania and other European countries." It was opened in 1991.
Currently, the museum contains exhibits dedicated to the Soviet years and the times of the Great Patriotic War, when a concentration camp was located in the museum. It also provides information about the early years of the Ninth Fort.
