Museum of the Ninth Fort (Kauno 9-ojo forto muziejus) description and photos - Lithuania: Kaunas (Topic)

Museum of the Ninth Fort (Kauno 9-ojo forto muziejus) description and photos - Lithuania: Kaunas. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Kauno 9-ojo forto muziejus.

Photo and description

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 for the temporary location 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 Internal Affairs 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 shootings 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 over to agricultural organizations.

In 1958, a Museum of the Ninth fort was founded in the IX fort. 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 that added to the museum were collected. In 1965 the second exposition appeared in the museum.

Not far from the ancient ninth fort, a museum was built with metal gates and original-style buildings. 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 site where the mass grave of the victims of the camp was carried out is marked with a simple memorial made of wood, on which you can see a sign 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 the museum was a concentration camp. It also provides information about the early years of the Ninth Fort.

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Topic: Museum of the Ninth Fort (Kauno 9-ojo forto muziejus) description and photos - Lithuania: Kaunas.