9th Fort of the Kaunas Fortress

Kaunas, Lithuania

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The 9th Fort of the Kaunas Fortress in Lithuania was built between 1901 and 1913 as part of a larger defensive ring around the city of Kaunas during the time it was part of the Russian Empire.

Although intended as a military fortification, its defensive function was short-lived as German forces captured it during World War I after an 11-day siege. In the interwar years, the fort was converted into a prison used by Lithuanian authorities and later by Soviet occupiers for political prisoners who were often sent to labor camps.

Under Nazi occupation in World War II, the 9th Fort became a site of mass executions, notably of Jews from the Kaunas Ghetto and other Europeans, with estimates of up to 50,000 victims. The fort also witnessed a rare escape in 1943 by a group of prisoners who survived to tell the story. 

After the war, it was used by Soviet authorities and eventually transformed into a museum and memorial site dedicated to the victims of totalitarian regimes and the Holocaust, preserving its dark history as a stark reminder of oppression and genocide.