Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum Fortification

Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum is located at the crossroads of ma jor international transport routes near Kaunas and it is easily accessible by car. The Ninth Fort was built from 1903–1913 as one of the forts of the Kaunas fortress complex with the task of protecting the strategically important Linkuva ridge. The fort was built with the use of concrete slabs – an innovation of the time, elec tricity and ventilation system. The fort did not suffer damage during the First World War. From 1924 to 1940, the Ninth Fort was a prison for political prisoners and criminals, while from 1940 to 1941, it became an NKVD redistribution point. During the Second World War, the Ninth Fort became the site of a mass murder of Jews, where around 50,000 Jews from different countries were killed by the Nazi occupation regime. In 1958, a museum was established in the Ninth Fort to tell the story of Nazi crimes, and in 1984, a memorial complex was built and a monument to the victims of Nazism was erected (authors: Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas, Gediminas Baravykas and Vytautas Vielius). Today, the Ninth Fort Museum tells the story of the fortress, as well as the history of crimes committed by the Nazis and the Soviets.