The Great Campaign at Kaunas IX Fort
II World War II

The beginning of the German-Russian war and the June 1941 uprising are associated with the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania, since pogroms against Jews began in the first days of the war, carried out by the German security police, the SD operational group and Lithuanian white-robed people. From 10 July 1941, all Kaunas Jews were required to wear a distinctive sign on their chests – the Star of David. They were forbidden to walk on the sidewalks, visit parks and squares, and use public transport. By order of Kaunas Regional Commissioner JA Lentzenas, and by order signed by Kaunas War Commandant Jurgis Bobelis and the city mayor Kazys Palčiauskas on 7 July 1941, all Kaunas Jews were required to move to the ghetto in Vilijampolė by 15 August. By 15 August 1941, 30,000 Jews had been moved to the Kaunas ghetto. The largest massacre of Jews during the entire period of Nazi occupation in Lithuania was carried out on October 29, 1941, in Kaunas Fort IX (known as the Great Action), in which Jews isolated in the Kaunas ghetto were killed. On the eve of the massacre, the Gestapo herded all ghetto prisoners, large families, physically weak individuals, elderly people and the sick (about 10,000 people) to the Demokratų Square in Kaunas with the aim of separating, driving them away and shooting them in that fort. The 3rd Company of the National Labor Protection Battalion and about 20 German Gestapo members participated in this massacre. According to the Nazis, the Kaunas ghetto was cleared of unnecessary Jews, i.e. Jews who could not work for the needs of the Germans in World War II. About 17,000 people remained in the ghetto.