The Ninth Fort as a Part of Kaunas Fortress

Designed and started to be built at the end of the 19th century, Kaunas Fortress was to become one of the most important links in the defence system of the western border of the Russian Empire. The fortress consisted of forts, intermediate batteries, barracks, administrative buildings, infrastructure, etc. Kaunas was transformed into a fortress city. By the beginning of the 20th century, the city was surrounded by a ring of 8 forts and 9 batteries. As the use of concrete in fortification became more widespread, a decision was made to improve the fortress. In 1903, the construction of the Ninth Fort was started on the high ground near Kumpė Falwark. Despite huge investments and many years of construction, the expectations of the fortress were not fulfilled as the army of the German Empire captured the fortress in 11 days (August 8-18, 1915). The first three forts (first, second and third) were the most active in the fights. The Ninth Fort was hastily abandoned by the Russian Imperial garrison on the evening of August 17, 1915. The fort suffered little damage during the First World War.

The Ninth Fort as Kaunas Hard Labour Prison

After the First World War, when Lithuania regained its independence, Kaunas Fortress was subject to various modifications. In 1924, the Ninth Fort was reconstructed into a division of Kaunas hard labour prison. Most prisons in Lithuania were not designed to hold prisoners for a long time as prisoners were usually sent to Siberia during the occupation of the Russian Empire. In the independent Republic of Lithuania, such punishments could not be imposed; therefore, it was necessary to look for a place to accommodate those who had violated the law. The state allocated 80 hectares of land for the Ninth Fort prison farm, about half of which was cultivated by the prisoners themselves. The garden taken care of by the prisoners comprised 4 hectares, and a part of the land was used as a pasture. Although the hard labour division of the prison sounds rather harsh, the daily work of the prisoners was little different from that of the farm’s hired workers. Kaunas hard labour prison was self-sufficient in milk and other agricultural produce, and the prisoners were fed on what they grew themselves. The rest of the production was sold. From 1930, political prisoners (mainly representatives of the banned Communist Party) were imprisoned in the hard labour division of Kaunas Ninth Fort, and from 1934 women were also imprisoned. Up to 240 prisoners could be imprisoned in the Ninth Fort at a time, although the number of prisoners was usually lower, and by the end of the 1930s it was less than a hundred.

The Ninth Fort in the Hands of the Soviet Repressive Structure

On June 15, 1940, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, and the political prisoners who were imprisoned in the division of hard labour prison of Kaunas Ninth Fort found themselves free and even in the spotlight. At that time, the renowned communisits, such as Antanas Sniečkus, Motiejus Šumauskas, Kazys Preikšas, etc. were imprisoned in Kaunas Ninth Fort and after liberation joined state governance that was being created in Lithuania. The repressive structure of the Soviet occupiers, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), was established in Kaunas Ninth Fort itself. It was turned into an intermediate transfer station for political prisoners. Only the political prisoners were no longer members of the Communist Party, but Lithuanian intellectuals: teachers, officers, journalists and others who opposed the Soviet occupation. From the Ninth Fort in Kaunas, these people were sent to various areas of the GULAG archipelago. Further deportations of “people’s enemies” were prevented by the outbreak of the war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Retreating Soviets brutally tortured and murdered many political prisoners in Lithuania (in Pravieniškės, Rainiai, etc.). Meanwhile, the guards of the Ninth Fort suddenly escaped, leaving the prisoners locked in their cells. One of the local guards returned and released the condemned prisoners. Some of the released prisoners rushed to escape to the city, but unsuccessfully as they were shot by the retreating Red Army on Žemaičių highway.

The Ninth Fort as a Site of Mass Murder

When Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania at the end of June 1941, the darkest page of the history of Kaunas Ninth Fort began. During three years, approximately 50,000 people were murdered in Kaunas Ninth Fort: around 30,000 Jews, as well as Lithuanians, Poles, Russians and other nationalities. The pogroms against the Jews in the temporary capital began as soon as the Nazi German army occupied Kaunas, on June 25-26. The first organised shootings of Jews took place in the Seventh Fort at the end of June 1941 and lasted throughout July. A little less than a month later, Kaunas Jewish Ghetto was established in Vilijampolė. The concentration of all the city’s Jews in one place had to ensure not only easy control and exploitation for forced labour, but also the gradual destruction of the community. On October 28 and 29, 1941, the Great Action was carried out in Kaunas Ghetto: 9,200 (out of 27,000) people were selected on October 28, and on October 29 those condemned were brought to the Ninth Fort and shot in a nearby field. In the same field, not only Kaunas Jews but also Jews from Germany, Austria, France and Czechoslovakia were buried. Most of the foreigners were brought in and shot in November-December 1941, and the last large group of French citizens in May 1944. In the second half of 1943, after Nazi Germany’s significant military setbacks on the Eastern Front, hasty attempts were made to hide the evidence of war crimes by destroying the remains at the sites of mass murder. Kaunas Ninth Fort was no exception. The team of ‘corpse burners’ working there realised that the Nazis did not need living witnesses; therefore, they decided to escape. On December 25, 1943, a group of 64 people managed to escape from the Ninth Fort. Thanks to these people, Nazi Germany was not able to completely conceal the extent of the crime. On July 15, 1944, Kaunas Jewish Ghetto was liquidated. Most of the Jewish community in Lithuania was destroyed. The Nazi German troops withdrew from Kaunas, but the Red Army took their place.

The Ninth Fort as a Museum and Memorial Complex

At the beginning of the second Soviet occupation (1944-1947), the fort was used by the repressive structure of the NKVD, and later the premises were adapted for food storage. On July 9, 1958, the Council of Ministers of the LSSR adopted a resolution “On the organisation of the museum of revolution history in Kaunas, on the territory of the Ninth Fort”, based on the aim “to commemorate the victims of the terror of the Lithuanian bourgeois-nationalists and the German fascist invaders.” In other words, the new museum was to provide a narrative of history based on Soviet ideology. On May 30, 1959, the solemn opening of the museum took place. In the mid-1970s, construction work began on the memorial complex. On June 15, 1984, Kaunas Ninth Fort Memorial Complex was opened to the public, with the addition of a new exhibition building (architects Gediminas Baravykas and Vytautas Vielius), an administration building, walking paths and a 32-metre-high monument in memory of the Nazism victims (sculptor Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas). The memorial complex with the integral museum continued to serve the Soviet propaganda until the mood of restoring Lithuanian statehood reached it in 1988. The exhibitions began to be changed in order to show the atrocities of the two occupations, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and to present the themes of repressions and resistance.