1941–1944 

In 1941, the Soviet occupation of Lithuania was replaced by the Nazi occupation. Kaunas Ninth Fort was turned into a mass murder site. In a reconstructed prisoners’ cell, one can see imprisonment conditions and the last pre-mortem records of the condemned, preserved on the walls of the fort.

The expositions devoted to this period reveal the rise of anti-Semitism in Central Europe and focus on the foreign Jews killed in Kaunas Ninth Fort. Visitors are introduced to the fate of the prisoners of Kaunas Jewish Ghetto. One of the expositions tell about the diplomats who saved Jews: Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese envoy to Lithuania, and Jan Zwartendijk, the Dutch consul in Lithuania. One can experience the grim life of Kaunas Ghetto in the experiential installation “Kaunas Ghetto Hiding Place.” The exhibition “The Great Action” commemorates the most massive mass murder in  Kaunas Ghetto. Here you can also find out everything about the legendary escape from the Ninth Fort.