The Ninth Fort
I’ve written about the Kaunas Fortresses here. However, the Ninth Fort is by far the most infamous and tragic. I’ve driven past the site many times, but today, I actually stopped to explore and experience the area.
Like the other forts surrounding Kaunas, the Ninth Fort was used as a Russian stronghold from 1902-1913. However, during WWII, the fort was used as a place of mass murder. Over 50,000 people were executed here, including over 30,000 Jews and 10,000 foreigners. While it’s not a proud history, it is history.
Today, the weather was beautiful, and people were picnicking, walking, and biking around the fort. To me, this seemed strange. On that very spot you’re drinking a beer, someone’s mother/father/child was shot to death. However, Lithuania’s history is full of tragedy, so maybe it’s good to turn such a devastatingly grim area into an enjoyable one. I don’t know. You either memorialize the area by keeping it in the past, so that future generations can really feel the pain and suffering, while hopefully, ensuring that the Holocaust is never repeated. Or, you memorialize the area, while looking forward to a much brighter future. I think both are important.
*Today is the 70th anniversary of World War II. I overlooked this. I guess it is very apt that I felt the urge to stop at the fort today…
The Ninth Fort
The Ninth Fort
This field is a mass burial ground.
Plaque in front of the mass grave.
The plaque states, "There near this wall Nazis shot and burned people in 1943-1944."
The Ninth Fort Memorial to the Victims
Here’s a plaque I randomly saw on a building in the center of Kaunas. I think it fits in with this post:
More about the Holocaust in Lithuania here.
Related posts:
- Kaunas Forts
- May 26, 2009 + a Not-So Quick Note on the Holocaust in Lithuania
- August 9, 2009
- August 14, 2009
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[...] “the most prolific killers on the entire eastern front” who were waiting for the transports at Kovno’s Ninth Fort[7]. According to Sir Martin Gilbert, “The Ninth Fort became synonymous with mass murder.” [...]
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[...] sent away to concentration or extermination camps, or they were killed in another area of Kaunas (the Ninth Fort). The 2,000 remaining Jews were shot or burned after Germans destroyed the Ghetto with dynamite. [...]
That’s amazing. I’ve never been to any Holocaust-related grounds, but I’d really like to- I think it’s important to see.
quite impressive, brooke…thanks for sharing your experiences and the great pictures…might i have your permission to use these pictures in a future blog on my Holocaust site http://holokauston.wordpress.com ?
stop by the blog and let me know, or e-mail me privately…i plan to blog about each of the known extermination/concentration camps in the near future…thanks again! great job!
so amazing.
tragic.
so sad.
you have hit the nail on the head. i think it is important to memorialize and remember, but it is also nice to try and live life in the present and make the world a better place. sometimes the two seem to be at odds, but i hope both can be achieved. :)
The memorial structure they put up is quite an interesting piece of art.
Wow, that’s so interesting Brooke. So sad.
i ran across a great blog post from a month ago, describing one american’s reaction to visiting auschwitz-birkenau for the first time…it is really compelling and well written:
http://www.rachellucas.com/index.php/2009/08/24/we-have-to-go-into-the-despair-and-go-beyond-it-by-working-and-doing-for-somebody-else-by-using-it-for-something-else/