Editing Ninth Fort (section)

==History==
{{See also|Kaunas massacre of October 29, 1941}}
[[File:Kaunas KZ IX. Fort Festung Innen 02.JPG|thumb|Prison cell.]]
[[File:IX Fort (2008-09-20)23.jpg|thumb|Through this door, 62 prisoners escaped on 25 December 1943.]]
[[File:Kaunas Fortress.Ninth Fort 3.jpg|thumb|Observation post]]
At the end of the 19th century the city of Kaunas was fortified and by 1890 was encircled by eight forts and nine gun batteries. Construction of the Ninth Fort (its numerical designation having become its name) began in 1902 and was completed on the eve of [[World War I]].<ref name=lithuania>{{cite web|title=The Ninth Fort|url=http://www.way2lithuania.com/en/travel-lithuania/ninth-fort|publisher=way2lithuania.com|access-date=11 November 2012}}</ref> From 1924 on, the Ninth Fort was used as the [[Kaunas Prison]].

During the [[Soviet occupation of Lithuania|Soviet occupation]] in 1940–1941, the Ninth Fort was used by the [[NKVD]] to house political prisoners pending transfer to [[Gulag]] forced labor camps.<ref name="muziejai" />

During Nazi occupation, the Ninth Fort was a place of [[mass murder]]<ref name=gutenstein>
{{cite web 
|title=KAUNAS, LITHUANIA 
|url=http://www.gutstein.net/kaunas/kaunas-ninthfort.htm 
|publisher=gutstein.net 
|access-date=11 November 2012
}}</ref> and 45,000 to 50,000 Jews, most from Kaunas and largely the [[Kovno Ghetto]], were transported to the Ninth Fort and murdered by Nazis and [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#Lithuania|Lithuanian collaborators]] in what became known as the [[Kaunas massacre of October 29, 1941|Kaunas massacre]].

Notable among the victims was Rabbi [[Elchonon Wasserman]] of Baranovitch. In addition, Jews from as far as France, Austria and Germany were brought to Kaunas during the Nazi occupation, and executed in the Ninth Fort. In 1943, the Germans operated special Jewish squads to dig mass graves and burn the remaining corpses. One squad of 64 people managed to escape the fortress on the eve of 1944. That year, as the Soviets moved in, the Germans liquidated the ghetto and what had by then come to be known as the "Fort of Death". The prisoners were dispersed to other camps. After [[World War II]], the Soviets again used the Ninth Fort as a prison for several years. From 1948 to 1958, farm organizations were managed from the Ninth Fort.<ref name="muziejai" />

In 1958, a museum was established in the Ninth Fort. In 1959, an exhibition was prepared in four cells, telling of the Nazi war crimes carried out in Lithuania. In 1960, the discovery, cataloging, and forensic investigation of local mass murder sites began.