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"Exodus 5:18 - "Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." Psalm 74:20".
A fortress, surrounded by 8 other fortresses would seem a safe place, even in the Shoah,
but this description of the Lithuanian "9th Fort-Kaunas" killing center afforded no one refuge. The 9th Fort was the site of one
of the most planned ,hidden mass murders of the Holocaust. Designated because of its physical description,The 9th Fort
was located near Kaunas, or Kovno, a small town in Lithuania, then a captial city and even now second in importance.
At least 5000 citizens of Kaunas Ghetto were sent to the 9th Fort and killed, the fort became a hallmark of cruelty. Begun in 1924 as a
camp for hard labor, by 1940-41 it was both a killing center and transit camp and is reknown for mass killings in 1944-45
covered up by an "Aktion 1005 in which the Nazis and Lithuanian guards ordered the bodies exhumed
and cremated on pyres & crushed bones into powder to escape detection of the event. It remained a prison after
the war; a museum now marks the location of the slaughter. Death toll estimates range from 40,000 -60,000; methods included
shootings & mass poisonings (an event also directed towards townspeople) by methylated spirit and oxalic acid1
In 1941-42 according to eyewitness testimony of prisoners, 3 there were mass shootings under the command of the Germans and local Gestapo who then commanded prisoners to exhume bodies and burn and crush them, hidden by sequestering borders of the camp in 2km circumference, and hiding the aktion under tarps. All prisoners involved in the exhumation were killed. Five large graves were opened over 2-3 acres, each approximately 100 meters by 3meters and 1.5 meters deep2 Those taken for killings were told they were to be given 'innoculations'. Russians, Ukranians, Belarussians Lithuanians, Poles, and Jews of all ages and gender were represented in the Killing Center. Surrounded by barbed wire and guards in towers with machine guns, few survived. In 1944 the Germans liquidated the ghetto and "Fort of Death" as the Soviets moved in, and prisoners were dispersed to other camps: over 80% died. The camp was liberated in August 1944 by the Soviets. After the war, no Jewish survivors returned to the area. years 2
1 Jewush Virtual Library: Kaunas-9th Forth 2 "Slavic Camps", USHMM Learning Center/Archives. 3Nizkor: Testimony of Kaunas 9th Fort Prisoners 4 "9th Fort-Kaunas", Jewish Gen: Forgotten Camps: Belzec. 5 9th Fort-Kaunas Museum