Jewish Kovno: Life, Ghetto and the Ninth Fort

Kovno/Kaunas was a major Lithuanian Jewish center whose cultural and religious life was followed by pogroms, ghettoization, mass murder at the Ninth Fort and resistance.

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Prewar life

Kovno supported the Slobodka yeshiva, Hebrew and Yiddish schools and extensive community institutions.

Occupation

German occupation in 1941 brought pogroms, property seizure and mass shooting.

Ghetto and Ninth Fort

The ghetto became a forced-labor center, while the Ninth Fort served as a major killing site.

Documentation and resistance

Photographs, diaries and underground activity preserved unusually rich evidence.

Sources

This page draws on the institutional sources listed below.

Yad Vashem
USHMM
Arolsen Archives