Patarei

In 1828, Tsar Nikolai ordered the construction of a sea fort on the Baltic coast of Tallinn. The fort has had different functions, partly as military base and partly as a prison. During the first Soviet occupation of Estonia between the summer of 1940 and the summer of 1941, it was used by the NKVD to imprison political opponents. During the German occupation the Germans took over the prison and used it, for instance, as a place for executions. 207 Jewish men were murdered in prison. About 300 French Jews who arrived with convoy no. 73 from the transit camp Drancy outside Paris on May 20, 1944 were imprisoned in Patarei. The majority of these were murdered in September 1944 at the forest cemetery (Metsakalmistu) outside Tallinn, the rest were deported to Stutthof.