Kaunas - Fort IV
In southeast Kaunas lies Fort IV and there murdered Nazis and Nazi collaborators about 3000 jews on at least four occasions in august 1941. The largest execution took place on 18 August when more than 1800 Jews were murdered, of which more than 700 were so-called intellectuals who were murdered in retaliation for sabotage against the German occupation.
Current status: Partly preserved/demolished with monument (2010).
Location: 54°51'06.41" N 23°57'14.40" E
Get there: Car.
Follow up in books: Arad, Yitzhak: Holocaust in the Soviet union (2009).
The fort is completely dilapidated and accessibility is limited and the monument is also dilapidated. The Jews who were murdered and buried at the fort still remain in unmarked graves covered with vegetation and debris. The head of Einsatzkommando 3 within Einsatzgruppe A, SS-Standartenführer Karl Jäger, kept statistics (Jäger report) of his unit’s actions in Lithuania (including Kaunas). One of the five copies made of the report survived the war and is thus an important evidence how Jews were systematically murdered in Lithuania. In 1959, Jäger, while awaiting trial, committed suicide.