Torun – Fort VII
At the seventh fort in northwest Torun, Gestapo murdered about 1,500 Poles during the war. The fort also served as a detention camp for prisoners arrested and several of them were murdered at the fort or at other execution sites, including in a forest area at Barbarka, a few kilometers north of the fort.
Current status: Preserved with monument (2015).
Location: 53°02'02.01"N 18°33'46.38"E
Get there: Car.
Follow up in books: Lukas, Richard C: Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation 1939-1944 (2008).
The Fort was one of several forts that were established during the nineteenth century which together formed a defensive ring around the city. It was not only at Torun that the Nazis took over old forts, but this was relatively common. The fort was used as both prison and execution site. At some of the fort there are clear marks of shooting, but this is not from the executions, but a result of shooting exercises that the Polish army carried out after the war.