28/29 October 1941

The Great Action. On the eve of the massacre, the Gestapo conducted a selection of the Jews in the Kaunas Ghetto. About 10,000 Jews were selected for execution – mostly multi-child families, physically week persons, the elderly and the sick. 29 October 1941, the condemned Jews were taken from the Kaunas Ghetto to the 9th Fort and shot in huge pits dug in advance. The massacre took place the whole day and ended at nightfall. The shootings were carried out by the 3rd company of the TDA Battalion as well as about 20 German officers and solders. According to the Karl Jäger Report, 9,200 Jews were massacred in the 9th Fort on 29 October 1941, including 2,007 men, 2,920 women and 4,273 children. Karl Jäger cynically referred to this slaughter as “cleaning of the ghetto from useless Jews”.