Soviet-built memorial to Holocaust victims adjacent to the...

KAUNAS FORTRESS, KAUNAS, LITHUANIA - 2017/01/15: Soviet-built memorial to Holocaust victims adjacent to the IX fort (out of 13), where about 50,000 people were executed, including more than 30,000 victims of the Holocaust. The forts were constructed and renovated between 1882 and 1914. II fort came under sustained attack from the German soldiers during WW1 in July, 2015. It was one of the first time mustard gas was used along the eastern front. Russian Tsar Alexander II, chose Kaunas, Lithuania as the location for the most modern fortress in the Russian Empire. Found in a strategic location in the middle of two rivers, the city has long stood as the barrier between East and West during the Teutonic conquests, Nordic Wars, Napoleonic Wars and both World Wars. Following the construction of thirteen forts - complete with weapons infrastructure, military hospitals and churches - every third man in Kaunas was a soldier in the Russian Tsars army. In the onset of World War One, the fortress fell in just over a week, taking the lives of 20,000 defending soldiers with it. (Photo by Benas Gerdziunas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)