Patarei prison

Patarei (Tallinn Central Prison) is the one camp-and-prison site connected to Estonia that was used by both occupation authorities: the Soviet Union (1940–1941 and 1944–1991) and Nazi Germany (1941–1944). Built as a sea fortress in the 1830s (completed in 1840), the building was turned into a prison in the 1920s.

Soviet occupation (1940–1941)

In 1940 Patarei was placed under the Estonian SSR's NKVD. By the register of the repressed, more than 9,850 people were arrested for political reasons in 1940–1941, most of them held in Patarei. Executions began in April 1941; most prisoners were sent by rail to Siberian prison camps, from which fewer than 5% ever returned.

German occupation (1941–1944)

Under the German occupation the arrests were so numerous that, beside the prisons, temporary concentration camps were set up (Jägala, Klooga, Vaivara). By October 1941 Patarei held over 2,600 people, though its normal capacity was 1,200. In May 1944 about 300 French Jews were brought to the Tallinn prison, of whom about 40 survived and were taken to Stutthof.

Soviet return (1944–1991)

After 1944 the NKVD again used Patarei as a centre of repression; by 1945 it held over 2,000 prisoners. Today Patarei is a memorial to the terror of the totalitarian regimes. See also the overview of the camps. Sources: Patarei Prison (Wikipedia).