Klaipėda District Municipality
Lithuania Minor
museum of resistance and deportation history
Klaipėdos g. 29, Priekulė, Klaipėda District
55.55670, 21.31710
1-1.5 hours
year-round (indoor museum)
Priekulė Freedom Fights and Deportation History Museum, Freedom Fights and Deportation Museum
A place of memory in Priekulė
The Museum of Freedom Fights and Deportation History in Priekulė tells the story of postwar anti-Soviet partisan war and Stalinist deportations in the Klaipėda region. It is not only an exhibition but a real place of memory: the museum is in a building that itself was an instrument of repression.
Do not confuse it with the nearby Priekulė Ieva Simonaitytė Memorial Museum, dedicated to the writer, or with the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Vilnius. This is a separate institution, a branch of the Gargždai Area Museum.
The building: from gendarmerie to security headquarters
The museum occupies a former German gendarmerie complex built in 1909, with typical East Prussian brick architecture that is one of the more expressive details of old Priekulė. The main building at Klaipėdos g. 29 is listed in the Cultural Heritage Register.
In 1945-1953 the local Soviet security headquarters and detention site operated here, and the bodies of killed partisans were desecrated in the inner courtyard. This painful history is exactly why the building was chosen for the museum: it is itself an exhibit.
The exhibition: resistance and deportation
The permanent exhibition 'Deportation and Resistance in Klaipėda District' tells about postwar partisan war in a region where the Žygimantas, Kaributas, Briedis, and other partisan units operated, and about mass deportations. According to museum data, about 2402 residents were deported from eleven former volosts in 1941-1953, and another 443 were sent to camps.
Authentic exhibits include a small cross made from bread, embroidered items made with fish bones and fabric, deportees' household objects, documents and letters, and a copper-ore collection brought back from deportation. A former security prison cell has been reconstructed in the cellar.
Outdoor exhibition: deportation wagon and bunker
The museum yard holds an outdoor exhibition. Its centrepiece is an authentic 1944 deportation wagon that visitors can enter to sense the conditions in which people were transported to Siberia.
Nearby stands a reconstructed partisan bunker and memorial signs related to the remains of fallen partisans. In this way the museum connects indoor exhibition with outdoor spaces and turns the whole homestead into a memory narrative.
Visiting
The museum began in 1997 as a public organization, opened ceremonially in 2006, and became a branch of the Gargždai Area Museum. It is open Tuesday to Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday. At the time of research an adult ticket cost 2 Eur and a concession ticket 1 Eur.
Check current opening hours and prices on the official page. A visit takes about 1-1.5 hours and combines well with the nearby Ieva Simonaitytė Museum or a wider Gargždai region route.
