HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
At the beginning of the 20th century, residential buildings in Klaipėda were built further and further north-west. Their large blocks appeared near the present I. Kanto, S. Nėries streets. The direction of the latter was determined by the railway built in 1875: at present S. Daukanto Street it turns slightly and goes straight towards the station. The street was planted with lime trees.
As Jonas Tatoris writes, in 1904 the magistrate built a shelter for old craftsmen out of an inheritance at present S. Nėries Street (No. 2). The façades here combined red bricks and plastered planes, concrete details.
In the second decade of the 20th century, a shelter for women and girls was built next door. It is in this building at 4 S. Nėries Street where the Resistance and Deportation Exposition is located. It is a two-storey building with semi-basements and a high socle as well as a segmental, slightly projecting bow window with a balcony above. The façade is decorated with embossed oval rosettes. After the Second World War, both buildings housed Soviet repressive structures (NKVD, MGB, KGB). Their basements were used as internal prisons until the mid-1950s, while the KGB used the premises until the mid-1980s. After the construction of the new building on Taikos Avenue, the KGB moved there and these spaces were left behind empty and unmaintained.
With the start of the revival and the restoration of Lithuania’s independence, it was decided to transfer the abandoned facility to the Klaipėda Territorial Customs. It has been located here since 1992. The buildings have been restored, and after renovation one of the basements was left with an authentic internal prison cell.
In January 2014, The Resistance and Deportation Exposition of the History Museum of Lithuania Minor was opened at 4 S. Nėries Street.
EXPOSITION
In January 2014 thanks to the cooperation of the Klaipėda Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees, the History Museum of Lithuania Minor and the Klaipėda Territorial Customs, a newly prepared Resistance and Deportation Exposition was opened at 4 S. Nėries Street, Klaipėda, in the basement of Klaipėda subdivision of the former soviet Committee for State Security (KGB) (now the Klaipėda Territorial Customs).
It is known that 8 268 people were imprisoned in the cells of this building between 1945 and 1954. Visitors are invited to visit three premises, which introduce the partisan movement in Western Lithuania in 1945-1954, the repressive structures that fought against the Lithuanian armed resistance, the topic of political prisoners and the history of the deportation of the residents of Klaipėda region. Visitors have the opportunity to see two authentic cells where prisoners were held. There, photographs, documents, letters, people’s personal belongings are displayed, complemented by a computer terminal video footage and recordings of conversations with the living witnesses of these events. In another room, an attractive interrogator’s office is recreated. On 23 August 2016, a typical commemorative plaque prepared by the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania was attached to the building. It is made to honour those Lithuanian citizens who were interrogated, imprisoned and tortured.