Varniai concentration camp

Varniai concentration camp
Main building of the concentration camp (present-day Samogitian Diocese Museum)
Varniai concentration camp
Location of the Varniai concentration camp
Coordinates55°44′38″N 22°22′21″E / 55.74389°N 22.37250°E / 55.74389; 22.37250
StatusClosed
Security classInternment camp
Capacity300
Population168 (as of October 1928)
Opened19 January 1927
Closed30 October 1931
WardenCaptain Kostas Rudaitis
CityVarniai
CountryLithuania
Notable prisoners
Butkų Juzė, Vladas Niunka, Mečislovas Gedvilas, Andrius Bulota

Varniai concentration camp was an internment camp in Varniai, Lithuania. It was created a month after the coup d'état of December 1926 to house political prisoners, mostly members of the outlawed Communist Party of Lithuania. In total, more than 1,000 people passed through the camp before it was closed in 1931 due to financial difficulties brought by the Great Depression. Later, the authoritarian regime of Antanas Smetona operated two other internment camps, one in Dimitravas in 1936 and another in Pabradė in 1939.