CAMP TEREZIN

Background information on Terezin from The Holocaust Encyclopedia

• Jewish ghetto established in the winter of 1941-1942 in the Czech town of Terezin and known to the Germans as Theresienstadt, while still a ghetto it had attributes of a concentration camp. Terezin was surrounded by moats and walls and was built at the end of the eighteenth century by Habsburg emperor Joseph II. Inside the ghetto was 11 army barracks. The Jewish community believed that the move to Terezin would be permanent and sent two labour units of engineers, artisans and construction workers to create a self supporting city. In reality the Nazis wanted Terezin for themselves, believing it would be later created into a modern German city.

• Part of the Final Solution initiated the ghetto to serve German Jews over the age of 65 who would not be transported East. It would also serve invalid Jews of WW I , and Jews who had received high military honors… The Nazis wanted Terezin to be the world's "Model Ghetto". In other words a model front for the other more deplorable and ghastly ghettos and concentration camps.

• Out of the 140, 000 brought to Terezin, some 87,000 were sent to their extermination in Eastern camps, starting in 1942 amd mostly to Auschwitz. Only about 3,300 survived the war.

• Women and men were separated except for a few families. Pregnant women in the beginning were allowed to give birth inside the ghetto, but this quickly changed and women who arrive or late became pregnant were forced to endure abortions.

• In the camps food was distributed daily, although meager, it kept off starvation.

• In the beginning of Terezin, workshops were created, mainly for making clothes, Terezin, almost completely self-sufficient, seemed near fulfillment, but then in June of 24 the first transports of the elderly arrived. More than 37,000 in three months. There were 58,000, where people in an area of 3,500 had previously resided. The elderly and sick were crammed into attic and hall spaces. The elderly died in the thousands from disease and exhaustion. They had been promised via contract with the Nazi Party that they would be sent to a rest home with proper amenities, in exchange for all their property.

• In 1942 a crematorium was built outside of the walls. The ashes of the burned were kept in cardboard urns. In November of 1944 with allied victory apparent , the German command, trying to hide evidence of their crimes at Terezin, tossed all 33,000 urns into the Eger River.

• In order to stop "anti-Nazi horror propaganda", SS chief, Heinrich Himmler invited the International Red Cross to Terezin in hopes they would see it as a proper Ghetto. It had to be prepared for the visit. In preparation for the international witnessing committee in 1943, the SS reclassified the ghetto and labeled it "Jewish Settlement". A bank was established, Terezin money was created, dummy cafes and shops were opened. And of course, 17,500 of its inhabitants were sent to Birkenau to relieve the overcrowding. Most of them were gassed.

• Red Cross: Maurice Rossel of the Red Cross had much praise for Terezin, although he was there half a day.

From the first days in Terezin, the ghetto inmates organized poetry recitals and improvised performances
in their closely guarded barracks.

Artists included:

• Otto Ungar
• Gideon Klein
• Pavel Hass
• Petr Kien
• Victor Ulman
• Hans Krasa
• Ferdinand Bloch

Painters who painted what they saw around them often paid with their lives in an attempt to get their works out of the ghetto. There were hundreds of lectures, theatrical performances, and operas preformed in concert form including: The Bartered Bride, Marriage of Figaro, and Carmen. The greatest achievement was the performance of Giuseppe Verde's, Requiem.

• Almost all artists and musicians were sent to their deaths at Auschwitz in the last wave of transports in Sept and October of 1944. Only a few days before Auschwitz's gas chambers would be put out of commission. After nearly all able bodied men were sent to their deaths, only about 11,000 remained (mostly women and elderly) then in Feb of 1945 Himmler made a negotiation with the West and allowed 1,200 Jews to leave Terezin for Switzerland.

• Plans for liquidation at Terezin were in effect. Gas chambers had been built into the walls and were called "store rooms", but they were not used. On April 20th survivors of the death marches started to arrive, bringing lice and typhoid. On May 3rd the Red Cross took over Terezin, stopped the Typhoid outbreak and began to repatriate its occupants to other countries.

• On August 15, 1945 Terezin as a ghetto ceased to exist.