Terezin

I watched a movie called “Terezin” and really liked it.

It’s about an Italian Clarinetist and a Czechoslovak Violinist who fall in love in the Terezin Ghetto during World War 2.

It is based on a True Story.

The Terezin (called Theresienstadt by the Germans) Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German-Occupied Czechoslovakia).

Theresienstadt, opened in 1941, served as a waystation to the Extermination Camps. Its conditions were deliberately engineered to hasten the death of its Prisoners, and the Ghetto also served a propaganda role.

Unlike other Ghettos, the exploitation of Forced Labor was not economically significant.

Theresienstadt was known for its relatively rich cultural life, including concerts, lectures, and clandestine education for Children. There was even a 100,000 volume Ghetto Library.

Prisoners were shipped via Train to the Train Station and made to walk nearly 2 miles to the Ghetto (with many Elderly, Children and Sick dying along the way.) Upon arrival the Germans took all the personal possessions of the people.

144,000 Men, Women and Children were held at Theresienstadt and were deported from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, etc.

33,000 Men, Women and Children died in Theresienstadt with another 88,000 deported from Theresienstadt to the Death Camps in German-Occupied Poland and murdered there.

The Nazi German Red Cross visited Theresienstadt in June 1943 and noted the overcrowding and disease, but nothing came of the report.

The International Red Cross then decided to visit Theresienstadt in the Summer of 1944 due to pressure from the Danish King Christian X who wanted to know what happened to the Danish Jews deported from German-Occupied Denmark.

Beforehand the Germans embarked on a "Beautification" (German: Verschönerung) Campaign to prepare the Ghetto for the Red Cross visit.

Many "Prominent" Prisoners and Danish Jews were re-housed in private, superior quarters. The streets were renamed and cleaned; sham shops and a school were set up; the SS encouraged the Prisoners to perform an increasing number of cultural activities, which exceeded that of an ordinary town in peacetime.

 As part of the preparations, transports increased to the Death Camps -  targeting the Sick, the Elderly, and Disabled People who had no place in the German Ghetto Propaganda.

On June 23, 1944 the International Red Cross toured the Theresienstadt Ghetto in a limo for 8 hours and watched a soccer game and performance of the Children's opera “Brundibár.”

The Red Cross Swiss Representative, Maurice Rossel, noted, wrongly, that the Theresienstadt Ghetto was a model and clean place.

After the International Red Cross visited the Theresienstadt Ghetto most of the people they saw there were deported to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland.

They were kept in the Theresienstadt Family Camp (Czech: Terezínský rodinný tábor, German: Theresienstädter Familienlager) from September 1943-July 1944.

The Germans hoped to use these Prisoners in case the International Red Cross decided to visit Auschwitz too.

Only the Nazi German Red Cross visited Auschwitz in February 1944.

Unlike the other Prisoners of Auschwitz those in the Family Camp, Men Women and Children, were not selected for the Gas Chambers or Forced Labor, they kept their own clothes and were given regular Red Cross Food Packages.

600 Children were held the in the Family Camp and were given underground education to keep them busy by the German Jew, Fredy Hirsch, who had done the same for the Children in the Theresienstadt Ghetto.

Those in the Family Camp were made to send letters and post cards to their Friends and Relatives across Europe telling how they were healthy and happy at Auschwitz.

On March 8, 1944 the 1^st Liquidation of the Family Camp occurred. 3,792 Men, Women and Children (including Freddy Hirsch) were murdered in the Gas Chambers that night.

On July 18, 1944 the 2^nd Liquidation of the Family Camp occurred. 6,5000 Men, Women and Children were murdered in the Gas Chambers.

Of the 17,517 Czechoslovak Jews deported to the Family Camp, only 1,294 survived the war.

The Soviet Red Army liberated Theresienstadt in May 1945 with 1,500 Prisoners dying after liberation from sickness, disease, or starvation.

Czechoslovak Authorities prosecuted several SS members who had served at Theresienstadt, including all three Commandants. Seidl and Rahm were both tried, convicted, and executed for their crimes, Seidl in Austria and Rahm in Czechoslovakia.

Convicted in absentia and sentenced to death, Burger managed to evade arrest and lived under a false name in West Germany until his death in 1991. The Czech Gendarme Commander, Theodor Janeček, died in prison in 1946 while awaiting trial.

 A Czech Court in Litoměřice found a perimeter Guard, Miroslaus Hasenkopf, guilty of treason and sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment; he died in prison in 1951.

In 1947, it was decided to convert the Small Fortress into a Memorial to the victims of Nazi persecution.

Due to Soviet Communist Military Occupation from 1945-1990) and the Czechoslovak Communist Dictatorship (1948-1990) Jews were not allowed to be mentioned on Holocaust Memorials at Theresienstadt or anywhere behind the Iron Curtain.

The Terezín Ghetto Museum was inaugurated in October 1991, after the Velvet Revolution ended Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, as part of the 50th Anniversary commemorations of the former Ghetto.

 The Museum is funded by the Czech Ministry of Culture and includes a section devoted to researching the history of Theresienstadt.

250,000 People visit Theresienstadt every year.