During WWII, the Gestapo used Terezín, better known by the German name Theresienstadt, as a ghetto, concentrating Jews from Czechoslovakia, as well as many from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark. Though it was not an extermination camp, of the over 150,000 Jews who arrived there, about 33,000 died in the ghetto itself, mostly because of the appalling conditions arising out of extreme population density. About 88,000 inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. At the end of the war there were 17,247 survivors. Part of the fortification (Small Fortress) served as the largest Gestapo prison in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, separated from the ghetto.Originally built in the late 18th century, Terezin’s Small Fortress served as a prison for military and political opponents to the Habsburg monarchy in the early 19th century, but the most tragic part of Terezin’s history came after the Czech lands were occupied by Nazi Germany. Terezin’s Small Fortress was converted to a police prison of the Prague Gestapo in June 1940; in November 1941, a ghetto and concentration camp for Jews was established in the Large Fortress and town of Terezin.
Around 90,000 people went through it, and 2,600 of those died there.
One of the goals of the Nazis was to “concentrate” the Jewish population in controlled locations, hence the term “concentration camp.” Terezin wasn’t an “extermination” camp like Auschwitz, though it served as a way station to the camps and ghettos in occupied Eastern Europe. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t atrocities committed at Terezin; far from it.
In fact, of the nearly 150,000 men, women and children deported to Terezin from the Czech lands, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Slovakia and Hungary, 33,000 died. From 1942 to 1944, transports deported 88,000 inhabitants to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. At the end of the war there were 17,247 survivors.
Part of the fortification (Small Fortress) served as the largest Gestapo prison in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, separated from the ghetto. Around 90,000 people went through it, and 2,600 of those died there.
Just outside the walls of Terezin’s Small Fortress lays the cemetery where thousands of political prisoners are buried. Many of Terezin’s prisoners were beyond medical help at the time of the camp’s liberation by the Russians, and died before they could be repatriated.
The first stop once inside the walls was at a row of “isolation cells,” rooms big enough to hold a pallet about the size of today’s twin bed, and not much else.
Next I saw some of the common rooms for women prisoners, perhaps the size of a two-car garage, which held 25-30 people and provided no electricity or running water.
Brutal as they were, neither of these places prepared me for what came next: a room where the SS gave prisoners “extra treatment”. The most appalling example was that the SS would lock 100 or so people in a space the size of your average suburban living room, without food or water-and simply wait for them all to die.
Around the corner was the shower room. These were actually showers, not gas chambers. In fact, one way that the inmates of Terezin found out about the gas chambers in the camps to the east was from a group of children who’d been shipped back to Terezin from Auschwitz. The children were to be deloused and began crying at the sight of the shower room, screaming, ‘Gas! Gas!”.
Next came a “newer” section of the fortress, added during the war to house the growing number of prisoners. The common cells here actually provided electricity and running water at certain times of the day. The cells surrounded a courtyard where all the prisoners would be brought together on occasion. For example the time three prisoners escaped from the camp. The prisoners were assembled in the courtyard and watched as three other prisoners were chosen and stoned to death. Later, when the surviving escapees were captured, the prisoners were reassembled and the escapees stoned to death as well.
After leaving the Small Fortress I walked to the Large Fortress and the Terezin ghetto.
Visiting a concentration camp is not an enjoyable experience, yet I believe it is an intensely valuable one. It provides you with a focal point for everything you’ve seen in films and read in books about the Holocaust. It also helps you to view events in your own life with a new perspective.
If you visit Prague, tear yourself away from that beautiful city to spend a day in Terezin.
Terezin was liberated on May 9th, 1945 by the Soviet Army.
Even though it’s a rather bleak and gloomy place, simply due to it’s history, it is worth to visit. If you’re in Prague the easiest way to get there is to catch a bus from Florenc bus station (should leave one every hour). Though be careful with the return as it happens that the last bus do not arrive at all, as it happened to me on my last visit there. Luckily though, I managed to catch a ride by car as there was someone else in a similar situation that got friends to pick them up. I owe my thanks to a friendly guy I happened to meet at a pub while grabbing some refreshments.
