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.

Designed in the early XIX century by one of the most appreciated city’s architects, Carlo Barabino it features hundreds of striking marble sculptures and monuments to the personalities buried here.

The layout of the cemetery recalls the topography of Genoa itself with a labyrinth of paths and stone steps weaving up the hillside amongst towering cypresses and cedars.

Ornately carved chapels and family tombs dot the grounds, and special areas are dedicated to British soldiers, priests and nuns of various religious orders. In the Protestant area you can see, among the others, the tomb of Mary Constance Lloyd, the wife of Oscar Wilde.

Staglieno is as much a sculpture garden as it is a cemetery and worth seeing for that reason alone. It is also quintessentially Italian, almost operatic in its flamboyance. Naturally, statues of Christ abound, some ethereal, some realistic, no two faces alike. At Staglieno there are a large number of partially clothed or entirely nude granite and marble female figures reclining languidly on sarcophagi or embracing tombstones.

Apparently they were intended as surrogate mourners, but to other eyes, at least, they conveyed life-celebrating sensuality.

A Cistercian monastery was founded near Kutna Hora in the year 1142.  One of the principal tasks of the monks was the cultivation of the grounds and lands around the monastery.

In 1278 King Otakar II of Bohemia sent Henry, the abbot of Sedlec on a diplomatic mission to the Holy Land. When leaving Jerusalem Henry took with him a handful of earth from Golgotha which he sprinkled over the cemetery of Sedlec monastery, consequently the cemetery became famous, not only in Bohemia but also throughout Central Europe and many wealthy people desired to be buried here. The burial ground was enlarged duringthe epidemics of plague in the 14th century (e.g.in 1318 about 30 000 people were buried here) and also during the Hussite wars in first quarter of the 15th century.

After 1400 one of the abbots had a church of All -Saints erected in Gothic style in the middle of the cemetery and under it a chapel destined for the deposition of bones from abolished graves, a task which was begun by a half blind Cistercian monk after the year 1511.

Coat of Arms

The charnel-house was remodelled in Czech Baroque style between 1703 – I710 by the famous Czech architect, of the Italian origin, Jan Blažej SANTIM-Aichl. The present arrangement  of the bones dates from 1870 and is the work of a Czech wood-carver, František RINT.

The ossuary contains the remains of about 40 000 people. The largest collections of bones are arranged in the form of bells in the four corners of the chapel.

Chandelier

The most interesting creations by Master Rint are the chandelier in the centre of the nave, containing all the bones of the human body, two monstrances beside the main altar and the coat-of arms of the Schwarzenberg noble family on the left-hand side of the chapel.

I strongly recommend a visit to this place so that you get the first hand experience.

The ossuary is located in the vicinity of Kutna Hora, about one hour outside Prague, and after a visit to this rather gloomy place, you can visit the town of Kutna Hora for a more pleasant view.