Terezin
(Theresienstadt) |
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The peaceful facade of the town of Terezin conceals a terrible story, but it's one we hope will never be forgotten. The town started out as a defensive fortress built by the Hapsburg emperor Joseph II in 1780 and named after his mother Maria Teresa. Later it became a thriving town; the town church, seen at center above still stands. But during World War II, the Nazis took over all of Terezin for their own purposes.. They booted the 5000 citizens of Terezin out and stuffed the town with 60,000 prisoners, mostly Czech Jews. It became a "work camp" and the prisoners were expected to work very hard indeed. While there were few actual executions in Terezin, many people died of disease, starvation and overwork. Near the end of the war the Nazis eventually gave up burying them and at one point dumped the ashes of 22,000 people into the river. In total 150,000 people passed through the camp. From 1942 onward elderly, sick and disabled people were regularly shipped from Terezin to Auschwitz, Treblinka and other death camps. Their numbers were constantly replenished by the Gestapo. Then, in one terrible summer as the Russian army approached, most of the surviving Jews were sent to Auschwitz. Of those who were imprisoned at Terezin (called Terezienstadt in German), 97,297 ultimately died, among them more than 15,000 children. Only 132 of those children were known to have survived! We saw only part of Terezin - the area set up as a model town, which the Red Cross "inspected" twice and approved in glowing terms. At the far end of that section, though, were the grim remains of the crematorium and the rooms where the bodies were prepared and shrouded, and brief religious ceremonies held. (Some were Christian, having been defined as Jewish by the law of the Reich, possible because of Jewish ancestry.) A second camp across the river served as a place where prisoners were "interrogated" and "disciplined." Thousands died in that camp at the hands of their captors. We didn't want to go there. An on-line college study guide provides a readable, concise overview of the Holocaust for those who would like to know more. |
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| The detail in these wall displays is hard to see in the above
picture - but the walls of this building were filled with the names of all
of the people who were sent to Terezin, with information about where they
went from there and whether they survived.
Time and again we saw the names of the death camps listed with deaths dates during that last terrible summer. |
The children's drawings were everywhere on display. A cache of thousands of them was hidden and they survived the Nazi regime. Some were happy reminders of the lives they'd left behind; some were fantasies and some were grim depictions of life at Terezin. Music and plays were performed and some works were written there. The prisoners made every attempt to keep some beauty in their lives. | Above, a reconstruction of a room in one of the barracks. This was a model facility, designed for Red Cross inspection and a showplace for foreign diplomats. Germany wanted the world to know how well they were treating their Jews!
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| Though this was not considered a "Death Camp" the Terezin crematorium was a busy facility. For a time the Nazis simply dumped dead prisoners into the nearby river. But as time passed the growing number of their victims finally made this impractical. | Above is the road to the Jewish cemetery. A menorah is just visible in the distance. It was added, of course, after the war. | A close-up of the cemetery. Although the vast majority of the prisoners were Jews, there were Christians among the murdered too. Christians were imprisoned because they had Jewish ancestry or because they were homosexuals, retarded, disabled or gypsies. | ||||
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