Terezin Concentration Camp - Theresienstadt - Czechoslovakia |
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This site at Terezin was once a fortress to protect the city of Prague from invaders. When the German's got their hands on it they developed a more sinister use for it. The thick-walled, star-shaped fortress at Terezin had long served as a prison but very few people were actually incarcerated here until the Nazis brought political prisoners and others to this place never to emerge again.
Among the many deceptions of Hitler and the Nazi's was the concentration camp known as Terezin (or Theresienstadt). The world was told that this "City" would be a safe haven for the Jews. A film was made to show this "idyllic city" which housed Jewish captives from the Czechoslovakia and eight other countries. Notable writers, musicians, artists, and leaders were sent there for their own protection, somewhere safer than could be expected. This deception was very effective for a very long time, but most of the 200,000 people that came here were killed in one way or another. Of the 97,297 Czech Jews who were taken to Terezin included were 15,000 children. Just 132 children were known to have survived their time in Terezin. The Red Cross was allowed to visit Terezin on one occasion and Terezin was made clean, tidy and evidence of the truth hidden away. A number of prisoners were dressed up in normal clothing and told to stand at strategic locations along a pre-designated route through the complex. Shop windows along a carefully guarded path were filled with goods to complete the illusion. Despite subtle attempts by some prisoners to encourage the Red Cross inspectors to look beyond what they could actually see. The response was along the lines of how the war was making life difficult for everyone and that Terezin was an acceptable accommodation considering the pressures of life at that time. The Red Cross concluded that the Jews were being treated satisfactorily.
According to many of the survivors, Terezin prisoners still managed to developed a deep feeling of family. With larger numbers of people were squeezed into smaller rooms, the sense of community got deeper. Terezin town had a population of around 5,000 people prior to World War II. At the height of the war, Terezin Concentration Camp held more than 55,000 Jews. Consequently, starvation and disease was prevalent and thousands died of malnutrition and exposure. The bodies were cremated at the small crematorium which housed four gas ovens. This was not a "traditional" death camp, and you could not draw any comparison to the camps at Auschwitz Birkenau or Treblinka or indeed any of the other death camps, of where there were many, where so many people were gassed or murdered in other. This was a place to which people would apply to be transported to avoid a worse fate.
Elderly and families were brought to Terezin in large numbers. Later, they were transported to the east in large groups to Auschwitz Birkenau, once that camp was fully operational in late 1942. Once at Auschwitz, the elderly were sent immediately to the gas chambers while the younger prisoners were temporarily spared if they were still capable of working. Some families shipped in from Terezin were kept together in family barracks in Auschwitz, until their time to be exterminated arrived. |