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Location of the concentration camp in the Czech Republic

Gate "Work Brings Freedom" in the Small Fortress

Concentration camp Theresienstadt (often referred to as Terezín) was a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín (German name Theresienstadt), located in what is now the Czech Republic. There are many famous Holocaust survivors who survived the Nazi genocides in Europe and went on to achievements of great fame and notability. ... This is a list of victims of Nazism who were noted for their achievements. ... This is a list of people who helped Jewish people and others to escape from the Nazi Holocaust during World War II, often called rescuers. The list is not exhaustive, concentrating on famous cases, or people who saved the lives of many potential victims. ... Holocaust resources for main article The Holocaust. ... Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Functionalism versus intentionalism is a historiographical debate about the origins of the Holocaust as well as most aspects of the Third Reich, such as foreign policy. ... Czech city Terezin Modified GFDL image from: http://en. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Arbeitmachtfrei_01. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Arbeitmachtfrei_01. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Fortress plan, 1869 For the Nazi concentration camp, see Theresienstadt concentration camp Terezín (IPA: ; German: ) is the name of a former military fortress and garrison town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. ...

History

The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 . In the 19th century, it was used to accommodate military and political prisoners.

On June 10, 1940, the Gestapo took control of Terezín and set up prison in the Small Fortress (Kleine Festung), see below. By 24 November 1941, the Main Fortress (große Festung, ie the town Theresienstadt) was turned into a walled ghetto. The function of Theresienstadt was to provide a front for the extermination operation of Jews. To the outside it was presented by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration camp. Theresienstadt was also used as a transit camp for European Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. June 10 is the 161st day of the year (162nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... is the 328th day of the year (329th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... A ghetto is an area where people from a specific racial or ethnic background live as a group in seclusion, voluntarily or involuntarily. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ... Auschwitz, in English, commonly refers to the Auschwitz concentration camp complex built near the town of Oświęcim, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Rarely, it may refer to the Polish town of Oświęcim (called by the Germans Auschwitz) itself. ... Extermination camps were one type of facility that the Nazis built before and during World War II for the systematic murder of millions of people in what has become known as The Holocaust. ...

Dr. Siegfried Seidl, an SS colonel, served as the first camp commandant in 1941. Seidl oversaw the labor of 342 young men, known as the Aufbaukommando, who converted the fortress into a concentration camp. Although the Aufbaukommando were promised that they and their families would be spared transport, eventually all were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, for Sonderbehandlung, or gassing without selection. The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

As in other European ghettos, a Jewish Council nominally ruled over the ghetto. The first of the Jewish Elders of Theresienstadt was Jakob Edelstein, a Polish-born Zionist and former head of the Prague Jewish community. In 1943, he was deported to Auschwitz, where he was shot together with his family. The second was Paul Eppstein, a sociologist originally from Mannheim, Germany. Earlier, Eppstein was the speaker of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, the central organization of Jews in Nazi Germany. In the course of the liquidation transports in autumn 1944, when some two thirds of the ghetto population were deported to Auschwitz, Eppstein was shot in the Small Fortress. He died on Yom kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish Calendar, after he informed the deported people what was awaiting them in the "East". Benjamin Murmelstein, a Lvov-born Vienna rabbi succeeded Eppstein. His popularity in the ghetto was similar with the one of the SS command. In the last days of existence of the ghetto, rabbi Leo Baeck served as the Elder. In 1943 to 1945, he was the speaker of the Council of Elders of Theresienstadt, after being deported from Berlin, where he served as the head of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland. Nickname: Motto: Praga Caput Rei publicae Location within the Czech Republic Coordinates: , Country Czech Republic Region Capital City of Prague Founded 9th century Government  - Mayor Pavel Bém Area  - City 496 km²  (191. ... Auschwitz, in English, commonly refers to the Auschwitz concentration camp complex built near the town of Oświęcim, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Rarely, it may refer to the Polish town of Oświęcim (called by the Germans Auschwitz) itself. ... Mannheim is a city in Germany. ... Yom Kippur (IPA: ; Hebrew:יוֹם כִּפּוּר, IPA: ) is the Jewish holiday of the Day of Atonement. ... This figure, in a detail of a medieval Hebrew calendar, reminded Jews of the palm branches ( Lulav) and the citron ( Etrog) to be brought to the synagogue at the end of sukkot, closing the solemn convocations of the calendar in autumn. ... Lviv ( Львів in Ukrainian; Львов, Lvov in Russian; Lwów in Polish; Leopolis in Latin; Lemberg in German—see also cities alternative names) is a city in western Ukraine with 830,000 inhabitants (an additional 200,000 commute daily from... “Wien” redirects here. ... SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop... Leo Baeck (1873-1956) Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck (May 23, 1873, Leszno, Poland – November 2, 1956, London, England) was an outstanding 20th century German-Jewish scholar and a leader of Progressive Judaism. ...

This camp was established by the head of the RSHA and Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich. It soon became the "home" for a great number of Jews from occupied Czechoslovakia. The 7,000 non-Jewish Czechs living in Terezín were expelled by the Nazis in the spring 1942. As a consequence, the Jewish community became a closed environment. Reinhard Heydrich - the first director of RSHA The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office), was a subordinate organization of the SS created by Heinrich Himmler on September 22, 1939, through the merger of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, or Security Agency), the Gestapo (Secret State Police) and the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police). ... Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was an SS-Obergruppenführer, chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo, SD and Kripo Nazi police agencies) and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia. ...

On 1 May 1945 control of the camp was transferred from the Germans to the Red Cross. A week later, on 8 May 1945 Terezín was liberated by Soviet troops. is the 121st day of the year (122nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... The Anarchist Black Cross was originally called the Anarchist Red Cross. The band Redd Kross was originally called Red Cross. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Soviet redirects here. ...

Many of the 80,000 Czech Jews who died in the Holocaust were killed in Theresienstadt, where the conditions were extremely difficult. In a space previously inhabited by 7,000 Czechs, now over 50,000 Jews were gathered. Food was scarce and in 1942 almost 16,000 people died, including Esther Adolphine (a sister of Sigmund Freud) who died on September 29, 1942; Friedrich Münzer (a German classicist), who died on October 20, 1942. Medicine and tobacco were strictly prohibited; possession could be punished by hard labor or death. Men and women were officially forbidden to meet, or to communicate with a Gentile without German permission. Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who co-founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Friedrich Münzer (22 April 1868 - 20 October 1942) was a German classical scholar noted for the development of prosopography, particularly for his demonstrations of how family relationships in ancient Rome connected to political struggles. ... October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Theresienstadt supplied the German war effort with a source of Jewish slave labor. Their major contribution was the splitting of mica mined from local Czechoslovakia. Blind prisoners were often spared deportation by assignment to this task. Others manufactured boxes or coffins. Others sprayed military uniforms with a white dye to provide camouflage for Nazi soldiers on the Russian front. Rock with mica Mica sheet Mica flakes The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. ...

456 Jews from Denmark were sent to Theresienstadt in 1943 . These were Jews who had not escaped to Sweden before the arrival of the Nazis. Included also in the transports were some of the European Jewish children whom Danish organizations had been attempting to conceal in foster homes. The arrival of the Danes is of great significance as the Danes insisted on the Red Cross having access to the ghetto. This was a rare move, given that most European governments did not insist on their fellow Jewish citizens being treated according to some fundamental principles. The Danish king, Christian X, later secured the release of the Danish internees on April 15, 1945. The White Buses, in cooperation with the Danish Red Cross, collected the 413 who had survived. His Majesty Christian X, King of Denmark, Greenland, and The Faroe Islands Christian X of Denmark (September 26, 1870—April 20, 1947) was King of Denmark 1912-1947 (and of Iceland 1918-1944), a period including two World Wars. ... Swedish Red Cross buses, possibly near their field headquarters Friedrichsruh White Buses was the term used for a humanitarian effort spearheaded by the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte under the auspices of the Red Cross that by the end of World War II saved thousands of Norwegian and Danish political prisoners...

On February 5, 1945, the SS chief Heinrich Himmler allowed a transport of 1,210 Jews from Theresienstadt, most of them originating from the Netherlands, to Switzerland. According to an agreement between Himmler and Jean-Marie Musy, a pro-Nazi former Swiss president, the group was released after $1.25 million were placed in Swiss banks by Jewish organizations working in Switzerland. SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop... Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( ; October 7, 1900–May 23, 1945) was the commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany by being second in power to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi hierarchy. ... Jean-Marie Musy (April 10, 1876 - April 19, 1952) was a Swiss politician. ...

After the victory of the Allies in 1945, Theresienstadt was used by Czech partisans and former inmates to hold German SS personnel and civilians as retaliation for their atrocities.

Cultural activity of inmates

Theresienstadt was originally designated to house privileged Jews from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. Many educated Jews were inmates of Theresienstadt, and the camp was known for its rich cultural life. At least four concert orchestras operated in the camp, as well as chamber groups and jazz ensembles. Several stage performances were produced and attended by camp inmates. Some prominent artists from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany were either born in Theresienstadt or found their death there. There were artists, writers, scientists and jurists, diplomats, musicians, and scholars.

The community in Theresienstadt ensured that all the children that passed through continued with their education. Though the Nazis decreed that all camp children over a certain age must be gainfully employed, working on stage was considered employment, and the children's education often continued under the guise of work or cultural activity. Daily classes and sports activities were held and the magazine Vedem was edited there. This affected some 15,000 children, of whom only about 1,100 survived to the end of the war. Other estimates place the number of the surviving children as low as 150. Petr Ginz, the Editor in Chief of Vedem Vedem (In the Lead in Czech) was a Czech-language literary magazine that existed from 1942 to 1944 in the Terezín concentration camp, during the Holocaust. ...

Artist and art teacher Friedl Dicker-Brandeis created drawing classes for children in the ghetto. This activity resulted in the production of over four thousands children's drawings, which Dicker-Brandeis hid in two suitcases before being sent to Auschwitz. This collection was thus preserved from destruction by the Nazis and was not discovered until a decade later. Most of these drawings can now be seen at The Jewish Museum in Prague, whose Archive of Holocaust section is responsible for the administration of the Terezin Archive Collection. The children of the camp also wrote stories and poems, some of which were preserved and later published in a collection called I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Friedl Dicker-Brandeis (July 30, 1898 - October 9, 1944), was a Viennese artist. ... I Never Saw Another Butterfly is a collection of works of art and poetry by Jewish children who lived in the concentration camp Theresienstadt. ...

The composer Viktor Ullmann was interned in September 1942 and murdered at Auschwitz in October 1944. He composed some twenty works at Theresienstadt, including the one-act opera, Der Kaiser Von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis or The Refusal of Death), first performed in 1975, shown in full on BBC television in Britain, and still performed today. It was to be performed in the camp, but permission was withdrawn when it was in rehearsal, probably because the authorities perceived its allegorical intent. Viktor Ullmann (b. ... One-act opera by Viktor Ullmann, written in Concentration camp Theresienstadt before his murder by Nazi Germany in 1944, libretto by poet Petr Kien. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ...

Used as propaganda tool

Cell

On June 23, 1944, the Nazis permitted the visit by the Red Cross in order to dispel rumours about the extermination camps. The commission included E. Juel-Henningsen, the head physician at the Danish Ministry of Health, and Franz Hvass, the top civil servant at the Danish Foreign Ministry. Dr. Paul Eppstein was instructed by the SS to appear in the role of the mayor of Theresienstadt. ImageMetadata File history File links Theresienstadt_barak. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Theresienstadt_barak. ...

To minimize the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt, the Nazis deported many Jews to Auschwitz. Also deported in these actions were most of the Czechoslovakian workers assigned to 'Operation Embellishment.' They also erected fake shops and cafés to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort. The Danes whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms, not more than three in a room. The guests enjoyed the performance of a children's opera, Brundibar, which was written by inmate Hans Krása. Brundibar is the name of an opera by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása. ... Hans Krása, (November 30, 1899 – October 17, 1944), was a Bohemian composer. ...

The hoax against the Red Cross was so successful for the Nazis that they went on to make a propaganda film at Theresienstadt. Production of the film began on February 26, 1944. Directed by Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron (a director, cabaret performer, and actor who appeared with Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel), it was meant to show how well the Jews lived under the "benevolent" protection of the Third Reich. After the shooting most of the cast, and even the filmmaker himself, were deported to Auschwitz. Gerron and his wife were executed in the gas chambers on October 28, 1944. The film was not released at the time, but was edited into pieces that served their purpose, and only segments of it have remained. is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Kurt Gerron Kurt Gerron (May 11, 1897 – November 15, 1944) was a German Jewish actor and film director during the Nazi period. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... Marlene Dietrich IPA: ; (December 27, 1901 – May 6, 1992) was a German-born actress, singer, and entertainer. ... Der Blaue Engel (English: The Blue Angel) is a film directed by Josef von Sternberg in 1930, and is one of the most famous films made by Marlene Dietrich. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. ...

Often called The Führer Gives a Village to the Jews, the correct name of the film is: Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet (Terezin: A Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettlement). (Cf. Hans Sode-Madsen: The Perfect Deception. The Danish Jews and Theresienstadt 1940–1945. Leo Baeck Yearbook, 1993)

See also Theresienstadt (film) In the summer of 1944 the Nazi government perpetrated a hoax against the Danish Red Cross by taking them on a tour of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Sudetenland, occupied Czechoslavakia. ...

Statistics

10 Kronen - Money used in the concentration camp Theresienstadt (ghetto.shtml http://www.germannotes.com)

Approximately 144,000 Jews were sent to Theresienstadt. Some 40,000 of them originated from Germany, 15,000 from Austria, 5,000 from the Netherlands and 300 from Luxembourg. In addition to the group of approx. 500 Jews from Denmark, also Slovak and Hungarian Jews were deported to the ghetto. Some 1,600 Jewish children from Białystok, Poland, were deported to Auschwitz from Theresienstadt; none survived. Most inmates were Czech Jews. About a quarter of the inmates (33,000) died in Theresienstadt, mostly because of the deadly conditions (hunger, stress, and disease, especially the typhus epidemic at the very end of war). About 88,000 were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. When the war finished, there were a mere 17,247 survivors. There were 15,000 children living in the children's home inside the camp; only 93 of those children survived. Image File history File links Theresienstadt-10kronenb. ... In medical terms, stress is the disruption of homeostasis through physical or psychological stimuli. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Epidemic typhus. ... In epidemiology, an epidemic (from [[Latin language] epi- upon + demos people) is a disease that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during... Auschwitz, in English, commonly refers to the Auschwitz concentration camp complex built near the town of Oświęcim, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Rarely, it may refer to the Polish town of Oświęcim (called by the Germans Auschwitz) itself. ...

Small Fortress

Small Fortress (Malá pevnost in Czech, Kleine Festung in German) was part of the fortification on left side of river Ohře. Since 1940, the Gestapo used it as a prison (the largest one in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia). It was separate and unrelated to the Jewish ghetto in the main fortress on the river's right side. Around 90,000 people arrived there and were usually sent to a concentration camp later. 2,600 people were executed, starved, or succumbed to disease there. A possible 1,100 children survived of the 15,000 sent there. Anton Malloth was a notorious prison guard there. After escaping justice for 55 years, he was finally convicted for beating at least 100 prisoners to death, and sentenced to life imprisonment, in 2001. OhÅ™e (German: Eger) is a 291 km long river in Germany and the Czech Republic. ... Capital Prague Language(s) Czech, German Political structure Protectorate Reichsprotektor  - 1939-1941 Konstantin von Neurath  - 1941-1942 Reinhard Heydrich (acting)  - 1942-1943 Kurt Daluege (acting)  - 1943-1945 Wilhelm Frick Staatspräsident  - 1939-1945 Emil Hácha Historical era World War II  - Occupation March 15, 1939  - Fall of Prague May 13... Anton Malloth (born February 13, 1912 in Innsbruck; died October 31, 2002 in Straubing) was a supervisor in the Kleine Festung part of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

External links

The Crematorium

• Beit Terezin, Theresienstadt Martyr's Remembrance Association at kibbutz Givat Haim Ichud
• Terezín Memorial
• Terezín Initiative Institute
• Tours of the Ghetto and Small Fortress
• The Archive of Holocaust at The Jewish Museum in Prague
• Terezín Chamber Music Foundation
• Terezin memorial at Find-A-Grave
• [1] List of Lecturers in Ghetto Theresienstadt
• [2]
• US Holocaust Museum Steven Spielberg Video Archive entry for the surviving propaganda film excerpts. (Not yet on-line)
• Surviving Fragments of Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt at Youtube Part I and Part II

Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2272 × 1704 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2272 × 1704 pixel, file size: 1. ... Kibbutz Dan, near Qiryat Shemona, in the Upper Galilee, 1990s A kibbutz (Hebrew: ; plural: kibbutzim: קיבוצים; gathering or together) is an Israeli collective intentional community. ...

Recommended reading

• Theresienstadt, 1941-1945; das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft. Geschichte, Soziologie, Psychologie. By HG Adler. Tübingen, Mohr, 1960.
• I Never Saw Another Butterfly [3]
• The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, ISBN 0-8131-1804-2
• Fortress of My Youth: Memoir of a Terezín Survivor, ISBN 0-299-17810-2

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Konzentrationslager Theresienstadt

• Music in Terezin, 1941-1945 by Joza Karas, Pendragon Press, 1990, ISBN 0-918728-34-7
• "Elder of the Jews":Jakob Edelstein of Theresienstadt, by Ruth Bondy; translated from the Hebrew 1989, ISBN 0-8021-1007-X
• University over the Abyss Lectures in Ghetto Theresienstadt by Elena Makarova, Sergei Makarov & Victor Kuperman
• Theresienstadt: The Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews, by Vera Schiff [4]
• Theresienstadt: Survival in Hell, by Melanie Oppenhejm [5]
• "A Childhood in Terezin" by Ivan Klíma. Granta 44 (1993)

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... The Wikimedia Commons (also called Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... Ivan Klíma (born 1933, Prague) is a famous contemporary Czech novelist and playwright. ...

Sources

• Music in Terezin, 1941-1945 by Joza Karas, Pendragon Press, 1990, ISBN 0-918728-34-7

Coordinates: 50°30′48″N, 14°10′1″E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...