| The Concentration camp for Jews / the Terezin Gheto:
Located Northwest of Prague, Terezin was built in 1780 by Joseph II. It consisted of a small fortress and a large fortress. The most tragic part of Terezin's history came after the Czech lands were occupied by Nazi Germany. Terezin's Small Fortress was converted into a police prison for the Prague Gestapo. A ghetto and concentration camp for Jewish people was established in the Large Fortress and the town of Terezin.
Initially, the barracks in the town were used to accommodate the Jewish prisoners, and once all the local residents had been moved out, by mid-1942, all civilian buildings were sued for this purpose. Massive overcrowding, however, also led to the use of attics, cellars, and the casemates within the ramparts. Terezin became the largest concentration camp in the Czech Lands, with thousands of transports arriving here carrying Jews not only from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, but also from Germany, Austria, Holland and Denmark, as well later as from Slovakia and Hungary.
Unfortunately, even as transports arrived at the ghetto, others gradually began to leave - into the unknown. From October 1942 virtually all went to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most awful of the extermination camps. In all, 63 transports left Terezin for the East, carrying a total of more than 87 000 individuals; of these, only 3800 would see liberation. The fate of the children of Terezin was equally tragic; of the 7590 youngest prisoners deported, a mere 142 survived until liberation. Only those children who remained for the whole period at Terezin had any really chance of being saved; on the day of liberation, Terezin contained some 1600 children aged 15 or under. Their lives are reflected in verses, diaries, illegally produced magazines and thousands of drawings - often the only things that remain of them.
Among the personalities active in the cultural life of the ghetto were the writers Karel Polacek and Norbert Fryd, from the world of music Karel Berman, David Grunfeld, Ada Hechtova, Karel Ancerl, Rudolf Franek, Karel Reiner, Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Hans Krasa and F.E. Klein, from theatre and cabaret arch. Frantisek Zelenka, Gustav Schorsch, Vlasta Schonova, Karel Svenk, Zdenek Jelinek, Ota Ruzicka, Kurt Gerron, Hanus Hofer, and Leo Strauss, and from the arts Bedrich Fritta, Otto Ungar, Leo Haas, Ferdinand Bloch, Karel Fleischmann, Petr Kien, Adolf Aussenberg, Charlota Buresova, Rudolf Saudek, Jo Spier and Arnold Zadikow.
|
