Concentration camp of Theresienstadt

The concentration camp of Theresienstadt was set up by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison town of Terezín (in German Theresienstadt ), today in Czech Republic.

History

June 10th, 1940, Gestapo takes the control of Theresienstadt and installs a prison in the Kleine Festung (small fortress). The November 24th 1941, the site is transformed into walled Ghetto, having the aim of providing a frontage hiding the operation of extermination of the Juif S, under the impulse of the chief of the S, Reinhard Heydrich. For the outside world, Theresienstadt is presented by the Nazi S like a model Jewish colony. But inside, it is about a Concentration camp. A great number of Jews coming from Czechoslovakia, approximately 7.000, are in particular locked up in Theresienstadt. The site is also used as camp of transit for the Jews forwarded to Auschwitz and the others death camps.

May 3rd, 1945, the control of the camp is transferred by the Germans to the Croix-Rouge. The Red Army penetrates in Theresienstadt a few days later, on May 8th, 1945.

Population

The function of Theresienstadt evolves/moves quickly after Joseph Goebbels and Reinhard Heydrich becomes aware that the disappearance of certain Jews famous, or Prominenten , (artists, scientists, decorated or mutilated First World War) would not fail to cause questions as for the fate reserved to the entire Jewish people. It is on January 20th, 1942, at the time of the Conférence of Wannsee, that the double-statute of Theresienstadt - camp of transit for the Jews of Protektorat of Bohemia-Moravie and ghetto for the old Jews of Reich of more than 65 years (Ältersghetto) where they will be able to die out themselves, and for the Prominenten - is officialized. As from 1943, it contains also the “special cases” of the Lois of Nuremberg (mixed marriages, “half-Jews” resulting from a nonJewish relative…). The camp of Theresienstadt, where the correspondence by mail with outside will be encouraged while being rigorously supervised even handled, is thus designed by Heydrich to answer the interrogations of the public opinion on the treatment of the Jews in the camps.

Very quickly, a rich person cultural life develops to with it. Artiste S of first order passed by Theresienstadt, or there found death: writers, painters, scientists, lawyers, diplomats, musicians and academics find themselves in the city.

The community of Theresienstadt takes care that all the children continue their education. Daily classes and sports activities are organized, the magazine Vedem is published. 15.000 children profit from these measurements, on which hardly 1.100 were still in life at the end of the war. Other estimates give a report on hardly 150 surviving children.

The living conditions in Theresienstadt are extremely difficult. In a surface which accommodated 7&thinsp up to that point; 000 Czechs, approximately 50  000 Jews are gathered. Food is rare: in 1942, approximately 16.000 people die of hunger; among them, Esther Adolphine (a sister of Sigmund Freud) which dies on September 29th, 1942.

In 1943, 500 Jews of the Denmark are off-set in Theresienstadt, after having missed fleeing in Sweden on arrival of the Nazis. This Dane arrival will have an important consequence: the Danish government insists indeed so that the Red Cross has access to the ghetto, contrary to the majority of the European governments which hardly deal with the reserved treatment with their Jewish citizens.

Personalities there having lived or having forwarded

Personalities there having died

An instrument of Propaganda

The Nazis authorize the visit of the Croix-Rouge to make part with the rumors in connection with the death camps. To minimize the appearance of overpopulation, a great number of Jews are off-set with Auschwitz. False stores and coffees are built to give the impression of a relative comfort. The Danes visited by the Croix-Rouge are installed in coldly repainted parts, never more than three people per part. The guests attend the representation of a opera for children, Brundibar .

Maurice Rossel, the envoy of the ICRC in June 1944, is completely mystified. Claude Lanzmann realized in 1997 documentary, titrated alive which passes , which uses an interview granted in 1979 by Maurice Rossel: it described the camp from its point of view there, such as it will be presented to him by the setting in scene of the Nazis.

The trickery of the Nazis is such a success that a Film of propaganda is turned. Turning starts the February 26th 1944 under the direction of Kurt Gerron - a realizer, artist of cabaret and actor who had appeared with Marlene Dietrich in the blue Angel . After film, the majority of the actors and the team, including the realizer, are off-set with Auschwitz. Gerron and his wife are gauzes on October 28th, 1944. The film forever diffused at the time, but cut out of small pieces intended for propaganda; only some fragments remain today. Often entitled Führer gives a village to the Jews , his title is in fact Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet .

Statistics

Approximately 144.000 Jews were off-set in Theresienstadt. A quarter of them, 33.000, died on the spot, mainly because of the living conditions (famine, stress, diseases, epidemic of typhus at the end of the war). 88.000 Jews were off-set in Auschwitz and in the other death camps. At the end of the war, one counted hardly 19.000 survivors.

Related articles

External bonds

  • Terezín Memorial

  • Terezín Initiative Institute
  • Turns off the Ghetto and Small Fortress

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