Theresienstadt Clippings Collection

Theresienstadt holds a unique position among the concentration camps and ghettos created by the German Nazi regime from 1933-1945. From the time the Nazis turned the then Czechoslovak city of Terezín (German: Theresienstadt) into a camp-ghetto in November 1941 to the liberation of prisoners in May 1945, different sections of the city and its surrounding areas functioned as a Gestapo prison, a Jewish ghetto, a forced labor camp, and a transit camp that eventually sent prisoners to death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Gestapo prison was set up in the Small Fortress on the edge of the city and held mainly Czech and Slovak political prisoners. Once the local residents of the city of Theresienstadt were moved out, the city itself was used as a ghetto and labor camp for Jews from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, and Hungary.

Theresienstadt also played a role as propaganda for the Nazi regime. The widespread deportation of Jews from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia began in 1941 under the pretense that these individuals were being sent to work in the East. Since it could hardly be believed that the old or frail being deported were being sent to work, the Nazis set up Theresienstadt as a supposed “spa town” for retirees. Theresienstadt was also the destination of Jews of sufficient renown that their deportation would cause some to inquire after them. While lectures, concerts, and other events were held in Theresienstadt and a library of some 60,000 volumes was maintained, prisoners suffered inhumane living conditions and often lived in constant fear.

Starting in the fall of 1942, many transports from Theresienstadt took prisoners directly to the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Theresienstadt was liberated by Soviet troops in early May 1945.

References

Niewyk, Donald L. and Francis Nicosia. The Columbia Reference Guide to the Holocaust. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Terezín Memorial. “The Police Prison in the Small Fortress.” Retrieved 13 March 2013 from http://www.pamatnik-Terezín.cz/en/history-collection-research/historical-overview/the-police-prison-in-the-small-fortress?lang=en

Terezín Memorial. “The Concentration Camp for Jews: The Terezín Ghetto.” Retrieved 13 March 2013 from http://www.pamatnik-Terezín.cz/en/history-collection-research/historical-overview/the-concentration-camp-for-jews-the-Terezín-ghetto?lang=en

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Theresienstadt." Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13 March 2013 from hhttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005424.