Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp

Entrance to Theresienstadt with the slogan Arbeit macht frei ("work makes you free") above

The Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp was a Nazi transit ghetto, a ghetto-labor camp, and a concentration camp during World War II. It was one of many Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

The ghetto and concentration camp was partially liquidated between January 1942 and September 1944, and ultimately liberated on 8 May 1945, by the Soviet Bolshevik Red Army, advancing through the territories ruled by Nazi Germany.

History

Creation

In 1940 the Theresienstadt Ghetto was created in the medieval fortress town of Terézin, in the Czech province of Bohemia. At the time, all Jews from Terézin were required to live in a ghetto. (Most German-occupied countries in Central and Eastern Europe had this rule.)

One year later, in October of 1941, Nazi officers began arresting and deporting Czech Jews from the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. They sent these Jews to Theresienstadt because it was the only Nazi ghetto in Bohemia and Moravia.

The first transport happened on 24 November 1941. Nazi officers arrested and deported 342 Jewish young men to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. The young men were forced to clean up the ghetto; help the German officers evict Terezín Jews from most parts of the ghetto; force these people into a small and overcrowded part of the ghetto; and then convert the large and empty spaces of the ghetto into a concentration camp. Then, the German officers sent all of the young Jewish men to live in the concentration camp, and patiently wait for the arrivals of other Jews. It was at this point that Theresienstadt became both a ghetto and concentration camp.

Drawing by Fedričh Beditta, an artist and Theresienstadt prisoner, showing the terrible living conditions there. Beditta was killed on 17 November 1944.

Mass deportations

During the Nazi occupation in 1941-1942, the Nazis deported nearly all Jewish people in Bohemia and Moravia to Theresienstadt. The deported Jews came from different occupations, professions, ages, and genders.

On 4 December 1941, the second transport, about more than 1000 Jewish men were deported from Bohemia and Moravia to Theresienstadt. The Nazi officers would later appoint one of the 1000 Jewish men as the head of the Judenrat Council of Elders, and several others as members. The Council eventually participated in choosing who to deport to other ghettos or concentration camps, which was very controversial.

Beginning in 1942, thousands of Jewish people, regardless of age and sex, were deported to Theresienstadt from Bohemia and Moravia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria. From there, most of them would be further deported to seperate ghettos and concentration camps in central and eastern European occupied territories.

During partial liquidation actions in 1942, 1943, and 1944, Jews were deported to and also from the Riga Ghetto, Białystok Ghetto, Auschwitz concentration camp, and others. By 1943, Jewish people from German-occupied Denmark were also deported to Theresienstadt.

Beginning in 1944, in order to ease the feeling of overcrowding in Theresienstadt Ghetto, thousands of Jewish people (mostly the weak, ill, and elderly), were deported to Auszchwitz.

Conditions

Cultural life

Theresienstadt is best known for its cultural lifestyle. There were secret classes and education for children. The camp had frequent cultural activities and entertainment like "comedy shows, operettas and readings from the Bible and Jewish literature." It even had a lending library with 60,000 books.

According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia:

Despite the terrible living conditions and the constant threat of deportation, Theresienstadt had a highly developed cultural life. Outstanding Jewish artists, mainly from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany, created drawings and paintings, some of them [secret] depictions of the ghetto's harsh reality. Writers, professors, musicians, and actors gave lectures, concerts, and theater performances. The ghetto maintained a lending library of 60,000 [books]. Fifteen thousand children passed through Theresienstadt. Although forbidden to do so, they attended school. They painted pictures, wrote poetry, and otherwise tried to [keep a little] normalcy. Approximately 90 percent of these children perished in killing centers.

Ghetto Swingers in Theresienstadt (1940)

Conditions

Still, life in the ghetto and camp was not happy. Hunger and disease were widespread, and the living conditions were often terrible. There were strict punishments. People who tried to escape the ghetto were sent to harsher concentration camps.

As of December 15, 1942, there were 47,878 people imprisoned in Theresienstadt, according to internal camp documents.

Fewer than 4,000 of the Jews sent to Theresienstadt survived the war.

Related pages

• Kraków Ghetto
• Rubzewitz Ghetto
• Warsaw Ghetto
• Lwów Ghettos