Terezin

(Therseinstad
t)
Background
• Original name is Terezin and was built as a fortress in the eighteenth century
by Emperor Joseph II who was the Holy Roman Emperor and built after
previous experiences in war between Austria and Prussia.
• It was never battle tested and entering the 19 th century it became a garrison
town and was used mostly as a prison which was why at the turn of the 20 th
century it was a useful location. Such as being used as a prison for those
responsible of killing Franz Ferdinand, including Gavrilo Princip.
• After WWI, it wasn’t put into use again until it was captured by the Germans
in June of 1940 and was renamed Therseinstadt.
• It was located in Northwestern Czechoslovakia or modern day Czech
Republic.
• The Nazis didn’t start a camp there until November 24, 1941 as it was
proposed by Reinhard Heydrich along with other camps.
• The first year of deporting prisoners was the most brutal in its infant
stages since out of the 43,879 deportees, from the first year, only 224
survived the war
 Background Anton
Burger
• The purpose of Therseinstadt was to be a concentration camp for elderly, wealthy,
or famous Jews from Germany, Austria, the Czech lands, and western Europe.
Their treatment was meant to be better due to their privileges in life and yet it
still involve unspeakable treatment.
• The Germans struggled to find a way to make a camp for at least 30,000 to 60,000
people in a town that only held 7,000 citizens, so they appointed Jakob Edelstein
as the elder of the Jewish council that was established to direct internal life and
Karl
some logistics. He tried to make living improvements for kids but was eventually Rahm
sent to Auschuwitz in 1943 where he was reportedly shot with his family.
• Another purpose of setting up Therseinstadt as a camp was for it to serve as a
transit camp to others camps, and this purpose did not change throughout the
war because was needed even during death marches where it was a prime
destination.
• The camp had no sub-camps of its own but was sometimes considered a sub-
camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau II.
• After being established by Heydrich, it was under the command of Siegfried Seidl Siegfried
(November 1941 – July 1943), Anton Burger (July 1943 – February 1944), and Karl Seidl
Rahm (February 1944 – May 1945).
• Seidl and Rahm were captured, put on trial , and executed while Burger was able
to escape and never answered for his crimes.
How did it Function?
• Incoming prisoners had mixed knowledge, since some knew to hide their valuables but most
elderly Jews falsely believed they were begin taken to a spa and even paid extra for a good
spot. Meanwhile, all Jews were placed in tight housing quarter where disease could spread
easily and they received very little food.
• To reach the housing they had to march a 3 miles walk from the train station, until 1943 when a
railway was made directly to the camp.
• Upon arrival their belongings and luggage would be searched for valuables then their names
would be documented and they were sent to their quarters. The issue of fitting over 60,000
people in a town meant for 7,000 was solved by using every available foot for sleeping quarters
which caused housing to be extremely cramped and left ample room for disease to spread and
pest such as rats, fleas, flies, and lice to roam.
• Besides space, the issue of too many prisoners left a food problem so the Nazis did rationing of
food where labors got the most and the elderly received the least amount of food which
caused higher mortality rates of the elderly.
How did it Function?
• Originally when prisoners died, they were wrapped in a blanket and buried, but as
bodies built up then the Nazis ran out of room to bury them. So a crematorium was
built in 1942 to deal with this problem. However, this construction didn’t include any
gas chambers and was only used to deal with mounting bodies whose ashes were put
in boxes. Interestingly, there was a gas chamber built in 1945 in an underground
passageway but it was never used.
• There wasn’t any major mass killings, but the true worry was for prisoners was if they
would be chosen to be put transported because most were sent to extermination
camps since Theresienstadt was not really a destination for Jews but a side stop to
places like Treblinka, Belzec, and Auschwitz.
• Cruelly enough, the Nazis made the Council of Elders choose who was sent on the list
and they were forced to meet the Nazis’ quota which from 1 to 5 thousand prisoners
per trip.
The Workload
• The workload of prisoners was not as insufferable compared to other
camps in the period, and there weren’t any specific methods of
torture or killing used.
• Prisoners were mainly forced to do random labor tasks, but
occasionally there were tasks with a purpose. Such as building
Litoměřice in 1944 which involved extensive labor by prisoners who
still faced stress, hunger, and poor hygienic conditions on a daily
basis. They luckily didn’t have to face any medical experiments on
them by cruel doctors.
• Prisoners were expected to maintain facilities in the camp, farm the
surrounding fields, build certain buildings such as Litoměřice.
However, most prisoner actually worked outside the main fortress for
other companies.
• As the Germans faced a desperate effort to win the war, the
prisoners were finally put to work on jobs that were focused on
helping the war effort.
 Who was sent
here?
• Besides the elderly, wealthy, and famous Jewish people in the
Czech Republic and newly conquered territories, there were
Soviets, Poles, Yugoslavs, Frenchmen, Italians, English POWs and
people of other nationalities. These people had committed no
specific crime except that they were found to be Jewish but were
either old or had some sort of relevance in society and so were
sent to Theresienstadt
Richard Glazar Alfred Flatow
• There were plenty of famous prisoners such as:
1) Ludwig Czech who was the chairman of the German Social
Democratic Worker Party.
2) Alfred Flatow, a German Olympic Gold Medalist in 1896
3) George Alexander Pick, created Pick’s Theorem of the
Area of Lattice Polygons
4) Richard Glazar, who survived Treblinka and wrote a book
called “Trap with a Green Fence”
• “Richard Glazar stayed in Theresienstadt for a month
working in the garbage disposal unit – he found his
maternal grandfather and his paternal grandmother –
they had been there for several months” (Editors of
H.E.A.R.T.)
George Alexander Pick Ludwig Czech
The Furher gives the
Jews a Town
• Most countries accepted German orders to give Jewish citizens or
allowed German soldiers to take Jewish citizens. However, Denmark
became an important outlier.
• On October 5, 1943, Danish Jews first arrived at Theresienstadt but
soon after the Danish and even the Swiss Red Cross began to question
what happened to those citizens. In response, the Nazis told the Danish
that they could visit to the ‘humane conditions’ that they were living in.
To cover up the true condition of the camp, the Nazis began the
“Improvement Action” plan. The Council of Elders was informed of this
and were told they must help the effort.
• Colonel Karl Rahm was put in charge and he made a direct route for the
visitors that was enhanced by new greenery with exquisite gardens
along with new building such as schools and bakeries. He had specific
events and actions planned out by specific people such as singing or
conversation of enjoyment as visitors pas by. He recognized the place
was crowded and he deported 7,500 Jews who looked sickly or
malnourished. The Danish Red Cross visited and were convinced that
the Nazis treated the Jews well.
The Furher gives the
Jews a Town
• Rahm was so successful in convincing the Red Cross that the
Nazis humanely treated the Jews that he even allowed a
documentary to be made about ‘how well they are treated’.
• He even had the new Ghetto Elder Dr. Paul Eppstein get a chauffeur
during the video. He was an SS Officer who had ironically severly
beaten Eppstein without regret the previous day and continued the
treatment after filming.
• The 90-minute documentary was called “The Furher
gives the Jews a Town” and was directed by a Jewish
prisoner named Kurt Gerron in 1944. Gurron and everyone
involved in the film was later sent to Auschwitz and died in
the gas chambers
• Survivor Accounts
 Red Cross to the Rescue

• As “Kill All” orders began to be sent out and various death marches began to increase the
population at Theresienstadt, the leaders at Theresienstadt began to act suspicion and told
the Council of Elders to organize as many Jews as possible in tow trips to an unknown
location.
• The Council of Elders believed the Nazi were trying to hide their war crimes by staging a
massacre, so they secretly refused and slipped a message to the Swiss Red Cross in Prague.
• On 19 April 1945 Paul Dunant ,a Swiss Red Cross representative who had visited
Theresienstadt and even was personally escorted by Eichmann before, contacted Karl
Hermann Frank(a prominent Gestapo leader in the Czech region) about the deportations
and was assured there would be no more.
• As the Germans continued to be pushed back, Frank began worry about the aftermath of a
German defeat and his crimes so he contacted the Red Cross and allowed all Jews in
Karl Hermann Frank
Theresienstadt to be transfer to Switzerland and Danish Jews be sent to Sweden and left
the camp under Red Cross supervison. He only did this so he would look good in the eyes
of the Americans and yet he was put on trial and executed all the same.
 • On May 8, 1945, the Soviet
Army arrived and officially
liberated the camp and placed
Theresienstadt under strict
quarantine because of an
extreme Typhus breakout
caused by increased population
from death marches and death
trains. By June the outbreak
was over and the prisoners
were able to leave.
• Theresienstadt was the last Nazi
concentration camp to be
liberated by the Soviets.
• Overall, about 144,000 Jews
were sent there, about 33,000
died, 88,000 sent to Auschwitz,
Soviet Liberation and only 19,000 survived.
 Terezin
Memorial
• Museum
The ghetto still exists today and is fully intact with
the fortress and crematorium. It is left untouched
to preserve its look which was square buildings
close together and surrounded by a defensive
wall. The barracks are still and so is the town
center.
• There is a Terezin Memorial Museum which
honors the victiums at the ghetto. The museum is
actually located in various places including:

(Editors of Památník Terezín)

Images
 Works Cited
Editors of H.E.A.R.T. “Terezin / Theresienstadt .” Holocaust Research Project, Holocaust
Education & Archive Research Team, 2007,
www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/terezin.html.
Editors of Jewish Virtual Library. “Terezin (Theresienstadt): The ‘Model’ Ghetto.” Jewish Virtual
Library, Jewish Virtual Libary: A Project of Aice, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/theresienstadt-
the-ldquo-model-rdquo-ghetto.
Editors of Památník Terezín. “The Concentration Camp for Jews, the Terezín Ghetto.” The
Concentration Camp for Jews, the Terezín Ghetto - Terezín MemorialPamátník Terezín,
www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/the-concentration-camp-for-jews-the-terezin-ghetto.
Editors of Yad Veshem. “Theresienstadt.” Yadvashem.org, Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust
Remembrance Center,
www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/ghettos/theresienstadt.html#narrative_info.
“The Führer Gives a City to the Jews.” Jewish Films, The National Center for Jewish Film,
www.jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/city_to_the_jews.htm.