Nowadays
Czech, Terezin
Ghetto (formerly an army barracks) created by the Nazis in Czechoslovakia as a
transit and
concentration camp.
Theresienstadt is famous of the large concentration of Jewish artists like
Pavel Haas,
Gideon Klein,
Hans Krasa,
Siegmund Schul,
James Simon,
Carlos Tauber,
Viktor Ullmann
and
Kurt Gerron.
Due to the presence of all these
artists, Theresienstadt had a
vibrant cultural life, for most
people a way to give some meaning to the
dreariness and
misery of the camp.
In June 1944 an
International Red Cross delegation visited the camp: the Jewish citizens were
ordered to perform a
masquerade after scrubbing the streets, cleaning the cafes and opening jewelry
and food shops. The Nazis of course made sure there was enough food to make the
children laughing.
After the departure of the delegation, transports to
Auschwitz were continued without delay.
At the end of 1944, the Jewish director and theater star
Kurt Gerron was ordered to film
a German
propaganda movie about the 'happiness' in the ghetto, nowadays cynically
called '
The Führer donates a town to the Jews'.
Historians estimate that 140,000 individuals (including 15,000 children) passed through this
small
Bohemian town and that only 3,000 of them survived. 33,000 died in Theresienstadt
itself and 87,000 others were murdered in the
extermination camps of
Auschwitz,
Birkenau,
Bergen-Belsen,
Maidenek,
Treblinka and others.