Arbeit Macht Frei? (Terezin (Terezienstadt))

Member Name: helencb

Product:	Terezin (Terezienstadt)
Date:	26/05/07 (419 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Educational, Historical significance

Disadvantages: Obviously harrowing at times

Situated 60km north west of Prague, the town of Terezin with its population of a few thousand inhabitants should have remained a sleepy little country town that few people could locate on a map.

All that changed in 1939 with the occupation of Czechoslovakia.

Terezin was used as a ghetto by the Nazis for the period of the Second World War. While it was not specifically intended as an extermination camp, it was still the final home of tens and thousands of Jews who died here in the appalling conditions. Those that did survive were sent to other extermination camps in the region, including Auschwitz.

The Terezin Memorial actually consists of a number of exhibitions and memorials. The key memorial is the “Small Fortress” where most Jews were held. The Fortress was actually built in 1784 as part of the Terezin Fortification System and was intended for lodging. It remained an important garrison town and by the early 19th century it was being used as a prison for army offenders and political prisoners before it was seized by the Nazis. People who lived in the town who were not Jewish were eventually evacuated altogether as the entire town and the fortress was taken over by the Nazis.

Visitors to the city of Prague can visit Terezin by taking a tour bus from the city centre. Organised by Martin Tours, this costs 1100CZK per person, and lasts approximately 5 hours. The trip includes a guided tour of the Small Fortress, entrance to the Ghetto Museum and a trip to the Jewish Cemetery and Crematorium. During the drive to Terezin, which takes around one hour, the tour guide provides important background information to the ghetto.

It seems unbelievable that the “Jewish Question” ever arose in such recent history, and hearing the numbers of Jews that were sent to Terezin (and then onwards) is really quite shocking. Over 140000 people were sent to Terezin, including women and children, and the majority did not survive the experience.

The benefit of going to Terezin in a small group is that a guide will take you through the ghetto and our guide was exceptional in her knowledge and understanding of the conditions of the time, and the practicalities of daily living. The site itself is quite large and you need to allow at least 1.5 hours or more to gain the most from the visit.

The tour itself meanders through the various courtyards and into different rooms which either housed officers or prisoners. Clearly the rooms today are fairly empty places but it is only when you stand in them and listen to the guide explaining the vast numbers of people that had to live together in them that you can gain an appreciation of just how dreadful conditions really were – albeit not on the scale of concentration camps such as Auschwitz. Conditions got considerably worse during the latter half of the Second World War, when prisoner numbers increased causing living conditions to deteriorate even further, and of course rations reduced considerably. The conditions themselves contributed to a lot of deaths. There was a sick bay for the most serious patients but with only eight beds and no equipment, this simply wasn’t up to the task.

The “Death Gate” at Terezin leads onto the execution field. Prisoners knew that if they ever went beyond the gate then it meant they would not be coming back out alive. There were around 250-300 executions including a few notable ones – the execution of 3 men and 1 woman in March 1945 as punishment for an attempted mass escape, and the execution two months later of 49 men and 3 women who were members of a resistance group.


The tour of Terezin also includes a visit to the Ghetto Museum. Here you can watch an important film – known as “Propaganda”. Knowing that a Red Cross inspection was planned, officers at Terezin forced prisoners to take part in a film showing a very different Terezin than the reality. Instead it was shown as a safe retreat, a happy place, where people were safe, well fed and enjoyed group sports and activities. Remarkably, at the fortress, officers even built a large washroom area with plenty of sinks – but these were never used (and they are still there today) – they were simply used as part of the plan to show the Red Cross that living conditions were humane, when in fact the opposite was true. The museum itself is quite extensive, and one of the most heartbreaking parts was a large exhibition room containing some of the original pictures and crafts from children who had been housed at Terezin – normal childish drawings showing families outside playing and having fun and being free to do so

- something that most children that were sent to Terezin never saw again.


www.pamatnik-terezin.cz

Summary: An important Memorial to the Jewish People