Terezin was built at the end of the 18th century under the reign of Emperor Joseph II of Bohemia. The town itself (the Main Fortress) served as an important garrison town for the Czech in the 19th century, and its Small Fortress was used for political prisoners of the Habsburg monarchy. During the Nazi occupation in the second World War, Terezin was converted to a Ghetto, where deported Jews were detained before being shipped to the more notorious execution camps in the East. The town's Small Fortress became Prague Gestapo Police Prison. Although it was not one of the "extermination camps" per se, large numbers of Jews, homosexuals, and other prisoners of the Nazi regime were decimated during their detainment here.
The town of Terezin was originally built to house 5,655 inhabitants in peacetime and up to 11,000 in wartime. Between 1941 and 1945, 140,000 men, women and children from throughout Europe were deported here. Over 35,000 died of hunger and diseases such as the typhoid fever. 87,000 were deported to extermination camps in the east, virtually all to Auschwitz-Birkenau. 3,800 of these people survived the killings there. As the war ended in Terezin, there were approximately 17,000 survivors. Some 1,600 children were still in Terezin at the end of the war, of whom 93 survived.
The Nazi regime went to great lengths to spread a false notion of Terezin as a self-governing city for the "inferior race" of the Jews. The Red Cross was allowed to visit once, in June 1944. For this visit the Nazis erected fake storefronts and deported many Jews to Auschwitz to reduce the appearance of overcrowding. They went on to produce a propaganda film about the camp which was similarly rigged.
The Small Fortress of Terezin was converted to a prison for enemies of the Nazi regime, many of them leaders of Czech resistance movements. 32,000 prisoners passed through the small fortress between 1940 and 1945, 1,500 of whom were Jews. In all, 2,600 prisoners died here. 250 of those people were executed by firing squad, the rest died due to harsh conditions, disease, and torture. Of the prisoners who did not die here, thousands more died after being deported to the death camps in the East.
Terezin is now inhabited again, but the former prison stands empty as a memorial to the atrocities committed there. I toured and photographed a few scenes from Terezin's Small Fortress during my visit to Prague, and also visited the Terezin Ghetto museum in the Main Fortress. The tour is a profoundly sobering experience, as is the museum (which deserves far more time than the one hour I spent there).
I have tried hard to consolidate dates and figures accurately from web sites and informational pamphlets, but my phrasing of them might not be entirely accurate. If you find errors, please correct me. Wikipedia seems to be outrageously inaccurate on some of its numbers, so I've avoided relying on it.
Entrance to Terezin's small fortress
19 March 2007
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Exterior wall of the fortress, built in the style of Vauban
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"Arbeit Macht Frei" is a typical inscription at Nazi concentration camps, but is unusual in a Gestapo prison.
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In the years 1940-1945 more than 1500 Jews were imprisoned in the Small Fortress. their destiny was the worst of all the groups of prisoners. About 500 from them were tortured to death here, most of others perished after the deportation to the concentration camps.
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The First Yard. 17 mass cells, 20 solitary cells. In all, 1,500 inmates lived in the cells surrounding this yard.
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A mass cell. Prisoners slept shoulder-to-shoulder with their feet to the wall. As many as 60 to 90 inmates were kept in this room.
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High window in one of the cells. Dozens of prisoners were crammed in here and slept standing up. During imprisonment, the window was barricaded, leaving a small vent by the door as the only source of ventilation.
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Windows in the first yard
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Solitary cells
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The shower. Terezin was not an execution camp, so this shower was not gassed. However, inmates were seldom permitted to shower.
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Temperature gauge on the clothing steamer, outside the shower.
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Beds - I'm not sure, but I think this room was furnished to mislead the Red Cross.
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Tour group in the "model barbershop." This room was furnished with long rows of sinks, but the faucets were not hooked up to any water source - all of it theater for the 1944 Red Cross visit.
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Hospital ward
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The execution ground. About 250 prisoners were shot dead here without a court sentence.
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Solitary cells in the fourth yard. The glass ceiling here overheated the cells, and prisoners suffocated.
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After the war, 600 bodies were exhumed from mass graves inside the prison and moved to a new national cemetery in front of the small fortress. Victims from the town and the Litom??ice labor camp were also moved to this place. In all, 10,000 people lie buried here.