Escapes and Art from The Small Fortress

On our second full day, we went to Terezin.  This was my second trip to the Czech Republic, and my second trip to Theresienstadt as well.  I was hopeful that we would get a different perspective from the one our Winter 2013 crew had received--not that there was anything wrong with that tour, I just wanted different things to consider.

We started at the small fortress, as we had done last year.  This time, I saw the roses on the grave markers outside the gates of the prison.

Our guide was an older woman who had recently suffered an injury (hip? knee?) and walked with a cane.  We slowly realized that she had limited facility with conversational English (which is NOT a criticism--NONE of us had ANY facility with Czech), but it was still odd as she seemed to be able to lead the tour through the small fortress with ease. 

The problem was, she seemed very thrown by questions.  Regardless, the tour was worthwhile and we got to see some parts of the museum which I hadn't seen in the Winter of 2013.

This is one of the iconic images from the Small Fortress.

The fortress was a site of great tragedy and pain, but it's not the ghetto. 

One of the placards in the camp stated that "3,800 men, women and children passed through the Terezin prison.  More than 60 percent of them were persons who before the war were Czechoslovak nationals.  The rest were mostly Germans escaping from the front, from all parts of the Reich as well as from other European countries."

Another sign says that "In the years 1940-1945, more than 1500 Jews were imprisoned in the Small Fortress.  Their destiny was worst of all the prisoners.  About 500 from them were tortured to death here, most of the others perished after the deportation to the concentration camps."


The Small Fortress is very much a structure of a different era.  To my knowledge, twentieth century structures don't feature moats.

Escapes from the Nazi prisons and camps were not common, but earlier on this trip we learned that a number of people escaped from Majdanek.  That story was quite inspirational.  Quoting from a placard:
The escape was organized for a large group.  The participants approached the barbed wire at night several times and crawled along the snow covered by white sheets.  After covering a certain part of their planned route they were frightened by patrolling guards and turned back.  Supposedly they even came under fire from a guard tower once.  Only after reducing their numbers did the group achieve this difficult escape.  The escapers [sic] cut the wire under cover of night close to the guardhouse where the SS were present.  Not until morning during roll call did the Germans notice their absence.  There were no reprisals and no pursuit.  A new escape occurred several days later.  From the branch of Majdanek on Lipowa Street in Lublin, 10 prisoners tunneled out [...]  The next getaway took place on March 28 in broad daylight.  Prisoners escaped from the Gaertnerei through the sewers.  This escape involved great physical exertion and risk because the escapers [sic] had to cut the iron bars in several manholes they encountered on their route.


As I had learned last year, three prisoners managed to escape from the small fortress from this particular point in the prison. 

 The story of this escape is a bit sketchy, but hearing about it is heartening.

We walked through the tunnels, which was a bit frightening given our guide's infirmity.  It was super dark inside, as it had been last year, but somehow it seemed worse this time (which doesn't make sense).  Our guide turned to me to help her out of the tunnel (it's in the lower center of the photo below) and referred to me as her savior.

When we emerged from the tunnel, we came upon the execution site.

The cross shape where one of our young Air Force Cadets is sitting above is where the guards would position themselves to shoot those identified for execution.  I found that chilling.

While I was at the Small Fortress, I decided to focus on the art, starting with a number of sculptures on the grounds of the fortress.  This one, called "nameless" is by Ladislav Chochole.

 I'm no expert, but the elongated limbs reminded me of Goya, but I also thought there was an air of "Soviet" sensibility.

This one is called "Shadows of the executed prisoners" by Karel Hladik.

Both of these pieces are near the execution site.

There's a corridor of the camp which included an infirmary and cells for solitary confinement.  Toward the end of the that section of the camp were two halls used for artistic exhibitions.  I thought the sculptures were interesting, but my friend suggested they were fairly standard for Holocaust art.  The reader can be the judge.

There were also paintings on display.

This one was called "The Wind Which Scattered My Roof".  It was my favorite painting of the ones on display.

When we visited in the Winter of 2013, we were on a slightly tighter schedule.  This time around, we had the opportunity to explore the museums at greater length.  Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside.  There were a few additional sculptures outside the museum which were noteworthy.

For me, this is the most haunting sculpture.  It's called "Violence"; the artist is Vaclav Kyselka.

These were also outside the museum at the Small Fortress.

"Martyr" by Jiri Sozansky

"Stele for Terezin" by Giorgio Celiberti

As noted earlier, the Small Fortress is really not what most people think of when they think of Theresienstadt.  The Small Fortress has a history dating back to the late 18th century, and it was meant to be a fort.  Its legacy however, is as a prison. 

The Theresienstadt ghetto is just across the river.  That's the subject of the next post.