Theresienstadt

The first time I went to Theresienstadt I was expecting to see the ghetto.  What we saw instead was one of the museums, the cemetery and the crematorium.  We really had no sense for what the ghetto entailed.

On this trip we were fortunate to have among our group someone who was a bit more knowledgeable about the ghetto and who led us on an informal tour of the community.

Before our colleague initiated his tour, we started at the Ghetto Museum which is located in the building where a school had been located.

In 1942, the building became a home for  boys aged 10-15.   The boys received clandestine lessons in the attic, and the gym became a performance site.

This building was also where the boys published the journal "Vedem"--a magazine featuring poetry, stories and essays written by the boys.

A number of years ago the Baeumler Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration at the University of Minnesota Duluth featured Ellen Kennedy, the former interim director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide.  Dr. Kennedy discussed both the Vilna Ghetto and the Theresienstadt Ghetto.  While describing Terezin she emphasized the life affirming acts of resistance by the residents including the journal "Vedem" mentioned above and some of the boys who participated in its publication, including Petr Ginz.

One of the things which makes Terezin so remarkable is the vibrancy of cultural expressions by the people forced to live there.  These artistic endeavors continue to impress the world. Last year, PBS aired a program called "Defiant Requieum" which recounted the Terezin prisoners' performance of Verdi's "Requiem".  Children's book author Maurice Sendak revived the children's  opera "Brundibar" which had been performed in Terezin.

Some of the exhibits were focused on the children.  This rabbi doll caught my eye.  It was made by Petr Kien in the Ghetto.

There were a few other displays featuring dolls.  The boy and girl dolls by Erna Bonnova represent young people about to leave on a transport.

The little doll in the lower right corner was made by Erna Bonnova, a prisoner in the Ghetto.

I liked this illuminated wall of drawings by Helga Weissova who was 12 years old while in Theresienstadt.  I purchased a book of her work called Draw What You See.

This exhibit of a radio inside a suitcase was provocative.  I bought a Guide to the Permanent Exhibition at Terezin which revealed that Ghetto inmates used this receiver to listen to war news.  I can't imagine the owner held on to it for very long (if at all) in the ghetto.  When might it have been discovered?  The owner's fate is not hard to predict.

This map shows the places from which Jews were sent to Terezin.  The larger the circle, the greater the number of deportees.  The squares represent the camps to which prisoners from Terezin were sent.  The larger the square, the larger the number of deportees.

This map indicates both camps and ghettos.  It includes all nine of the camps and all four of the ghettos I have seen.

There were a number of other worthwhile exhibits, such as this one of prisoners' documents.

There are a number of other museums throughout the ghetto, including the one I'd visited in the Winter of 2013 which offered a wonderful display of some of the artistic endeavors by the prisoners over the course of the war.  According to a booklet on The Terezin Ghetto by Ludmila Chladkova, "The 'Magdeburg Barracks' became the seat of the Council of Elders and the offices of the Jewish self-administration.  Besides the offices, here there were also the apartments of the members of the self-administration and a hall for cultural performances."

We had visited it in the Winter of 2013 and I was disappointed not to have spent more time there.  Fortunately, we had a bit more time on this trip.

They don't allow photography in the museums (although I hadn't seen the sign prohibiting it in the first museum and got away with taking quite a few pictures before I realized I needed to put away my camera), so I went to a site for the Magdeburg Barracks (there's such a display in this museum), and borrowed some images from that site.  The first shows the barracks display.

Obviously, the roped-in area sends a clear message to visitors that they are not permitted to touch any part of the display.

From the barracks display, the visitors are directed down the hall to a room devoted to the music practiced and performed at the ghetto.

A number of Europe's great Jewish musicians, composers, conductors and performers spent time in Theresienstadt.  As the stories of the performance of Verdi's Requiem and Brundibar suggest, the prisoners at the camp were ready and willing performers.  This room displayed some of the scores they used, as well as some of the posters which had been produced to promote the performances.

The next few rooms offered a prodigious display of drawings and paintings by many of the artists and designers who found themselves at Terezin.  These works of art documenting life in the ghetto were occasionally smuggled out, or hidden away in other instances. 

In addition to the artists and musicians interred at Terezin, there were a number of literary artists there as well whose works were on display.

The final room was devoted to the theatrical arts.

After we completed our visit to the museum, some of us made purchases at the bookstore.

Our colleague then took us on a tour of the ghetto beyond the museum.

This photo shows the walls which surrounded the ghetto, as well as a sentry post.

We passed by the Bakery and General Foodstuff Store.

This building was called the "Hannover Barracks" where working men were housed, and one of the kitchens was located.

These images are of the railway link built by prisoners in 1943.  It reached from the Bohusovice railway stations to the "Hamburg Barracks".  According to the booklet on Terezin, "This way, the dispatch of transports no longer had to be escorted before the eyes in the villages of the vicinity.  In the 'Schleuse' here, all transports to the East were assembled."

The booklet on the Ghetto identifies this relief as commemorating "taking leave from home and departing by transport."  Bretislav Benda is the artist.

A plaque by the side of the space reads "The Jewish Ceremonial Room served as a place where relatives and friends could bid a last farewell to their dead. After prayers, coffins were taken to the Jewish cemetery.  After this time, the dead were cremated in the crematorium."

The Ghetto Columbary was where the urns with the ashes were kept.  The Ghetto booklet reported: "In November 1944, these ashes had to be carried away and by the orders of the SS Commander partly buried close to the concentration camp near Litomerice, and most of it thrown into the river Ohre."

We made our way back to our mini-bus by walking through the Marktplatz, the central park of the Ghetto.

Along the way, we noticed that many of the buildings are inhabited.  There were some newer buildings, but some of the older buildings also contained living quarters for the town's inhabitants.

The bus was parked in front of the Ghetto Museum where we started our tour.

The town of Theresienstadt is a quiet one, even with visitors milling about the grounds.  This trip offered a bit more insight into the ghetto itself, but there's still more to uncover.  There is at least one other museum we didn't enter.  Also, having purchased a few books on the Ghetto, it would be helpful to read more carefully about the various buildings and barracks and to examine the place with greater background.

Theresienstadt was a site of great Nazi cynicism, claiming that it was the city they gave to the Jews.  What the Nazis perpetrated here is really disturbing.  But what the prisoners were able to do with their creative endeavors was a powerful form of resistance.