;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
|
|
|
|
|
Pamatnik Terezin (Terezin Memorial) Muzeum Ghetta Terezin (Ghetto Museum Terezin) |
Terezin (German: Theresienstadt) is the name of a former military fortress and garrison town in the Usti nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic: lying 60 km north of Prague. In the late eighteenth century the Habsburg Monarchy erected the fortress near the confluence of the Labe and Ohre Rivers, and named it after Empress Maria Theresa. Construction started in 1780 and lasted ten years. The total area of the fortress was 3.89 sq km. The fortification was designed in the tradition of Sebastian le Prestre de Vauban. In peacetime it held 5,655 soldiers, and in wartime around 11,000 soldiers could be placed here, and neighbouring areas could be inundated. Fortress Josefov in eastern Bohemia was built at the same time and had a similar purpose. The fortress was never under direct siege. During the Austro-Prussian War, on 28 July 1866, part of the garrison attacked and destroyed an important railway bridge near Neratovice (rail line Turnov - Kralupy nad Vltavou) that was shortly before repaired by the Prussians. This attack occurred two days after Austria and Prussia had agreed to make peace, but the Terezin garrison was ignorant of the news.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the fortress was also used as a prison. During World War I, the fortress was used as a political prison camp. Many thousand supporters of Russia (Russophiles from Galicia and Bukovina) were placed by Austro-Hungarian authorities in the fortress. Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife, starting the war, died there of tuberculosis in 1918.
During WWII, the Gestapo used Terezin, better known by the German name Theresienstadt, as a ghetto, concentrating Jews from Czechoslovakia, as well as many from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Denmark. More than 150,000 Jews were sent there, and although it was not an extermination camp about 33,000 died in the ghetto itself, mostly because of the appalling conditions arising out of extreme population density. About 88,000 inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. At the end of the war there were 17,247 survivors. Theresienstadt was the home of Hana Brady and her brother George Brady from 1942-1944. The Small Fortress in Terezin was also used as a punishment prison for Allied POWs who persisted in escape attempts. POWs from Australia, New Zealand, England and Scotland were imprisoned and witnessed the horrendous inhuman mistreatment of the largely Jewish population. Keeping POWs in such a camp was against the Geneva Convention, and the camp was under the direct control of the Gestapo who refused to acknowledge the POWs' special status. They saw that elderly Jewish inmates were given food every second day and forced to do hard labour constructing a 1 km long tank trap, mainly using their hands. Prisoners who stopped jogging, with handfuls of dirt, were beaten unmercifully. Prisoners were forced to sit on the head and legs of a victim while the guard repeatedly struck the victim with a nailed post, reducing their buttocks to pulp. Jews were also whipped with strips of thin wire that tore their bodies apart. Prisoners were forced to collect the bloody parts and load them on a cart. Terezin was the punishment prison for Walter Wise (Australia), Charles Croall (NZ), Roy Lomas (NZ), Ray Reid (NZ), Gerry Mills (NZ), Sid Davison (NZ), Tom McLeod (NZ), Alf Booker (NZ), Jock Bone (UK), Herb Cullen (Australia), Tama Tamaki (NZ), Wal Riley (Australia), Tom Mottram (NZ), Jim Ilott and Alexander McClelland (Australia). All survived but suffered chronic physical and mental health problems for most of their lives. For many years the Australian and New Zealand governments denied that any of their servicemen had been sent to Terezin, but after several years of campaigns the Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke established a committee of investigation in 1987 which eventually ordered $10,000 compensation payments to the surviving veterans. Australian journalist Paul Rea produced the 1985 film Where Death Wears a Smile which made sensational allegations about the supposed murder of dozens of Allied prisoners at Terezin. These claims have been refuted by one of the veterans, Alexander McClelland, in his book The Answer - Justice. Part of the fortification (Small Fortress) served as the largest Gestapo prison in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, separated from the ghetto. Around 90,000 people went through it, and 2,600 of those died there. It was liberated on 9 May 1945 by the Soviet Army.
After the German surrender the small fortress was used as an internment camp for ethnic Germans. The first prisoners arrived on the May 10, 1945. On February 29, 1948 the last German prisoners were released and the camp was officially closed. Among the interned Germans were former Nazis like Heinrich Jockel, the former commander of Terezin and other SS members. A great group of internees was arrested simply because of their German nationality, among them young boys or elderly people. In the first phase of the camp lasting until July 1945 mortality was high due to diseases, malnutrition and incidents of simple outright murder. Commander of the camp in that period was Stanislav Franc. He was guided by a spirit of revenge and tolerated whimsical mistreatment of the prisoners by the guards. In July 1945 the camp shifted under the control of the Czech ministry for domestic affairs. The new commander appointed was Otakar Kalal. From 1946 on the inmates were gradually transferred to Germany and Terezin more and more turned into a hub for the forced migration of Germans from the Czech lands into Germany proper. A small exhibition currently commemorates the history of Terezin as internment camp for Germans.
After the war, Theresienstadt was resurrected as Terezin, dropping the German "stadt" from its name but still retaining a military garrison. The army left the city in 1996, which had a negative effect on the local economy. Terezin is still trying to decouple from its military past and become a modern, vibrant town. The city was damaged by floods in 2002. 327 bronze markers were stolen from the Jewish cemetery in mid-April 2008, with 700 more the next week. Some were recovered.
Terezin is noted for its production of furniture and knitwear as well as for manufacturing. (Extracted from the site of "Wikipedia")
| IMAGE |
|
|
|
|
||
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Signboard of Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Monuments of the National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin. Built gradually between 1945 and 1958, the National Cemetery contains the bodies of some 10,000 Nazi victims, 2,386 of them are buried in individual graves. |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) National Cemetery, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Entrance gate to Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Me in front of the entrance gate to Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) A view from the entrance gate to Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Entrance gate to Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Gate to the Administrative Yard, Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Administrative Yard, Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Geschaftszimmer (Reception office, where records on prisoners were kept) led by Prison Commander W. Schmidt (who was sentenced and executed after the war), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Geschaftszimmer (Reception office), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Geschaftszimmer (Reception office), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Geschaftszimmer (Reception office), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Wachstube (Guardhouse) also serving for censoring prisoners' mail and interrogation of inmates, Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Wachstube (Guardhouse), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Prison Commander's Office (held by Heinrich Jocke, notorious for his cruel treatment of the prisoners, who was tried and executed in 1946), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Prison Commander's Office, Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Prison Commander's Office, Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Kammer (Clothing Warehouse) where new arrivals had to hand in their civilian clothes and dress in army uniforms of the armies defeated by the Nazis. |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Kammer (Clothing Warehouse), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Kammer (Clothing Warehouse), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Kammer (Clothing Warehouse), Small Fortress Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Gate to the first yard with the notorious inscription "Arbeit macht frei," so typical of most Nazi concentration camps |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Gate to the first yard with the notorious inscription "Arbeit macht frei," so tipical of most Nazi concentration camps |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Entrance of the first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) One of the cells of the first yard, Terezin: Each houses as many as 60 to 90 inmates |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) One of the cells of the first yard, Terezin: Each houses as many as 60 to 90 inmates |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) A small window of one of the cells of the first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) At one of the cells of the first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) At one of the cells of the first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) At one of the cells of the first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Toilet at one of the cells of the first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Toilet at one of the cells of the first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) At one of the cells of the first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The first yard, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Krankenrevier (the Hospital ward), Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Showers of the Krankenrevier (the Hospital ward), Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Bathrooms of the Krankenrevier (the Hospital ward), Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Bathroom of the Krankenrevier (the Hospital ward), Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Showers of the Krankenrevier (the Hospital ward), Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Cells, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Cells, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Plaque of "Cela [Cell of] Gavrilo Princip," who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, which triggered World War I |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Plaque of "Cela [Cell of] Gavrilo Princip," who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, which triggered World War I |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Bathroom and delousing station, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Bathroom and delousing station, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Bathroom and delousing station, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Bathroom and delousing station, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Bathroom and delousing station, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Bathroom and delousing station, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) "Sick bay" where doctors from the ranks of the inmates looked after their patients. |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) "Sick bay," Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Toilet of the Sick bay, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) So-called "model barbershop," adjusted in this way in 1944, was meant to show the level of hygiene maintained in the prison. |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Inside of the "model barbershop," Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Inside of the "model barbershop," Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) An example of Terezin's original fortifications |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Gate to the execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) An example of Terezin's original fortifications< |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) An example of Terezin's original fortifications< |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The connecting corridor leading to the execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The connecting corridor leading to the execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The connecting corridor leading to the execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The connecting corridor leading to the execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The exit of the connecting corridor leading to the execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The memorial statues of the execution ground, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The Death Gate through which prisoners were taken to the execution ground. |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) The Pool, built in 1942 as a reservoir for fire-fighting purposes, served the families of the local guards for bathing. It was constructed by students from Roudnice and Jewish inmates, who were tortured and beaten to death during the work. |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) "Herrenhaus" (House of Lords) where the Prison Commander and some of he guards with their families lived: now housing offices of the Terezin Memorial. |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) "Herrenhaus" (House of Lords) where the Prison Commander and some of he guards with their families lived: now housing offices of the Terezin Memorial. |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Memorial monuments, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Memorial monuments, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Memorial monuments, Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Memorial monuments, Terezin |
|
|
||
| Muzeum Ghetta Terezin |
|
Muzeum Ghetta Terezin (Ghetto Museum Terezin), Komenskeho ulice, CZ-411 55 Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Muzeum Ghetta Terezin (Ghetto Museum Terezin), Komenskeho ulice, CZ-411 55 Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Muzeum Ghetta Terezin (Ghetto Museum Terezin), Komenskeho ulice, CZ-411 55 Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Children's drawings from the Terezin Concentration Camp, Muzeum Ghetta Terezin (Ghetto Museum Terezin), Komenskeho ulice, CZ-411 55 Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) Children's drawings from the Terezin Concentration Camp, Muzeum Ghetta Terezin (Ghetto Museum Terezin), Komenskeho ulice, CZ-411 55 Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) A child's drawing from the Terezin Concentration Camp, Muzeum Ghetta Terezin (Ghetto Museum Terezin), Komenskeho ulice, CZ-411 55 Terezin |
| |
|
(Friday 18 June) A child's drawing from the Terezin Concentration Camp, Muzeum Ghetta Terezin (Ghetto Museum Terezin), Komenskeho ulice, CZ-411 55 Terezin |
