Himmler established a Jewish concentration camp in Terezin on November 24,1941. The camp was named by the place's name. It
was also known as Theresienstadt. The SS expelled the Czech people from the town, transformed it into a transient camp, and
labeled it as a ghetto.
The Nazis referred to Terezin as a model camp. It was not an official extermination camp. However, it took the lives of 34,000 Jews
by hunger, torture, beating, and disease. Whenever the authorities wanted to reduce the camp's population, they simply sent
prisoners to gas chambers of Auschwitz or Majdanek. Altogether, the Nazis sent 83,000 Jews to the extermination camps in the east.
In the summer of 1939, the Nazis the Jews from the newly acquired Czech territory to make room for German minorities. Three main
Jewish organizations - the Supreme Council of the Union of Jewish Communities, the Prague Jewish Community, and the Joint Social
Commission worked together to invent the idea of a lifesaving ghetto. After the Nazis approved of the proprosal, the leaders drew up
plans for the organization of the ghetto and started on the construction of the barracks. This Jewish ghetto was meant to be a safe
shelter for the Jews, however, situation changed completely from the Jews' expectation.
By the end of 1941 the Czech Jews in Theresienstadt lived like prisoners in the barracks, isolated from the outside residents. The
scarcities encountered inside the ghetto made life virtually impossible. None of the neccessary supplies and goods existed. People
starved due to the lack of cooking equipment. What became the worse was the beginning of deportation of the Jews living in
Theresienstadt to other concentration camps. Soon the ghetto became the links in the chain of concentration camps.
The Germans promoted Theresienstadt as a home for aged and priviledged Jews so that the Jews would buy their way into the ghetto.
As the guards there took over their belongings and threw them into small cubbyholes, they finally realized the trapped world they
acquired.
Life in Theresienstadt could be compared to that in hell. People died of pneumonia, diarrhea, and undernourishment. In November
1942, only 988 lavatories were available to 53,000 people, averaging about 54 persons to one lavatory. Food was a major problem.
The council eventually used a rationing system to keep as many people alive as possible. The mortality rate rose quickly. The daily
deaths averaged 131. Even with the scarcity of everything existing in the ghetto, the Germans required it to create a productive area
to manufacture goods ordered by the Germans for exports.
Between 1942 and 1945, 15,000 children passed through Theresienstadt, only one hundred survived. The situation forced many
expectant mothers to abort their babies. Though the Nazis forbade school, many inmates risked their lives to teach the children.
They bribed the guards for crayons and paint, helping the children in escaping the misery by writing and painting. Religion was also
taught by adult inmates. However, with the miserable condition presented, the children often found it hard to believe in God.
The Danish government placed pressure on the Nazis for permission to visit their three hundred and sixty Danish Jews resided in
Theresienstadt. Himmler had always believed that Theresienstadt was a town inhabited and governed by Jews. He wanted to show
off his model ghetto. By 1943 The Germans finally agreed that a Danish Red Cross commission go visit in the summer of 1944.
To impress the Danish delegates, the Germans forced the Jews to beautified the whole ghetto. 12,500 prisoners were also deported
to Auschwitz gas chamber just so the ghetto would not look overcrowded. During the Danish visit, the delegates talked to only
prisoners assigned to do the talking. The visit resulted in the Danish believe in the Germans.
The ghetto ceased its existence when the guards fled on May 5,1945. The first Red Army reached the town on May 8. The "model
ghetto" and its outlet, Auschwitz, had claimed more than 120,000 lives.
