16 Facts About Theresienstadt Ghetto

Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezin, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the transportation of Czech Jews in November 1941.

Theresienstadt Ghetto was known for its relatively rich cultural life, including concerts, lectures, and clandestine education for children.

Fortress town of Theresienstadt Ghetto is located in the north-west region of Bohemia, across the river from the city of Leitmeritz and about 70 kilometres north of Prague.

Theresienstadt Ghetto was used as a military base by Austria-Hungary and later by the First Czechoslovak Republic after 1918, while the "Small Fortress" across the river was a prison.

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At the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942, Heydrich announced that Theresienstadt Ghetto would be used to house Jews over the age of 65 from the Reich, as well as those who had been severely wounded fighting for the Central Powers in World War I or won the Iron Cross 1st Class or a higher decoration during that war.

Later, Theresienstadt Ghetto came to house "prominent" Jews whose disappearance in an extermination camp could have drawn attention from abroad.

On 24 November 1941, the first trainload of deportees arrived at the Sudeten barracks in Theresienstadt Ghetto; they were 342 young Jewish men whose task was to prepare the town for the arrival of thousands of other Jews beginning 30 November.

Theresienstadt Ghetto became the destination of transports as the Nazi concentration camps were evacuated.

Theresienstadt Ghetto fell under the command of SS and Police Leader Karl Hermann Frank, the chief of police in the Protectorate, as it was classified as a SS-and-police-run camp.

Theresienstadt Ghetto was the only Jewish community in Nazi-occupied Europe that was led by Zionists.

The Ghetto Swingers performed jazz music, and Viktor Ullmann composed more than 20 works while imprisoned at Theresienstadt, including the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis.

Theresienstadt Ghetto was the only Nazi concentration center where religious observance was not banned.

Visitors spent eight hours inside Theresienstadt Ghetto, led on a predetermined path and only allowed to speak with Danish Jews and selected representatives, including Paul Eppstein.

Theresienstadt Ghetto still had a black eye from a beating administered by Rahm, and attempted to warn Rossel that there was "no way out" for Theresienstadt prisoners.

Terezin Theresienstadt Ghetto Museum was inaugurated in October 1991, after the Velvet Revolution ended Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, as part of the fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the former ghetto.