page_title: Theresienstadt family camp
section_title: Establishment
hierarchical_section_title: Theresienstadt family camp / Establishment
caption_attribution_description: English: These Jews are from Berehovo, Bilke, and surrounding areas. Railcars are opened by the SS.
context_page_description: The Theresienstadt family camp, also known as the Czech family camp, consisted of a group of Jewish inmates from the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, who were held in the BIIb section of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp from 8 September 1943 to 12 July 1944. The Germans created the camp to mislead the outside world about the Final Solution.
  Deported from the ghetto in seven transports in September and December 1943, and May 1944, the prisoners were not subjected to selection on arrival, an unusual situation in Auschwitz, and were granted several "privileges", including the creation of a children's block that provided the only attempt at organized education at Auschwitz. The living conditions nevertheless remained poor and the mortality rate was high. Most of the inhabitants who did not die of starvation or disease were murdered during the camp liquidations on 8–9 March and 10–12 July 1944. The first liquidation was the largest massacre of Czechoslovak citizens in history. Of the 17,517 Jews deported to the family camp, only 1,294 survived the war.
context_section_description: During August 1943, rumors circulated in Theresienstadt of a resumption in deportations. On 3 September in the "Daily Orders" of the Jewish self-administration, it was announced that 5,000 people would be deported three days later—the largest number so far on a single day. Unlike previous transports, the selection was not done by the Transport Department of the Jewish self-administration, but by SS commandant Anton Burger directly. Prisoners who had previously held exemptions from deportation, such as the Aufbaukommando, the work detail that arrived at Theresienstadt first, as well as 150 members of the disbanded Ghetto Guard were included on the transport. The bulk of the transport consisted of young Czech Jews whom Himmler feared might organize an uprising inside the ghetto, as had already occurred in the Warsaw Ghetto, and their families. The transport was almost entirely Czech; out of 5,000 deportees there were 124 German, 83 Austrian and 11 Dutch Jews. Previous transports had departed to an undisclosed location in the "East", but in this case the Jews were told that they were to be sent to Birkenau to establish a work camp supposedly called the "Arbeitslager Birkenau bei Neu-Berun". Leading figures in the self-administration, including Leo Janowitz, secretary of the Council of Elders, and Fredy Hirsch, deputy leader of the Youth Welfare Office, were included in the transport to help govern the new camp.
  On 6 September, two transports carrying 5,007 Jews departed at 14:00 and 20:00 from Bauschowitz train station; they arrived at Auschwitz II-Birkenau two days later. There was no selection; no one was sent to the gas chambers. All were tattooed and registered into the camp by the Political Department, but in contrary to standard procedure, they kept their clothes and were not shaved. The inhabitants of the family camp were required to write to their relatives at Theresienstadt and to those not yet deported in order to mislead the outside world about the Final Solution; strict censorship prevented them from passing on accurate information. They had to give up their luggage and clothing, but were given civilian clothes that had been stolen from previous arrivals. The prisoners' records were marked "SB6", which meant that they were to be murdered 6 months after their arrival.
  In December, two additional transports carrying 5,007 people arrived from Theresienstadt; the new arrivals were treated in the same way and held in the family camp. These transports also carried targeted the same demographic as the previous transport; 88.5% of its victims were Czech Jews. Several leaders in the Theresienstadt self-administration were in the December transport, having been deported as punishment for allegedly aiding escapees or committing other misconduct. The accusations were leveled by Anton Burger, the commandant of Theresienstadt, who disliked Jakob Edelstein, the Jewish elder. Deported to Auschwitz on 15 December, Edelstein was held at Block 11 in Auschwitz I.
caption: Carpathian Ruthenian Jews arrive at Birkenau, May 1944
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