Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt concentration camp , also referred to as Theresienstadt Ghetto , was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín ( German name " Theresienstadt " ) , located in what is now the Czech Republic . During World War II it served as a Nazi concentration camp staffed by German Nazi guards . Tens of thousands of people died there , some killed outright and others dying from malnutrition and disease . More than 150 , 000 other persons ( including tens of thousands of children ) were held there for months or years , before being sent by rail transports to their deaths at Treblinka and Auschwitz extermination camps in occupied Poland , as well as to smaller camps elsewhere . History . The fortress of Terezín in the north - west region of Bohemia was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 on the orders of the Austrian emperor Joseph II . It was designed as part of a projected but never fully realized fort system of the monarchy , another piece being the fort of Josefov . Terezín was named for the mother of the emperor , Maria Theresa of Austria , who reigned as archduchess of Austria in her own right from 1740 – 1780 . By the end of the 19th century , the facility was obsolete as a fort ; in the 20th century , the fort was used to accommodate military and political prisoners . From 1914 until 1918 , Gavrilo Princip was imprisoned here , after his conviction for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife on June 28 , 1914 , a catalyst for World War I . Princip died in cell number 1 from tuberculosis on April 28 , 1918 . After Germany invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia , on June 10 , 1940 , the Gestapo took control of Terezín and set up a prison in the " Small Fortress " ( " kleine Festung " , the town citadel on the east side of the Ohře river ) . The first inmates arrived June 14 . By the end of the war , the small fortress had processed more than 32 , 000 prisoners , of whom 5 , 000 were female ; they were imprisoned for varying sentences . The prisoners were predominantly Czech at first , and later other nationalities were imprisoned there , including citizens of the Soviet Union , Poland , Germany and Yugoslavia . Most were political prisoners . By November 24 , 1941 , the Nazis adapted the " Main Fortress " ( " große Festung " , i . e . the walled town of Theresienstadt ) , located on the west side of the river , as a ghetto . Jewish survivors have recounted the extensive work they had to do for more than a year in the camp , to try to provide basic facilities for the tens of thousands of people who came to be housed there . From 1942 the Nazis interned the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia , elderly Jews and persons of “ special merit ” in the Reich , and several thousand Jews from the Netherlands and Denmark . Theresienstadt became therefore known as the destination for the " Altentransporte " ( Elderly transports ) of German Jews , older than 65 . Although in practice the ghetto , run by the SS , served as a transit camp for Jews en route to extermination camps , it was also presented as a “ model Jewish settlement ” for propaganda purposes : On November 11 , 1943 Commandant Anton Burger ordered the entire camp population ( approximately 40 , 000 people at that time ) to stand in freezing weather during a camp census ( sometimes referred to as the " Bohušovicer Kessel Census " ) . About 300 prisoners died of hypothermia as a result . In 1944 during a Red Cross visit and by a propaganda film , the Germans presented Theresienstadt to outsiders as a model Jewish settlement , but it was a concentration camp . More than 33 , 000 inmates died as a result of malnutrition , disease , or the sadistic treatment by their captors . Whereas some survivors claimed that the prison population reached 75 , 000 at one time , according to official records , the highest figure reached ( on September 18 , 1942 ) was 58 , 491 . They were crowded into barracks designed to accommodate 7 , 000 combat troops . In the fall of 1944 , the Nazis began the liquidation of the ghetto , deporting more prisoners to Auschwitz and Treblinka ; in one month , they deported 24 , 000 victims . Main fortress . In the spring of 1942 , the Nazis expelled the 7 , 000 non - Jewish Czechs living in Terezín , and closed off the town . The Nazis established the ghetto and concentration camp in the main fortress on the east side of the river . SS - " Hauptsturmführer " Siegfried Seidl served as the first camp commandant , beginning in 1941 . Seidl oversaw the labor of 342 Jewish artisans and carpenters , known as the " Aufbaukommando " , who converted the fortress into a concentration camp . Although the " Aufbaukommando " were promised that they and their families would be spared transport , in September 1944 during the liquidation of the camp , all were transported to Auschwitz - Birkenau for " Sonderbehandlung " , or " special treatment " , i . e . immediate gassing of all upon arrival . Command and control authority . The camp was established under the order of the SS - " Reichssicherheitshauptamt " ( RSHA ) in 1941 . The administration of the main camp was under the authority of the SS - " Wirtschafts - Verwaltungshauptamt " ( WVHA ) , which oversaw the SS officers and soldiers who were responsible for camp administration — themselves members of the SS Concentration Camp service , or the " Totenkopfverbande " ( SS - TV ) . Security within the camp was provided by guard battalions of the SS - TV and police battalion troops of the " Ordnungspolizei " . An internal police force , run by the Jewish inmates , was known as the " Ordnungsdienst " and answered directly to the SS . The camp also made use of local Czech " Gendarmerie , " guards who collaborated with the Germans in the enslavement , deportation and murder of Jews . By 1943 , the Concentration Camp service of the SS had been completely folded into the " Waffen " - SS , with most of the camp staff and guards serving as reserve " Waffen " - SS soldiers . The Gestapo also maintained a presence at the camp , in that it was the Gestapo and " Sicherheitsdienst " that oversaw the day - to - day operations in the " Small Fortress " prison . The direct command authority for the camp was the Inspector of Concentration Camps , to which the Commandant reported to directly . The Commandant also received orders from the RSHA ( specifically Department IV - B4 under Adolf Eichmann ) , the Office of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( under Reinhard Heydrich ) , and the office of the local SS and Police Leader . SS - Hauptsturmführer Ernst Möhs ( 1898 - 1945 ) was Eichmann ' s liaison - officer in Theresienstadt . During the camp ' s operations , three officers served as Camp Commandant : Siegfried Seidl , Anton Burger , and Karl Rahm . Internal organization . As in other European ghettos , the Nazis required the Jews to select a Jewish Council , who nominally governed the ghetto . In Theresienstadt this was known as the " Cultural Council ; " later it was called the " Jewish self - government of Theresienstadt " . The first of the Jewish Elders of Theresienstadt was Jakob Edelstein , a Polish - born Zionist and former head of the Prague Jewish community . He served until 1943 , when he was deported to Auschwitz and shot to death after being forced to watch the executions of his wife and son . The second was Paul Eppstein , a sociologist originally from Mannheim , Germany . Earlier , Eppstein was the speaker of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland , the central organization of Jews in Nazi Germany . He served until the autumn of 1944 , when he was allegedly shot in the Small Fortress on Yom Kippur , after telling people in the ghetto what awaited those who were deported to the East . Benjamin Murmelstein , a Lvov - born rabbi from Vienna , had been part of the Cultural Council in Vienna after the Anschluss . As in other cities , the Jews were charged by the Nazis with organizing actions in the Jewish community , including selection of people for transport when the Germans decided to deport them , beginning in 1942 . Murmelstein was also deported to Theresienstadt . In the fall of 1944 , he succeeded Eppstein . He and other prominent Jews of the Cultural Council were deported to Auschwitz in the liquidation of the ghetto , but he and some others survived the war . He and other Jewish elders have been extremely controversial figures , condemned for years for what was seen as his collaboration with the Nazis . In the 21st century , there has been some reassessment , given the conditions of the times . Claude Lanzmann , the French film director who made " Shoah " ( 1988 ) , released " Last of the Unjust " ( 2013 ) , a documentary about Murmelstein . He first interviewed the former rabbi in 1975 as part of his work on " Shoah . " In the last days of the ghetto , Jiří Vogel of Prague served as the Elder . From 1943 - 1945 , Leo Baeck was the Speaker of the Council of Elders of Theresienstadt . Before being deported to the camp from Berlin , he had served as the head of the " Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland " . He survived Theresienstadt and emigrated to London after the war . Industrial labor . Theresienstadt was used to supply the German war effort with a source of Jewish slave labor . Their major contribution was the splitting of local ore mined from Czechoslovakian mica . Blind prisoners were often spared deportation by assignment to this task . Others manufactured boxes or coffins . Others sprayed military uniforms with a white dye to provide camouflage for German soldiers on the Russian front . According to ex - prisoners , Theresienstadt was also a sorting and re - distribution centre for underwear and clothing confiscated from Jews " from all parts of Germany , the baggage taken away from the Jews was sent to Theresienstadt , and there it was packaged , sorted - out in order to be sent out all over the country , to various cities , for the people who were bombed - out and suffered a shortage of underwear and clothing . " Western European Jews arrive at camp . Among the western European Jews deported to the camp , in 1943 , 456 Jews from Denmark were sent to Theresienstadt . They had not been able to escape to neutral Sweden before the invasion of the Nazis . Included also in the transports were European Jewish children whom Danish organizations had tried to conceal in foster homes . The arrival of the Danes was significant , as in 1944 their government gained access of the International Red Cross to the ghetto to view conditions . ( This took place after the D - Day Invasion of Normandy by the Allies . ) Most European governments , when occupied by the Nazis , had not tried to protect their fellow Jewish citizens . Historians believe the Germans were trying to keep the Danes satisfied as they had impressed many of their workers in war factories . In addition , the tide of war was changing . Improvements made by inmates . Survivor Friedrich Schlaefrig described in 1946 how the early residents of Theresienstadt , with the assistance of the Germans , overcame the lack of water to the town : " We had no water system in Theresienstadt . . . a number of wells were contaminated in a short time with typhoid fever . That was the reason that we had to close a number of wells , and had to undertake to extend the existing water pipe system . That was really a great piece of public works created under Jewish inventiveness and by Jewish labor . They expanded the water supply system , and have achieved [ a condition ] that we not only produced for the people good drinking water or , at least , not objectionable drinking water , but that also the toilet installations could be flushed with water , so that these unhygienic conditions were removed . . . The Germans have permitted it , and we even obtained through them the material , because otherwise it would have been impossible . . . " After this a Fire Department with an acting Fire Chief was established , made up of Jewish prisoners . They relied on the newly constructed water system . Constructing the water system was only part of the major work undertaken by Jews , in what was called the technical service , in the first year of the camp . They had to make many more changes to buildings to adapt the fortress and barracks for the overcrowded conditions that the Germans imposed . Unequal treatment of prisoners . Following the changes and sprucing up to prepare for the Red Cross visit , in the spring of 1945 , the Gestapo screened the Jews of Theresienstadt , classifying them according to social prominence . They reassigned some 150 – 200 prominent individuals , giving them single rooms for just two people , so that a husband and wife could live by themselves . Several members of the Cultural Council were included among the " Prominente , " due to the influence of Benjamin Murmelstein , then the " Jewish Elder " of Theresienstadt . Ex - prisoners suggested in statements that those who held positions of authority used nepotism and tried to protect individuals close to them , while struggling to avoid deportation and death in the closing days of the war . Murmelstein and other members of the Cultural Council were still deported in the final liquidation , but Murmelstein and some others survived the war . Final months at the camp in 1945 . On February 5 , 1945 , SS chief Heinrich Himmler allowed a transport of 1 , 210 Jews , most of them from the Netherlands , from Theresienstadt to freedom in neutral Switzerland . Himmler and Jean - Marie Musy , a pro - Nazi former Swiss president , had arranged the transport . Jewish organizations working in Switzerland deposited a ransom of $ 1 . 25 million in Swiss banks for the Germans . As the war turned against Nazi Germany , the Danish king Christian X secured the release of the Danish internees from Theresienstadt on April 15 , 1945 . The White Buses , organized in cooperation with the Danish Red Cross , collected the 413 who had survived and took them home . The ICRC twice visited the camp in April 1945 , after the Dutch Jews had been transported to Switzerland . As Soviet troops approached from the East , on May 2 , 1945 , the International Red Cross took over the camp ' s administration . SS Commandant Rahm and the rest of the SS fled on May 5 and 6 . On May 8 , 1945 , Terezín was liberated by Soviet troops . Postwar . After the victory of the Allies in 1945 , Czech partisans and former inmates used Theresienstadt to hold German SS personnel and civilians in retaliation for their atrocities . It was also used as an internment camp for ethnic Germans , who were expelled from Czechoslovakia in a population transfer authorized by the Allies after the war . 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 . The Commandant Anton Burger escaped to Germany . Condemned to death in a trial by Czech authorities " in absentia , " he settled in Essen . He lived there under a false name until his death in December 1991 . The mortality rate in the camp was high through July 1945 , due to disease and malnutrition the survivors had already suffered and the disruption of the end of the war . The commander of the camp in that period was Stanislav Franc . In July 1945 the camp was put under the control of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Interior . The new commander was Otakar Kálal . From 1946 on , ethnic German prisoners were gradually transferred to Germany . Terezín was used as a transition camp for the forced migration of ethnic Germans from the Czech lands into Germany and western nations . A small exhibition at the site commemorates the history of Terezín as an internment camp for ethnic Germans who were expelled . Cultural activities and legacy . Theresienstadt was originally designated as a model community for middle - class Jews from Germany , Czechoslovakia , and Austria . Many educated Jews were inmates of Theresienstadt . In a propaganda effort designed to fool the Western allies , the Nazis publicized the camp for its rich cultural life . But , a Holocaust survivor said : " During the early period there were no ( musical ) instruments whatsoever , and the cultural life came to develop itself only . . . when the whole management of Theresienstadt was steered into an organized course " . At least four concert orchestras were organized in the camp , as well as chamber groups and jazz ensembles . Several stage performances were produced and attended by camp inmates . Many prominent artists from Czechoslovakia , Austria , and Germany were imprisoned there . Others included writers , scientists , jurists , diplomats , musicians , and scholars . The community in Theresienstadt tried to ensure that all the children who passed through the camp continued with their education . The Nazis required all camp children over a certain age to work , but accepted working on stage as employment . The prisoners achieved the children ' s education under the guise of work or cultural activity . Daily classes and sports activities were held . The community published a magazine , " Vedem . " The conductor Rafael Schächter was among those held at the camp , and he formed an adult chorus . He directed it in a performance of the massive and complex " Requiem " by Giuseppe Verdi . Schächter conducted 15 more performances of the work before he was deported to Auschwitz - Birkenau . Julius Stwertka , a violinist and a former leading member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and co - leader of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra , died in the camp on December 17 , 1942 . The pianist Alice Herz - Sommer survived Theresienstadt . In 2012 , she was the oldest known Holocaust survivor . She performed 100 concerts while imprisoned . In March 2012 a biography was published about her life . Her friend and colleague , Edith Steiner - Kraus , also survived Theresienstadt . Both women emigrated to Israel after the war . Herz - Sommer became a professor of music at the Jerusalem Academy of Music , and Steiner - Kraus became a professor of music at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music . Martin Roman and Coco Schumann were part of the " Ghetto Swingers " jazz band . Artist and art teacher Friedl Dicker - Brandeis created drawing classes for children in the ghetto , among whom were Hana Brady ( " Hana ' s suitcase " ) . They produced more than 4 , 000 drawings , which she hid in two suitcases before she was deported to Auschwitz in the final liquidation . The collection was preserved from destruction and was not discovered until a decade later . Most of these drawings can now be seen at The Jewish Museum in Prague , whose Archive of the Holocaust section administers the Terezín Archive Collection . Others are on display at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem . The children of the camp also wrote stories and poems . Some were preserved and later published in a collection called " I Never Saw Another Butterfly " , the title taken from the poem by young Jewish Czech poet Pavel Friedman . He had arrived at Terezín on April 26 , 1942 and later died at Auschwitz . Painter Malva Schalek ( Malvina Schalkova ) was deported to Theresienstadt in February 1942 . She produced more than 100 drawings and watercolors portraying life in the camp . Because of her refusal to paint the portrait of a collaborationist doctor , she was deported to Auschwitz 18 May 1944 , where she was killed . The artist and architect Norbert Troller produced drawings and watercolors of life inside Theresienstadt , to be smuggled to the outside world . When the Gestapo found out , he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz . His memoirs and two dozen of his artworks were published in 1991 . The composer Viktor Ullmann was interned in September 1942 and died at Auschwitz in October 1944 . He composed some twenty works at Theresienstadt , including the one - act opera , " Der Kaiser von Atlantis " ( " The Emperor of Atlantis or The Refusal of Death " ) . It was planned for performance at the camp , but the Nazis withdrew permission when it was in rehearsal , probably because the authorities perceived its allegorical intent . The opera was first performed in 1975 , shown in full on BBC television in Britain . It continues to be performed . Some of the music composed by inmates at the concentration camp is reatured in " " , a 2 - CD set released in 1991 . It contains chamber music by Gideon Klein , Viktor Ullmann , and Hans Krása , the children ' s opera Brundibár by Krása , and songs by Ullmann and Pavel Haas . All the composers died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 , except for Klein , who died the following year in Fürstengrube . Many of the works were written at the end of their lives , in 1943 and 1944 . In 2007 , the Swedish singer Anne Sofie von Otter released a CD of music composed in Theresienstadt , assisted by baritone Christian Gerhaher , pianists and chamber musicians . In 2008 Bridge Records released a recital by Austrian baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and American pianist Russell Ryan that drew on a different selection of songs . Used as propaganda tool . Late in the war ( following D - Day and the Invasion of Normandy ) , on June 23 , 1944 , the Nazis permitted a visit by representatives from the Danish Red Cross and the International Red Cross in order to dispel rumors about the extermination camps . The commission included E . Juel - Henningsen , the head physician at the Danish Ministry of Health , and Franz Hvass , the top civil servant at the Danish Foreign Ministry . Dr . Paul Eppstein was instructed by the SS to appear in the role of the mayor of Theresienstadt . They had prepared for weeks for the visit . The area was cleaned up and , to minimize the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt , the Nazis deported many Jews to Auschwitz . Also deported in these actions were most of the Czechoslovak workers assigned to " Operation Embellishment " . The Nazis directed the building of fake shops and cafés to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort . The Danes whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms , not more than three in a room . Rooms viewed could possibly have included the homes of the " prominent " Jews of Theresienstadt , who were afforded special privileges whereby as little as two people shared a single room . The guests attended a performance of a children ' s opera , " Brundibár " , which was written by inmate Hans Krása . The Red Cross representatives were conducted on a tour following a pre - determined path designated by a " red line " on a map . The Red Cross apparently did not try to divert from the " official " tour route as led by the Germans , who also posed questions to the Jewish residents along the way . If the Red Cross asked residents questions directly , they were ignored and not answered ( as instructed by the Germans previously ) . Despite this , the Red Cross apparently formed a positive impression of the town . Following the successful usage of Theresienstadt as a model for the Red Cross visit , the Nazis decided to make a propaganda film there . It was directed by Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron , an experienced director and actor . ( He appeared with Marlene Dietrich in " The Blue Angel . " ) The film was intended to show how well the Jews were living under the " benevolent " protection of the Third Reich . Shooting took 11 days , starting September 1 , 1944 . Shortly after he finished shooting the film , Gerron and other cast members were " evacuated " to Auschwitz where they were gassed upon arrival . If taken at face value , the film documents the Jews of Theresienstadt living a relatively comfortable existence within a thriving cultural centre , and functioning successfully during the hardships of World War II . They had to comply and perform according to Nazi orders . After the film was completed , most of the cast and the director were deported to Auschwitz . Gerron was murdered by gas chamber on October 18 , 1944 . The film was not released at the time , but was edited into pieces ; only segments have remained . Often called " The Führer Gives a Village to the Jews " , the correct name of the film is : " Theresienstadt . Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet " ( " Terezin : A Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettlement " ) . ( Cf . Hans Sode - Madsen : " The Perfect Deception . The Danish Jews and Theresienstadt 1940 – 1945 " , Leo Baeck Yearbook , 1993 ) Statistics . Approximately 144 , 000 Jews were sent to Theresienstadt . Most inmates were Czech Jews . But 40 , 000 were deported from Germany , 15 , 000 from Austria , 5 , 000 from the Netherlands and 300 from Luxembourg . In addition to the group of approximately 500 Jews from Denmark , Slovak and Hungarian Jews were deported to the ghetto . Of the 1 , 600 Jewish children from Białystok , Poland deported to Auschwitz from Theresienstadt ; none survived . About a quarter of the inmates ( 33 , 000 ) died in Theresienstadt , mostly because of the deadly conditions ( hunger , stress , and disease , especially the typhus epidemic at the very end of war ) . About 88 , 000 prisoners were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps including Treblinka . At the end of the war , 17 , 247 had survived . An estimated 15 , 000 children , lived in the ghetto . Willy Groag , one of the youth care workers , mistakenly claimed after the war that only 93 survived . However , 242 children younger than 15 survived deportation to camps in the East , and 1566 children survived in the ghetto proper . Small Fortress . " Small Fortress " ( " Malá pevnost " in Czech , " Kleine Festung " in German ) was part of the fortification on the left side of river Ohře . Beginning in 1940 , the Gestapo used it as a prison ( the largest one in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ) . The first inmates arrived on June 14 , 1940 . By the end of the war , 32 , 000 prisoners , of whom 5 , 000 were female , passed through the small fortress . It was separate and unrelated to the Jewish ghetto in the main fortress on the river ' s right side . An estimated 32 , 000 people were taken in to the prison ; most were usually deported later to a concentration camp . Some 2 , 600 people were executed , starved , or succumbed to disease at the Small Fortress . " There was also a group of Jews from the Rhineland , who " erroneously " - arrived on October 4 , 1944 - in the small fortress and not in the " ghetto " , in a transport from Cologne . They were among the victims . This error was " corrected " by the Gestapo ; almost all were killed . " Allied POWs . During the war , the prison was used to hold Allied POW s as punishment for persisting in escape attempts from regular POW camps . A total of 21 New Zealanders , 17 Australians and 21 British POWs were held there . Keeping POWs from signatory countries of the Geneva Convention in such camp conditions was a war crime . Many of the survivors suffered chronic physical and mental health problems for most of their lives . " In 1964 , the British Government received a reparation payment of One Million Pounds Sterling from the German Government for the forced transfer of those British POW who , “ as punishment ” , had been transferred from Geneva - supervised German Prison Camps to Concentration Camps controlled by the Nazi Gestapo . Such illegal transfer was a war crime . " Britain made no provision for colonial troops and , for many years the Australian and New Zealand governments denied that any of their servicemen had been held at Terezin . In 1987 , the Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke established a committee of investigation . Based on its findings that confirmed POWs held at Terezin , the government authorized payments of $ 10 , 000 each to the surviving Australian veterans of the camp . The New Zealand government also arranged for compensation of these concentration camp survivors . Works about Theresienstadt . Documentary films : Drama films / TV movies : ( featured in particular episodes of the series ) Plays : Music :