About Terezín
During World War II, the Czech town of Terezín became not just a Jewish ghetto but a Nazi propaganda tool. The Nazis renamed the town Theresienstadt, filled it with the leading artists, musicians, and thinkers of Europe, and created a façade of normalcy—to show the world how well the Jews lived under Hitler. The Red Cross visited Terezín, saw the concerts, the paintings, the theater, and issued a report saying that the Third Reich was treating the Jews very humanely indeed. The Nazis even made a documentary film, Hitler Gives a City to the Jews, filled with images of Jews gardening, playing soccer, and eating chocolate.
Nevertheless, even in the shadow of these horrors, the cultural vitality of the city could not be contained. Every evening there were concerts, lectures, rehearsals, plays, and exhibits. People in Terezín composed operas, wrote poetry, painted pictures—refused to abandon themselves to despair, and insisted on living full lives of dignity and what joy was possible.
In the real Terezín, however, nothing could have been further from the truth. Although there were no gas chambers, no regular exterminations, nonetheless more than 30,000 people died there from malnutrition, overcrowding, and illness, and some 180,000 were shipped east to die in Auschwitz. Of the 15,000 children sent to Terezín, 132 survived.
