Terezin Concentration Camp

Terezin concentration camp is located 30 miles outside of Prague in the country of Czech Republic. This camp started out as a ghetto for the Jews to live in, but later a concentration camp was built adjacent to the town's ghetto. The strange thing about this concentration camp is that it was originally a holiday house reserved for Czech nobility, but because of the tall, thick, brick exterior walls, the Nazi regime found it very easy to convert this resort into a concentration camp. A noticeable difference between Terezin and Dachau is that barely anything has been touched in the concentration camp. In a way, its history has been preserved and offers insight on what it actually looked like in the camp. For instance, our bus came in through the back and when I entered I thought it was going to be like Dachou, which was very groomed and memorialized, however I soon realized that what I was seeing was actually the soldiers camp. And then, when I entered the camp itself, a more cruel image was revealed.

We entered the camp and once again on the doors the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” were written. This is a common phrase that you see at most concentration camps, especially because the Nazis did not want to reveal the real purpose of these camps.

This was all part of a big propaganda scheme to make people think the concentration camps were doing a good thing for the country. This camp in particular had major propaganda because there were many officials who came through to check on the camp who were not part of Hitler’s vision for Germany.

One of the most horrible things that I saw at the camp was a large, white tile bathroom with around 40 sinks and mirrors. However, this bathroom was never in use; it was only for when inspectors came in to check on the camp to make them think that everyone was being treated moderately well.

These are the propaganda bathrooms

Terezin was also the site of a major propaganda movie to show the people of Germany what was “going on” in the concentration camps. In this movie you could see hundreds of happy people eating, playing soccer, dancing, and other fun activities that would happen if they were not imprisoned under the Nazi regime. This video was a piece of propaganda that really stood out to me because of how well it was executed; it really made it look like everyone was happy.

As I was saying before, the living arrangements in this concentration camp have been preserved through history, which allowed me, as a visitor, to gain insight into how it could’ve been to live there.

These were the new barracks as the concentration camp grew bigger

There are two halves of the concentration camp. On the side that was built first, the living quarters are smaller and so the conditions were especially brutal. The other side was very new and had the capacity to fit way more people. Our guide shared a terrible story about these new barracks: After they were built and before the cement and paint were even dried they made Jews sleep there. Many died from the toxic poison that stayed in the air.

One of the most memorable parts of this camp was the cemetery at the gate of the camp. I was immediately attracted to the memorial because of the steel Jewish Star that stood in front of the cemetery. Each gravestone had tiny rocks sitting on them and as I searched more almost every single one had a rock on it. This is a way that Jews show that they have been there. Jews commonly use rocks instead of flowers because rocks never go away and flowers always do. What made me uncomfortable about this cemetery was that even though almost all of these graves were Jews, a huge cross stood in the middle of this cemetery. While I respect that a cross could also be part of this cemetery, its size and placement overshadow the star. For me, this detracts from memorializing the faith of those who lost their lives in the Holocaust. As you can see in the picture below the Jewish star stands in the left corner while the cross stands high in the middle of the cemetery.

As you can clearly see in this photo there is a small Jewish star in the corner and a huge cross in the middle. This concentration had almost all jewish bodies buried and was adjacent to a jewish ghetto.