Theresienstadt Concentration Camp - Differing Living Conditions For Prisoners

Differing Living Conditions For Prisoners

In the spring of 1945, the inhabitants of Theresienstadt were screened by the Gestapo, who made a classification that took note of prominent individuals. These 150–200 prominent individuals were usually given a single room for just two people, so that a husband and wife could live by themselves. Several of these were members of the Cultural Council, who were included among the Prominente, due to the influence of Benjamin Murmurstein, who was himself already classified as "prominent" as the "Jewish Elder" of Theresienstadt. It is inferred in statements from ex-prisoners that there were often issues with nepotism and protection of individuals by those who held positions of authority over the others, as they struggled to avoid deportation and death.

Theresienstadt supplied the German war effort with a source of Jewish slave labor. Their major contribution was the splitting of local 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."

In 1943, 456 Jews from Denmark were sent to Theresienstadt. These were Jews who had not escaped to Sweden before the arrival of the Nazis. Included also in the transports were some of the European Jewish children whom Danish organizations had been attempting to conceal in foster homes. The arrival of the Danes is of great significance, as the Danes insisted on the Red Cross having access to the ghetto. This was a rare move, given that most European governments did not insist on their fellow Jewish citizens being treated according to some fundamental principles. The Danish king, Christian X, later secured the release of the Danish internees on April 15, 1945. The White Buses, in cooperation with the Danish Red Cross, collected the 413 who had survived.

On February 5, 1945, SS chief Heinrich Himmler allowed a transport of 1,210 Jews from Theresienstadt, most of them originating from the Netherlands, to Switzerland. According to an agreement between Himmler and Jean-Marie Musy, a pro-Nazi former Swiss president, the group was released after $1.25 million was placed in Swiss banks by Jewish organizations working in Switzerland.

On May 1, 1945, control of the camp was transferred from the Germans to the Red Cross. A week later, on May 8, 1945, Terezín was liberated by Soviet troops.

After the victory of the Allies in 1945, Theresienstadt was used by Czech partisans and former inmates to hold German SS personnel and civilians in retaliation for their atrocities. After the German surrender, the small fortress was used as an internment camp for ethnic Germans. 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. Among the interned Germans were former Nazis like Heinrich Jöckel, the former commander of Terezín and other SS members.

After the Allied victory and lasting until July 1945 the mortality rate in the camp was high due to disease and malnutrition. The commander of the camp in that period was Stanislav Franc.

In July 1945 the camp shifted under the control of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Interior. The new commander appointed was Otakar Kálal. From 1946 on, the inmates were gradually transferred to Germany and Terezín more and more turned into a hub for the forced migration of Germans from the Czech lands into Germany proper.

A small exhibition currently commemorates the history of Terezín as internment camp for Germans.