Terezin the Terrible!!

Cremation Oven ~ Terezin

To the Dead ....

"A grave among graves, who can tell it apart,
time has long swept away the dead faces.
Testimonies, so evil and terrible to the heart,
we took with us to these dark rotting places.

Only the night and the howl of the wind
will sit on the graves' corners,
only a patch of grass, a bitter weed
before May bears some flowers..."

Jaroslav Seifert ~ Written in Terezin!!

This camp, although indeed Terrible,  was not a 'Death Camp' like Auschwicz or Treblinka. During World War II the Gestapo used Terezin, better known by the German name Theresienstadt, as a Concentration Camp. To incarcerate a concentration of Prisoners ~ Jews!  Especially Jewish Children!

The majority of the Jews sent there were scholars, professionals, artists and musicians. Inmates were encouraged to lead 'Creative'  lives, and Concerts were even held. Within the camp, parks, grassy areas and flower beds, concert venues and statues were installed to hide the truth ~ The Truth that  most of the inmates were going to be Murdered. This was all part of a Nazi plot to deceive International Red Cross inspectors into believing that Jews were being treated humanely. And Terezin was photographed as a 'Model Camp' & declared 'humane' by the Red Cross in 1944!!

This façade masked the fact that of the 144,000 Jews sent there, about 33,000 died, mostly because of the appalling conditions (hunger, stress, punishment, disease, and an epidemic of typhus at the very end of the war). About 88,000 were deported onwards to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. Terezin was liberated on May 9th, 1945 by the Soviet Army. At the time of it's liberation there were 17,247 survivors....

Of  the 15,000 children sent to Terezin,  just 132 survived.  My Mom (Of Blessed Memory) was one of those who survived Terezin the Terrible!!

"When a new child comes
Everything seems strange to him.
What, on the ground I have to lie?
Eat black potatoes? No! Not I!
I've got to stay? It's dirty here!
The floor ~ why, look, it's dirt, I fear!
And I'm supposed to sleep on it?
I'll get all dirty!
Here the sound of shouting, cries,
And oh, so many flies.
Everyone knows flies carry disease.
Oooh, something bit me!
Wasn't that a bedbug?
Here in Terezin, life is hell
And when I'll go home again, I can't yet tell."

 
(Written by a Terezin Child,  we don't know who)

I do have an album of pictures of Terezin, located North of Prague in the Czech Republic.  I will do a Pictorial Memorial some day this week!!