Terezin (Theresienstadt) Camp: Day 7

 

It becomes necessary to roll one's eyes and shake one's head as we read Hitler's words yet again. How is it possible that he was the instigator but also let others think he was the victim?  And why were so many so eager to hang on every word he said?

Today we visited the camp Terezin (Theresienstadt) about an hour from Prague.  A garrison was located there, called the Small Fortress, and German soldiers filled that in the early war years. As the Red Army approached and Germans left, the Russians used that same garrison to detain German soldiers. 

The Small Fortress also used the Arbeit Macht Frei sarcastic sign

Terezin also was thought of as a resort town since it is named after Queen Maria Theresa. And the town itself became a waystation or transit point for prisoners taken there.  Many elderly Jews were taken there, as well as those more well-to-do and/or famous. Barracks were set up for older and younger men, boys, girls, mothers with young children, women, and the elderly. The local residents were asked to evacuate their homes and whole families of prisoners could take over a house or apartment.

Jewish prisoners built a prayer room (locals call a synagogue) in a private Terezin home.

More than 15,000 children were imprisoned in Terezin. How does one do this to children? There is no reason why 15,000 children, or even one child, should be imprisoned. While it was common for children to have classes and lessons and hobbies there, nonetheless imprisonment is not for children, in our estimation. Below are examples of some artwork found at Terezin and produced by its children.

By the end of WWII, only about a thousand of Terezin's children survived.

Dachau: Day 3

 

If you have visited a concentration camp, you know the emotional enormity it can bring out in you. You have probably felt a responsibility to continue to warn the world of what can happen. We felt all this today.

Dachau was opened shortly after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany (see yesterday's post for details on Hitler's career). The first group of 200 prisoners arrived March 22, 1933. It was a camp to house political prisoners, of which Hitler and the NSGWP had many in 1933. Imagine wanting to have so much power that you agree to imprison, torture, persecute and/or kill those who oppose you. For any reason and without opportunity for intervention. Terror reigned. This site, which had been a former munitions factory, was transformed to hold 6,000 prisoners and in the 12 years it was open Dachau's intake was over 206,000 prisoners.

"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men."

"Arbeit Macht Frei" original door, now in a protective glass case.

Dachau Memorial created by Yugoslav Nandor Glid, a Holocaust survivor.

The camp commandant, Theodor Eicke, imposed incredibly brutish punishments and harsh treatments, including standing cells where there was no room for a prisoner to sit or lie down, floggings, pole hangings where prisoners were suspended from a height by ropes tied to his wrists behind his back, whippings, beatings, and more.

Dachau became the model for other concentration camps and Eicke eventually became the Inspector for all other camps.

Starting in 1936, more types of prisoners were brought to Dachau. Repeat offenders, criminals, non-conformists such as Sinti, Roma and homosexuals. Jews were brought to Dachau following the Kristallnacht pogroms; almost 11,000 arrived at this camp. The brutality extended to stripping people of clothes, money, and all possessions when they arrived at Dachau starting in that year.

A map showing locations and types of camps set up and run by the Nazis.

Where did Dachau prisoners come from? How many were there? The history of this camp, of the SS and Gestapo and Nazis is beyond tyrannical.

As more prisoners arrived and more died, Dachau installed crematoria in 1940.  World War Two accelerated the decline of conditions in Dachau due to overcrowding, lack of supplies and rations, unsanitary living conditions, and general lack of concern. Starting in 1942 medical experiments were performed on prisoners and euthanasia was utilized to control numbers. Just between January and April 1945 when the U.S. Army liberated Dachau, almost 12,000 died of typhoid. 

Speaking with students as we exited the crematoria, I inquired how they were processing this visit to Dachau. One simply said "I cannot even process this right now." The hatred of one man for another, started because of differences in political ideology, is beyond anything this group had ever imagined.

Memorial statue created by Fritz Koelle, "Unknown Concentration Camp Inmate" created in 1949. It is loosely translated "to the dead honor, to the living a reminder"

Honor site behind the crematoria; it contains some ashes of the beloved dead. For a long time the ashes from the crematoria were not kept in a honorable manner, being dumped in the river and used for fertilizer.