Theresienstadt: A Model Jewish Ghetto

Theresienstadt, A gift from Hitler. A place of hope and happiness for Jews and Jewesses alike. Theresienstadt was somewhere they could wait the war out without fear until the shadow of Nazism passed. It was a place filled with the most prosperous artists and musicians, daily shows and operas, lectures and seminars, gardens and coffee shops. A place with grace and character. An entire town that was given to the Jews as a gift from the Fuehrer. A paradise for Jews. That is at least, what the Nazis wanted people to believe.

Forty miles north west of Prague, Czechoslovakia, surrounded by the central Bohemian Mountains Hitler pinpointed the small town of Theresienstadt to be his paradise ghetto, his “gift�. Located in a scenic community, Theresienstadt had broad streets and a large square surrounded by two large parks and two smaller ones. Here within an area five blocks wide and seven blocks long, over 140, 000 Jews would spend the last months of their lives, and only a few handfuls would survive.

The first Jewish prisoners entered Theresienstadt on November 24, 1941. In the beginning, when the Fuehrer first presented the city to the Jews, many came willingly to the ghetto because life as a Jew was becoming intolerable and dangerous elsewhere with the rise and spread of anti-Semitism. The Jews wanting to enter Theresienstadt merely had to sign a contract turning over all remaining assets and property to the S. S, and in return the S. S pledged to take care of them as long as they inhabited Theresienstadt.

Theresienstadt was un-like any other ghetto in the fact that Hitler planed to use the ghetto as a “model� ghetto. It was a model that was supposed to represent all the ghettos set up across Europe. Theresienstadt was a place the Nazis and Hitler showed to comfort and reassure the world as to the overall treatment of the Jews. It was a ploy to try to cover up the real horrors and massacres of the Jews that were breaking out across Europe. Theresienstadt was a ghetto designed to divert all attention away from the dying and suffering, Hitler wanted to hide the truth from the world and create a hoax. With thousands of Jews being transported and murdered, among them were people who would be recognized and missed in communities. These were people that were famous; ...

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...e Russian army. Of the 140, 000 people that entered Theresiensadt through 1941 and 1945, Ninety thousand were sent to death in the east, 33, 000 died in the ghetto, and 16, 832 people survived. Most of those that had survived were those who had entered Theresienstadt close to the liberation. Of the 10, 000 children that moved through Theresienstadt only 93 of them survived.

Theresiensadt was Hitler’s perfect scheme. It was a beautiful small town hidden in the mountains with wide streets and parks the children could play in. The S. S succeeded in making the world believe Theresienstadt was a sanctuary for Jews. When in reality the arty town filled with wonderful and talented people was still part of Hitler’s plan of the “Final Solution.� Hitler’s “gift� was a gift to himself in a sense that he was trying to cover up his horrific actions. Theresienstadt was better than most ghettos, having more freedom to express feelings, and more availability to food, but it was still a part of the Holocaust. Hitler succeeded in two things in the years of Theresienstadt; the murder of thousands of Jews and the appearance and acceptance of Theresiensadt as, a “model� ghetto.