Metadata: Terezín/Theresienstadt
Collection
- Country:
- Czechia
- Holding institution:
- Archives of the Jewish Museum in Prague
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiv Židovského muzea v Praze
- Postal address:
- Stroupežnického 32, Praha 5, 150 00
- Phone number:
- 00420222749111
- Web address:
- http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/
- Email:
- office@jewishmuseum.cz
- Reference number:
- 315
- Title:
- Terezín/Theresienstadt
- Title (official language):
- Terezín
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Museum in Prague
- Date(s):
- 1935/1946
- Language:
- Czech
- German
- Extent:
- 16.37 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The archive records from the Terezín ghetto (24 November 1941 - 8 May 1945, and from the period after the liberation) are preserved only in fragments. Only a portion of the documents in the collection are connected with the official activities of the Terezín Council of Elders and with the various departments and sections of its self-government. The first group of documents comprise a relatively diverse range of maps, plans and drawings of the ghetto, the surrounding area, the housing blocks and buildings, various sketches of the facilities and equipment, as well as notices. The collection also includes a small group of various official books, mostly of an economic nature (daybooks, lists of supplies, orders for goods, alphabetical index of suppliers, accounting journal, warehouse journal, journal with records of the sick, directory of offices in the ghetto, chronological index of the names of prisoners). The second, more extensive group of documents is connected with the personal activities of Terezín prisoners and with their daily life in the ghetto. This includes literary work (poetry, prose, translations) by children and adults, diaries and albums, music scores, magazines and various related texts, as well as several scripts for theatre plays (e.g. cabaret, which was very popular in the ghetto), some of which are incomplete. Programmes and guides to cultural events, along with invitation cards and entrance tickets, have also been preserved. Another important group of items are the personal papers of Terezín prisoners. This includes a whole series of documents related to daily life in the ghetto, such as postcards that were written to or received from loved ones and friends, as well as confirmation receipts of packages, permits to send packages and permit stamps, which at certain times enabled friends and relatives of specific prisoners to send packages to the ghetto. A wide range of documents are related to the daily life and work of the prisoners. These include, for example, food tokens, passes, medical cards, Terezín bank notes and ‘savings books’, various official notifications and permits concerning individual prisoners, internal correspondence within the ghetto, invitation cards and entrance tickets for cultural events. Some groups of documents, particularly relating to the personal activities of prisoners are covered in more detail in the annex to the inventory. This includes primarily material that was written for various types of public and semi-clandestine cultural activities in the ghetto. Most of these groups of documents are arranged alphabetically according to the authors’ names, as are the personal papers. Among the is a group of records from autumn 1941, a period when the Nazi authorities were looking for a place to gather the Protectorate Jews. At the time, none of the staff of the Prague Jewish Religious Community suspected that this place would only be a temporary abode for most of the Jews. They hoped in vain that the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia would be protected from deportation to the East if a ghetto site were to be promptly selected and established within the Protectorate. In the belief that the Jews would provide an important source of labour for the Nazi authorities, they suggested sites that were located near the main industrial centres with good transport connections. Some of the proposals drafted by staff of the Prague Jewish Religious Community at this time, together with the minutes from their meetings with the representatives of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung)-the main co-ordinator to which the community was answerable-have been preserved. The last collection of original documents comprises records from the period after the liberation; these are not arranged according to the registry files from the ghetto period. They include documents concerning life in Terezín after the liberation, the typhoid epidemic, repatriation and voluntary work by former prisoners who saw to the running of the ghetto until its final liquidation at the end of August 1945. A small portion of the documents were later added to the collection from the personal papers of Jiří Vogl [Georg Vogel], who headed the ghetto after its liberation. The collection includes post-war testimonies from former Terezín prisoners. This group of documents is also arranged alphabetically by name of inmate. Some of the material includes accounts of personal experiences, often providing detailed descriptions of life and conditions at various times in the ghetto. Other records provide only brief information, which was obtained shortly after the war for the purposes of documentation. The Terezín Archive Collection was put together and inventoried in 1969/70. Many of the documents in this collection are not connected with official activities in the ghetto. The collection was continually supplemented with large numbers of documents, which led to the inclusion of new groups of items. A new inventory was subsequently prepared, including a name index. The collection includes original records and copies. The first transport (Ak-Aufbaukommando, or construction detail) left Prague for the Terezín ghetto on 24 November 1941. Transport from the beginning of December 1941 included Prague-based staff of the first Terezín Elder Dr. Jakub Edelstein. Subsequently, transports from the whole of the Protectorate were regularly dispatched to the ghetto. Most of the Protectorate Jews-more than 73,000 people-passed through Terezin. German and Austrian Jews were deported to the Terezín ghetto from June 1942 onwards, later followed by transports from Holland, Denmark and Slovakia. The idea that expediting the establishment of the ghetto would protect the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia from deportations to the East proved to be mistaken. As early as 9 January 1942, the first transport of 1,000 inmates-bound for Riga-left the ghetto. Deportations to the East continued at irregular intervals until 28 October 1944. In total, around 140,000 people were deported to the Terezín ghetto, from where just short of 87,000 were sent on to the East. Only a few of these survived. The Terezín ghetto had a special status among the other Jewish ghettoes that the Nazi authorities set up in occupied Europe. It was passed off as a haven for elderly German Jews. In reality, however, it became a huge transit camp and gateway to the death camps in the East. Later on, the Terezín ghetto also served to deceive the world, as it was presented as a place where its residents lived well and from where no transports were dispatched. This was why the International Red Cross was invited to inspect the ghetto. Prior to the visit, many improvements (Stadtverschönerung-“beautification of the city”) were made over the course of several months, and the route to be taken by the Red Cross representatives was carefully selected. Among other things, the ghetto was renamed a ‘Jewish settlement’, the streets were given proper names, and a bandstand was erected in one of the parks, which was otherwise off-limits to the inmates. The International Committee of the Red Gross came to the ghetto on 23 June 1944. In its report, which accommodated the wishes of the Nazis, the delegates stated that the inhabitants of Terezín were faring well and that no transports were being dispatched from there. One month earlier, 7,500 prisoners-including many of the elderly, sick and orphans-had been sent to Auschwitz, so that Terezín would not be seen as an overcrowded ghetto full of wretched figures. After the Red Cross inspection, the makeshift alterations were exploited in a propaganda film. Deportations to Auschwitz resumed in September 1944. The Terezín ghetto had three basic functions. Firstly, it was used as an murder site (a quarter of all prisoners died in Terezín), secondly it served as a transit camp (most of the prisoners were deported to the East), and thirdly it provided a means of propaganda to deceive the world (for example, in connection with the Red Cross visit). Throughout its existence, the ghetto was headed by the Jewish Council of Elders, a sham self-governing body that was entirely dependent upon the will and decision of the camp commander. The first chairman of the council in November 1941 was Jakub Edelstein (shot dead in June 1944 in Auschwitz), who was replaced in January 1943 by Dr. Paul Eppstein, who held the post until September 1944 (he was later shot dead in the Terezín Small Fortress). The last chairman was Dr. Benjamin Murmelstein, who survived the Holocaust. The position of camp commander (under the Prague-based Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung-the Central Office for Jewish Emigration for Bohemia and Moravia, later re-named the Central Office for the Settlement of the Jewish Problem in Bohemia and Moravia) was also held at different times by three leaders: between November 1941-July 1943 by Dr. Siegfried Seidl (executed after the war in Austria), between July 1943 and February 1944 by Anton Burger (died in 1991, escaped capture) and, lastly, by Karl Rahm (executed in Litoměřice on 30 April 1947). The executive body of the Council of Elders was an extensive bureaucratic apparatus with a number of departments and sub-departments. Reports on reorganization in the self-government are contained in the Daily Orders (Tagesbefehle, later renamed Mitteilungen der jüdischen Selbstverwaltung-Jewish Self-Government Reports), which were issued by the Council of Elders. A very important archive source, the Daily Orders provide a wealth of information about ghetto events and activities, organizational changes in the self-government, the arrival and departure of transports and the daily life of inmates. At the outset, the ghetto administration was divided into two main departments-General Administration (Allgemeineverwaltung) and Administration of Buildings (Gebaudeverwaltung), both with various sub-departments. Over time, other departments and sub-departments were set up-Records and Statistics and the Labour Centre, for example, at the beginning of 1942. The Security Service was founded in June 1942 after the expulsion of the civilian population. The preserved archive documents in the Terezín Collection are arranged according to the structure of the Terezín self-government from 1944, which had nine main departments, from which various amounts of documents have been preserved: - Management (Leitung) - Labour Centre (Arbeitszentrale) - Internal Administration Department (Abteilung für innere Verwaltung) - Economic Department (Wirtschaftsabteilung) - Technical Department (Technische Abteilung) - Finance Department (Finanzabteilung) - Health Service and Care (Gesundheitswesen und Fürsorge) - Youth Care (Jugendfürsorge) - Cultural Department (Freizeitgestaltung)
- Access points: locations:
- Terezín
- Access points: persons/families:
- Burger, Anton, 1911-1991
- Edelstein, Jacob
- Eppstein, Paul, 1901-1944
- Murmelstein, Benjamin, 1905-1989
- Rahm, Karl, 1907-1947
- Seidl, Siegfried, 1911-
- Subject terms:
- Architecture
- Children
- Diaries
- Drawings
- Health and medical matters
- Health and medical matters--Diseases
- Holocaust
- Holocaust--Ghettos
- Holocaust--Liberation
- Holocaust--Rescue and resistance
- Jewish councils
- Jewish self-defence and resistance
- Literature
- Literature--Novels, poetry, and plays
- Maps
- Migration
- Migration--Emigration
- Music
- Personal records
- Prisoners
- Restitution and compensation
- Testimony
- Theatre
- System of arrangement:
- The files relating to the activities of the Jewish Council of Elders are arranged as follows: Internal Administration Department, Economic Department, Technical Department, Finance Department, Cultural Department, Health Service, Youth Care, personal papers. The personal documents relating to the individual activities of Terezín prisoners are as follows: literary work, diaries, scrapbooks, magazines, other material. The collection includes a large group of maps, plans and sketches of the ghetto and its surroundings, individual housing blocks and buildings.
- Finding aids:
- Franková A: Terezín, Inventář, 2006, 187 s., AP č. 309
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Prague
- Author of the description:
- JMP Survey, 2015.