In the history of the Shoah the case of Theresienstadt (in Czech Terezin) shows some peculiar aspects:
1. In 1941 Heydrich, already the Reich Security Chief, added to his “duties” those of the Ruler in
the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia. It seemed suitable for his policy not to send all the Jews in
the East but to pretend that some of them should a possibility to stay on Home Soil.
2. Considering that the “resettlement of the Jews” in the East seemed to be acceptable to Germans
however it appeared impossible to let simply disappear in the East Persons like highly decorated
WW1 officers and persons with special connections so in the Reich as abroad; aged people
could not be included in transports of workers. Ghettos could not be established in the Reich,
however a little town , already in the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia, only at three kilometre distance
from the than boundary, seemed to be suitable for a “Jewish Settlement” run by a “Self Administration ”
with an Elder, his deputies and a Council.
3. With the denomination “Jewish Settlement” the Zionist idea of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine
could be derided and he idealism of young Zionists fooled and exploited.
4. Theresienstadt/Terezin was the sole ghetto where the International Red Cross Commission had
had the possibility to free about 18.000 ghetto inmates and, furthermore, also some thousand concentration
camp prisoners who had reached the town in the last days of the war.
Theresienstadt met a lot of requirements: a town in Bohemia near to the Sudeten region with a nazi
population, the walls made control easier and the barracks could become crowd billets, executions could
be performed in the nearby Little Fortress prison. Among the Jews of Bohemia-Moravia the labour force
needed was available. and the Jewish leaders were supposed to solve all the problems involved with the
project. Already in 1939, in his Nisko speech, Eichmann (the “Expert for Jewish Problems and Zionism”’
had clearly explained : “otherwise it shall mean to die”.
The Jewish leaders and their staff – so in Theresienstadt as in the Ghettos in “East” – had so to deal
with matters like housing, utilities, food distribution, health services, social services for aged people and
children, keeping order, etc. in an overcrowded town.
The three Elders – Jakob Edelstein (from November 1941 until January 30, 1943), Paul Eppstein
(from January 30 until September 27, 1944) and Benjamin Murmelstein (from September 27, 1944
until May 5, 1945) – were tragic figures (like other Jewish leaders of that time of darkness) having
been called to face hellish problems. All the three of them had had opportunities to go safe but they
stood with their communities and had arranged the emigration (to safety) of many people.
A Jewish leader in that time of darkness normally could not meet real decision makers but only
low ranking SS officers who themselves had only a small portion of power and were spied on.
The three commanders were Siegrfried Seydl (from the beginning to July 2, 1943; Anton Burger
(July 2 1943 to Febraury 8, 1944) and Karl Rahm (from February 8 to May 5, 1945) and were
supervised by SS Major Hans Guenther – Head of he Central Office for the Jewish Question in
Bohemia and Moravia - in Prague.
Orders, given in a rude way, had to be carried out in short time. Requests for easier terms had to
be submitted in a suitable way stating reasons an SS Officer seemed likely to accept. And in the
event reasons stated had not been accepted the “Judenrat” was pressed by the SS and blamed by
fellow inmates. So the resulting psychological stress as the lack of information about things going on
outside ought to be – but had not been - properly considered by historians.
Whit the first transports at the end of 1941 and first months of 1942 Jews from Bohemia-Moravia reached
Theresienstadt hoping so to remain Home. Later arrived transports from Germany, Vienna, Denmark,
Netherlands and Slovakia.
The connection between Theresienstadt/Terezin and the deathcamps arose as, unfortunately, from January
1942 transports for only vaguely mentioned destinations left the ghetto; neither the real destination nor the
tragic fate were known until the last days of April 1945. Alarming rumours had been reported, for the first
time, in December 1944 at the arrival of Slovakian Jews.
Among the real destinations – as from documents available only after war – were first the ghetto of Riga,
then the Ghettos of Izbica and Piaski in the Lublin district. Later Treblinka and Auschwitz (which had the
second name Birkenau, stated as destination in September and December 1943).
The main problem of the history of Theresienstadt arose with the incoming and outgoing transports:
and became white-hot in May/June 1942 at he arrival of the transports from Germany and Vienna:
“Who should stay and who should leave?” For Edelstein the points of the supposed solution had been:
1. From Bohemia-Moravia came mainly people able to perform the necessary works while from
Vienna and Germany came mainly care needing aged people.
2. The Jews from Bohemia-Moravia had so the right as the duty to stay in their native country.
3. The youth, mainly from Bohemia-Moravia, was essential for Jewish national survival.
Such an attitude concerning the transports had its repercussions also in matter of housing and food
distribution harming aged people, mainly form Germany and Vienna, and led to corruption. In such
a mess Edelstein lost control over the action of staff members.
Eichmann, on his side, watched with increasing attention how Edelstein was trying to let the aged
leave for the East and the youth – able to work but also to fight – stay. In the event of an uprising
the walls surrounding Theresienstadt would permit an easier and longer resistance; such a risk had
to be prevented in time by starting a three step action.
First step was to put the Ghetto security services under the command of a former German officer
of Protestant religion, Karl Loewenstein.
Second step was to place in the Ghetto Council members from Germany and Vienna and ruling that
deputy Elder had to be of German tongue: from Austria or Germany.
Third step was the replacing of Edelstein. At the end of January 1943 Eppstein (from Germany) became the
Elder, with Edelstein and Murmelstein (from Vienna) deputies.
Eppstein, a professor for sociology, thought his first task, for the ghettos sake, was to let Eichmann trust him.
But in the land of judges and hangmen (“der Richter und der Henker”) it was impossible to talk like in the
land of poets and thinkers (“der Dichter und der Denker”) and so he trusted to the promises of SS Captain
Moehs, the assistant of Eichmann for the matter of VIP. The facts that, during his first months of office
(from February to August 1943) no transport left Theresienstadt and that a production line had been placed
there seemed to confirm this policy. But no one at Theresienstadt could know that just during those months
the Eichmann staff was busy with the deportation of the Salonica Jews.
The uprisings in the Warsaw Ghetto and Treblinka led to two transport waves, in September and December
1943, where only Jews from Bohemia-Moravia had to be enlisted. Special SS orders
referred in September 1943 to a Czech Legion Colonel, a Sport trainer, a rabbi known for his
Czech sermons and a close aide of Edelstein. In December 1943 so Edelstein as a strange figure who
had submitted a project of an Information Service had to leave Theresienstadt.
Each of those two groups had been placed in a “Family Camp” section of Auschwitz-Birkenau and hold there
for about six months, in order to let them send post cards.
The first group was sent in the Gas Chambers just on the Purim festival (which remembers Persian
Jews allowed to self-defence) on March 7, 1944. The second group lasted until May 1944.
One of those “Family Camps” had been visited, in December 1943, by a Red Cross Delegate ready to
report about Auschwitz in a reassuring way.
The arrival in October 1943 of a group of Jews from Denmark gave Theresienstadt a new function:
receiving foreign visitors. The visit requested so by the Danish as by Swedish Red Cross could be
delayed but not denied. For some months works of embellishment had to be done to enhance the
appearance of the ghetto while the May 1944 transport wave reduced the overcrowding. The visit
of June 23 1944 was certainly important but not decisive as Denmark stood under German rule.
The new appearance of the Ghetto suggested Eichmann & C. to make the famous film between
August and September 1944, which, however, had been set up and shown only months after most of
persons appeared already had been deported.
The main events occurred in summer 1944 outside of Theresienstadt had there effects: the Allied Landing
in France, the July 20 plot of German officers and the Slovakian Revolt of August where
Jews took, obviously, part.
At the end of September 1944 the enlisting of 5000 men . so in working as in fighting age - for two
transports “to work in the Reich territory” had been ordered. Just before the departure of those transports,
at Yom Kippur, Eppstein had been arrested and suddenly murdered in the Little Fortress. Murmelstein,
as second deputy, had to take the burden.
Just after the departure of the transports “to work in the Reich” followed by a third one with a group of
wives, Murmelstein faced an order to enlist other people for new transports. Feeling “all is lost” he had a
nerve crisis, lost self control and started to explain how impossible new transports were.
He earned only shouted warning “no bargaining here, get the hell out!” The SS, being in a hurry, decided to
do directly the selection work for enlisting people in the new transports. During the following four weeks
Murmelstein had been successful in obtaining the exemption of about 500 (five hundred) persons performing
“very necessary” works and their strict families - and, important, without any substitution; many other requests
had been turned down on criteria which can be only conjectured considering:
1. After the July 20 plot officers holding iron cross or other decoration had no protection any more; the
same applies to a group of former Abwehr agents who had been sent to Theresienstadt.
2. Eichmann had lost the interest to exhibit important Zionist Leaders.
Only the minimum number of men, when performing essential works, should be left.
At the end of October Murmelstein found himself with only few men in working age, many women, and
a great number of aged and care needing persons and about three hundred VIP. Indeed in the
Ghetto there stood many outstanding figures from Germany (Rabbi Leo Baeck and others),
Austria (Judge Heinrich Klang and past President of the greatest Vienna Bank, Felix Stranky and
others), Netherland (Eduard Meijers, the Queen’s legal consultant and others), Bohemia (past Minister
of Justice Alfred Meissner and others), and even France (past Minister of Commerce Leon Meyer).
The SS could still have interest to exhibit these VIP, but only if the Ghetto was fit again be shown to
foreign visitors. The, necessary, hard cleaning work had been performed mainly by women; with a
70 hours working week At last, in December 1944, the new embellishment had been ordered.
Indeed; only a clean Ghetto could be embellished.
Indeed, in September 1944 the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of USA and Canada contacted the Swiss
politician Jean Marie Musy asking to use his contacts with Himmler for help. The World Jewish
Congress Delegate in Geneva (Riegner) hade never had such a good idea. Indeed, thanks to his
efforts and good contacts Musy obtained so the release, in February 1945, of 1200 Theresienstadt
inmates to Switzerland as a visit of the Ghetto.
Meanwhile, after the “closure” of the Auschwitz Gas Chambers, Eichmann tried to build one in
Theresienstadt/Terezin and also a place for mass executions. Murmelstein, alerted by the engineers,
told Commander Rahm about the alarming rumors. Rahm spoke about the need of a safe warehouse
but, after a three day journey at Prague returned, with the order – likely to be given by the Stare
Minister and SS General K.H.Frank, the only holding the necessary authority in the Protectorate –
to stop the alarming works.
At March 5, \1945 Eichmann, after a visit of the Ghetto, decided that visits were possible.
At April 6 1945 a Delegation of International Red Cross Commission visited Theresienstadt; the call
for help launched by Murmelstein (at heavy personal risk) -“the fate of Theresienstadt is a concern for me” -
had been understood. The Red Cross Delegates obtained the same day to put Theresienstadt under their
protection. At May 3, 1945 Red Cross Delegate – M. Paul Dunant – established his office in Theresienstadt.
At May 5 1945 the last Commander Rahm, - still wearing uniform and holding weapons – left the ghetto
which had been so freed by the Red Cross. For the sake of this result it was necessary to
“Keep Order” as a “revolt of the inmates” – that even in May 1945 could be put down by SS –
would have jeopardized the work performed by the brave Red Cross Delegate and so, could result
only in the death almost all the inmates.
At May 6, Leo Baeck in a lettered addressed to Murmelstein expressed the thanks of the Council for
the work he had performed in very difficult conditions.
The Red Army reached Theresienstadt only in the evening of May 8, 1945.
In Theresienstadt there was - almost from the beginning until the last days of April 1945, a vivid
cultural life with high level lectures on several subjects– a real university over the abyss – certainly
within the limits of the available resources. It is noteworthy that the content of lectures on medical subjects
had to be submitted to the SS, interested to watch the level of knowledge the inmates had as heath
and infectious diseases.
The presence and performance of musicians - players, singers, composers, mainly from Bohemia-Moravia -
is matter of many commemorations and festivals. Unfortunately music had not been considered a “very
necessary work” – musicians had been assigned light works which left time for
arts and did not harm hands - and so many musicians had been enlisted in the last transports of October 1944.
Peculiar is the case of a group of painters who painted a lot of pictures shoving the starvation and
the death in Theresiendstadt/Terezin. Their paintings became matter of an illegal trade and some were
found by the Gestapo outside the Ghetto. The painters were in a first time obliged to picture
beautiful views of Theresienbad/Terezin Spa but then sent, with their families, to the Little Fortress:
only one of them survived.
It ought to be pointed out that believers of Jewish Faith, from the beginning to the end, gathered so
for prayers as for attending sermons. At Passover - in 1943, 1944 and 1945 - leadership had been
able to make matzot available.
Banknotes and post stamps were only pieces of paper printed for propaganda reasons and never had
any real function.
Behind the version – often repeated - that people had to pay for going to Theresienstadt where rich
persons could survive was only the fact that Eichmann, in order to collect money for his “Central Authority
for Jewish Emigration” in order to avoid that the Reich Treasury would get last Jewish money, ordered the
sale to the aged Jews in Germany of “lifetime” Hotel places in “Theresienbad” (Terezin Spa). This
had been only one of his many swindles.
Meaningful mayor literature sources:
Zdenek LEDERER:
GHETTO THERESIENSTDT; in English, London 1953.
H.G. ADLER:
THERESIENSTADT; 2
nd edition, in German, Tübingen 1960.
H.G. ADLER:
DIE VERHEIMLICHTE WAHRHEIT, in German, Tübingen 1958.
Benjamin MURMELSTEIN:
TEREZIN, IL GHETTO MODELLO DI EICHMANN, in Italian,
Bologna 1961. A German Version in work.
E. MAKAROVA, S.MAKAROV, V.KUPERMAN:
UNIVERSITY OVER THE ABYSS. 2
nd ed. in English, Jerusalem 2004.
© ARC 2006
