Private Former Concentration Camp Terezin Tour from Prague

It was originally built to become a proud and impregnable fortress surrounded by walls and protected by a sophisticated system of flood trenches. Built in 11 years at the end of the 18th century this fortress, whose first cornerstone was laid by Emperor Joseph II, and the city carrying the name of his mother Empress Maria Theresa,never protected anything from anyone in the end.Terezín was determined to become a huge jail. It first became a jail as early as in the mid-19th century. Its most famous prisoner was Gavrilo Princip, who fired the first shot in Sarajevo and started the First World War before being brought here in 1914. However, the fate of this town was fulfilled during the Second World War. In 1940 the Small Fortress of Terezín became a prison of the Prague Gestapo, to which especially political prisoners were sent. Only one year later the whole town was turned into a collective and pass-through camp for Jews.

The National Cemetery was created artificially after liberation in 1945. The stimulus for its creation came from among former prisoners and the heirs of those who died, at whose request physical remains were exhumed from six mass graves in the ramparts of the Small Fortress which had been in use from March 1st to May 7th 1945. Among those who were exhumed were prisoners from the death march that in May 1945 arrived at the Small Fortress.

Terezín Ghetto was opened in the former municipal school in 1991. In this way, efforts for a dignified commemoration of the Ghetto victims and correct explanation of its history, tasks facing not only the employees of the Terezín Memorial together with the former inmates but also other representatives of the country’s public life, finally come to fruition after more than forty years. The Museum’s newly conceived permanent exhibition entitled ”Terezín in the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question '1941 – 1945“ was inaugurated in 2001. We can also find here a Memorial Hall of the Terezín Ghetto’s Children, devoted to its youngest victims, plus a selection from the world-famous drawings made by children from the Ghetto, a scale model of the Ghetto with an electronic orientation system showing its individual thematic units and with relevant information for visitors, for the local reading room and the cinema where documentary films are screened.

The small Jewish prayer hall was founded during the Ghetto period and served spiritual needs of the prisoners who were accomodated in the neighbouring houses. Owned by František Bubák, the space served as part of a funeral parlor before World War II. Though forced to leave Terezín during 1942, Bubák reclaimed the property after the war. Because his family feared repercussions from the Communist regime, they kept the prayer room’s existence a secret while using it as a storage facility. Bubák’s descendants did not notify the authorities about it until after the 1989 Velvet Revolution that brought democracy to what was then Czechoslovakia. Visitors have been allowed to see the room since the late 1990s.

The Jewish ghetto’s local government was headquartered in the former Magdeburg Barracks building. It officially took care of the internal affairs of the ghetto, though all important issues were fully under the control of camp SS command. Opened in 1997 following renovations, the Magdeburg Barracks today features a replica of prison barracks from the ghetto period and other items, though its main function is as the venue for an exhibition on the ghetto’s artistic and cultural life. This includes artefacts relating to music, the visual arts, literature and theatre that attest to the huge desire of the forced inhabitants for a little humanity and hope in concentration camp conditions. Alongside the exhibition the building houses an educational Meeting Centre.

The crematorium at the Terezín Jewish Cemetery was built by ghetto prisoners by order of the SS commanders. Its operation was launched at the beginning of October 1942. The central part of the facility comprised four oil-powered incinerators supplied by Ignis Hüttenbau from Teplice-Šanov. The front section served as a space for unloading the corpses from coffins. On one side it bordered with the autopsy room, on the other there was an annex that housed the guards made up of Czech police officers and prisoners working at the crematorium. At the time of the highest mortality rate, there were up to eighteen prisoner workers who rotated in permanent shifts. Whenever the mortality rate dropped, the number of workers decreased to four. The crematorium was supervised by SS-Scharführer Heindl, one of the camp's feared top officers, yet routine checks were carried out by the camp commanders as well.