THE GREAT FORTRESS OR THE JEWISH GHETTO

In 1941, the Great Fortress was transformed into a ghetto where 140,000 Jews (men, women and children) from the Czech Republic, but also from all over Europe (Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and France) stayed. It was presented to the Jewish population as a refuge by the authorities and attracted part of the Jewish cultural and intellectual elite. These "volunteers" soon realized that they were in fact in a sorting camp. 62% of them were deported to Auschwitz - only 5% survived, including 150 children out of 10,000 (their drawings were saved thanks to their teacher and can be seen today in the Jewish town in Prague) - or to Dachau. To make room, the local population of Terezín was expelled in 1942. Despite this, the terrible living conditions and overcrowding resulted in the deaths of 34,000 people.

The visit to the site begins with the Ghetto Museum

(entrance fee, combined ticket with Terezín Fort 220 Kč), which is very well organized and presented and allows one to follow the entire history of the site and the Jewish population that passed through or died there. The gaze wanders sadly through the period documents (maps, identity papers, newspapers), everyday objects, clothing and others that allow us to understand the machine of destruction set up by the Nazis and especially to imagine life in Terezín.

In the Magdeburg Barracks

(Bývalá Magdeburská kasárna, only open April-October) a dormitory has been reconstructed, just like the ones in which the deportees were crammed. It also presents the artistic life in the ghetto and how the imprisoned Jews continued to practice music, literature, and theater with improvised means, to make the imprisonment "more livable" or at least to help bear the terrible living conditions. You can also visit the crematorium (Bývalé krematorium open only April-October), next to the Jewish cemetery. The small yellow building houses the ovens where the bodies of more than 20,000 Jews were burned before their ashes were thrown into the nearby Ohre River.

Also worth seeing: the columbarium, mortuary and ceremonial hall (Kolumbárium, obřadní místnosti a ústřední márnice), open daily from 9am to 5pm and until 6pm from April to October. And the prayer hall (Modlitebna), Dlouhá Street, open daily from 9am to 5:30pm and until 6pm from April to October.