Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp
The Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp was a mixture (mix) of both a Nazi transit ghetto and concentration camp. It was first set up in 1940, in the medieval fortress town of Terézin, in the Czech province of Bohemia. The ghetto and concentration camp was partially liquidated between January 1942 and September 1944, and ultimately liberated on 8 May 1945, by the Soviet Bolshevik Red Army, advancing through the territories ruled by Nazi Germany.
Nearly all Jewish people of different occupations, professions, age, and/or gender, residing in the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, at the time of the German occupation, in 1941 and 1942, were rounded up, seized, and deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and/or concentration camp. Beginning in June 1942, thousands of Jewish people coming from Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria, were deported from their homeland and forced to live in the Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp, and by 1943, Jewish people coming from German-occupied Denmark were also deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto and camp. From Theresienstadt, most of them were later deported to other ghettos and concentration camps, during partial liquidation actions of 1942, 1943, and 1944. They were deported to and also from the Riga Ghetto, Białystok Ghetto, Auszchwitz concentration camp, among others. Anyways, the ghetto and concentration camp is best known for it's cultural lifestyle, and clandestine classes and education for children, and it's cultural activies and entertainment, such as concerts, theatrical plays, and other forms of art. Presumably, the life in the ghetto and camp, being filled with entertainment and cultural and religious activities, life in the ghetto and camp was not so happy or filled with joy, and the living conditions were often miserable, and hunger and disease was rampant. Obviously, the Nazi German officers wanted the Allies and Red Army to believe that the otherwise was actually true. Anyways, the fact that the members of the Judenrat Council of Elders were choosing in who was to be deported from Theresienstadt to other ghettos or concentration camps, has attracted significant controversy.
The Theresienstadt Ghetto was first established and set up in 1940, when all of the Jews from the town of Terézin, were required to live in a ghetto, as in most German-occupied countries in Central and Eastern Europe. One (1) year later, in October of 1941, the Nazi German officers came up with the idea to start seizing and deporting Czech Jews from the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, but since the officers had exactly no idea where they would sent them to, they decided to sent them off to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, because it was the only ghetto that the Nazi German officers had ever established in the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. Ultimately, all of the German officers had agreed on this plan and idea.
One month later, on 24 November 1941, on the first transport, the Nazi German officers had arrested and deported 342 Jewish young men to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. The young men were given the task of cleaning up the ghetto and to help the German officers evict Terezín Jews from most parts of the ghetto, into a small and overcrowded part of the ghetto, and then convert the large and empty spaces of the ghetto into a concentration camp. It was at this point that Theresienstadt became both a ghetto and concentration camp. Anyways, after they converted most of the ghetto into a concentration camp, they then had to tidy up and help clean up the newly-redisgnated concentration camp, and then prepare the camp, in order so that thousands of Jewish people, who would be deported from the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, would be sent to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp. Then, the German officers sent all of the young Jewish men to live in the concentration camp, and patiently wait for the arrivals of other Jews. On 4 December 1941, the second transport, about more than 1000 Jewish men were deported from their provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, and forced to live in the Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp. The German officers would later appoint one of the 1000 Jewish men, as the head of the Judenrat Council of Elders, and several others, as members of the Judenrat Council of Elders, and they would serve the head of the council of Elders, and assist him, obviously. Between January and June 1942, thousands of Jewish people, regardless of age and sex, were deported from the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, and sent to live in the Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp. From there, most of them would be further deported to seperate ghettos and concentration camps in central and eastern European occupied territories. Beginning in June of 1942, thousands of Jewish people coming from Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria, were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp, in the province of Bohemia. By 1943, a lot of Jewish people coming from Denmark were also deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto and camp. Beginning in 1944, in order to ease the feeling of overcrowding in the Theresienstadt Ghetto and concentration camp, thousands of Jewish people, mostly the weak, ill, and elderly, were deported to the Auszchwitz concentration camp.