The town of Terezin consists of the “small fortress” and “large fortress,” built by Emperor Josef II (and named for his mother Empress Maria Theresa) in the 1790s. These fortresses were built near the edge of Czech territory, to defend the border in case of a Prussian invasion. This did not happen, so the small fortress was used as a prison (during the Habsburg dynasty as well as independent Czechoslovakia) and the large fortress was a garrison town, built into a town to be inhabited by civilians. During WWII, the Nazis took over these fortresses, using the small one as a prison and the large one as a ghetto (town to which Jews were relocated from elsewhere in the country) and transit camp (concentration camp where the prisoners were used for labor and often deported to other camps, for work or extermination). Today, the small fortress is a memorial; there are guided tours and an organized cemetery for victims who were originally buried elsewhere. The large fortress is again a civilian town (neat grid of streets, large pastel-colored bunker buildings, privately-owned housing, stores, cars, green spaces, etc.), with a few commemorative museums.
When we visited, the small fortress looked like a former camp: long squat brick blocks containing bare rooms and wooden bunk beds, sandy yards between them, a few eerily-green lawns. It was surrounded by a brick wall and moat (now without water). Interestingly, when this fortress was built, it had a modern defense system for its time: a 50+-km network of semi-underground tunnels going everywhere, for soldiers to be able to access, move, and shoot. (It was sealed by the Nazis to prevent escaping.) The large fortress looked like a normal small town (as described above). Only inside the museums could one see the wooden camp-style bunk beds crowding the rooms, with personal belongings hanging off them, meant to convey normalcy. After the war, a returning civilian family discovered a secret prayer room on their property. It was later found to be the work of Rabbi Artur Berlinger, who died during the war. The small room was decorated with red drawings and biblical texts. I was moved to see the “our brothers” prayer on the wall because those people themselves were in captivity, yet they remembered others through it
Terezin was known for its culture. People in the ghetto created art (for propaganda, plus illegal images depicting the dark reality there) and held religious and academic lectures, concerts, and shows. We saw the artwork in an exhibit — the pencil sketches and watercolors were beautifully done. A surprising thing to me was civilian life in the large fortress. Albeit the location is far from Prague and correspondingly less expensive, I wonder how the locals feel about living there.
Swanson School of Engineering 