TEREZIN, TERROR AND ART
1939-45
By Karl Lappel
© International Schools Theatre Association, 2009
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FOREWORD
This work was commissioned by the International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) at
the end of 2008 and has been developed as an information pack and resource guide for teachers,
students and other participants of the Terezin ISTA High School Festival, April, 2009.
Terezin, Terror and Art 1939-1945 explores the relationship between the profound
human suffering experienced at Terezin during World War II and the emergence of a vibrant
artistic community. It also details the experiences of children imprisoned in this harsh
environment. Through the use of poetry excerpts from the children of Terezin combined with
historical narrative, Terezin, Terror and Art 1939-1945, examines the role that art played in
helping to deal with the daily pain, deprivation and mental anguish of life in an institution that
served as “a stopping place on the road to death” (1). Terezin, Terror and Art 1939-1945 also
places Terezin in a wider socio-historical context that could serve as an introduction to
developing a framework of discourse on Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’.
INTRODUCTION
During World War II Terezin was used as a concentration camp and ghetto for the
internment of Czechoslovakia’s Jewish population and perceived enemies of the Nazi state.
Eventually other European Jews were also transported to Terezin including decorated Jewish
World War 1 veterans. Terezin was not a death camp in the sense that one thinks of Auschwitz
or Treblinka. Terezin was termed a ‘model relocation camp’ and was used extensively for
propaganda purposes by the Nazis. It would be fair to say that Terezin was a transitional
institution for most of its inmates. The small fortress of Terezin acted as a prison from which
inmates were sent to trial or to other concentration camps. It is worth noting that some 18% of
prisoners were actually released from the prison itself (2). Terezin served the Nazis as a smoke
screen to camouflage the policy of genocide of European Jewry (the ‘Final Solution). As such, a
degree of cultural tolerance was displayed by the S.S. who guarded Terezin. Large numbers of
Czech writers, artists, opera members and theatre troupes were allowed to pursue their art
forms. Terezin contained a 60,000 volume library and even had its own currency (3) Committees,
run by the inmates themselves, provided an administrative artistic framework. Nazi tolerance was
however unpredictable and sporadic. Following a Red Cross visit to Terezin, the entire cast and
crew, who performed that day, were sent to death camps and perished.
Terezin was a place of great human suffering and Hitler’s socio-economic and
political ambitions of genocide, germanisation and Jewish economic confiscation found expression
in Terezin. It is no coincidence that in 1964, Terezin was aptly renamed the Terezin Memorial of
National Suffering. The prevailing pattern for inmates of Terezin was starvation, deportation and
death. The first deportation of 2000 Jews from Terezin were massacred in the Rumbuli forest
near Riga (4).
Terezin was both a ghetto and prison during WWII. Located just north of Prague, Terezin
was named after Maria Theresa (Theresienstadt) and from 1914-18 housed the notorious Gavril
Princip who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and is credited with sparking off WW1.
Terezin itself consists of the large fortress and small fortress. The large fortress, from late
1941 onwards, was used as a ghetto to house Czech and European Jews. The small fortress was
comprised of four courtyards and held some 32,000 prisoners during WWII of which 2,600 died
at Terezin itself (5). Terezin was deemed by the Nazis to be an ideal location for the
concentration of Europe’s Jews. Many had moved to Terezin following Hitler’s seizure of the
Sudetenland in 1938 and were unwittingly incorporated into the German Reich in March 1939
when Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. One of the first acts of the newly created
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was to force Terezin’s Czech residents to leave town to
make room for some 140,000 inmates who were housed in the large fortress, at various times,
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during WWII. Mortality rates in the ghetto ran at 25% and of the 15,000 Jewish children who lived
in the ghetto, most were deported to death camps and only 100 children survived (6).
THE NAZI AGENDA
Czechoslovakia marked one of the first steps towards Hitler’s dream of a greater panGerman empire. Following the Munich Conference in 1938, attended by Britain, France, Italy and
Germany, the western part of Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) was handed over to the Nazis.
British PM Chamberlain’s famous claim of having created “peace in our time” proved to be one of
the greatest gaffes of the twentieth century as the rest of Czechoslovakia was seized by Hitler the
following year.
Nazism defines itself in many ways although it would be reasonable to claim that Nazism
was driven by four central tenets:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Fuehrerprinzip. The worship of personality cult
Anti-rationalism. See Hitler’s discordant fanatical nonsense in Mein Kampf.
Primitive social Darwinism. Hitler’s ambition was to create a racially pure “Aryan” state
in Europe. Race and national community pervaded all aspects of national policy as did
the despising of the (perceived) weak. To the Nazis this was translated into a
pathological disdain of the Jews.
Lebensraum. The military conquest and occupation of Eastern Europe
Since the mid-1930’s Hitler had increasingly isolated German Jews with his notorious
Nuremberg Laws. Czechoslovakia marked the next phase in realizing regional anti-Semitic
ambition. As a model relocation camp, Terezin would come to feature prominently in the Nazi
plans of “bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish question” (7).
I am a Jew, a Jew I shall remain.
Even if I die of hunger
I will not give up my nation,
I will fight always
For my nation, on my honour.
I will never be ashamed
Of my nation, on my honour.
I am proud of my nation,
A nation most worthy of honour.
I shall always be oppressed.
I shall always live again.
Franta Bass 1930-1944 (8)
By 1941, Heydrich (Chief of Reich Security and Protektor of Bohemia and Moravia) and SS
Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann had determined that Terezin should become a “Zentralstelle”
(central collection point) for European Jewry. Ever larger numbers of Jews were deported to the
Terezin ghetto. Eichmann (also known as the architect of the Holocaust), was charged with
managing the logistics of mass deportations of Jews to ghettos and death camps. Eichmann was
central to the charge of Hitler’s direct involvement in the ‘Final Solution’ as he took minutes for
the infamous Wannsee Conference of 1942. It was at Wannsee that the details concerning the
annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe, by deportation to death camps, was agreed on and
represents a “green light from the highest level”(9). When Eichmann was finally brought to justice
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in 1960, his Israeli interrogators produced in their transcripts the claim, by Eichmann, that at
Wannsee, the talk “was of killing, elimination and annihilation of European Jews”(10). Of the
74,000 Jews transported from Terezin during WWII, some 64,000 were murdered in Nazi
extermination camps (11).
Terezin must also be placed within the context of a profound labor shortage within the
Third Reich. The German war effort soon suffered from fuel, food and labor shortages.
Accordingly external labor gangs from Terezin were involved in building airplane propellers, roads,
munitions, engine parts and towards the end of the war were also forced into trench digging (12).
THE TERROR
Inmates at Terezin were subjected to arbitrary and cruel punishments. The prison, or small
fortress, was run by Kommandant Heinrich Joeckel. He had authority to mete out
“Sonderbehandlung” (special treatment), to keep the prisoners compliant. The Kommandant had
absolute power and inmates were routinely psychologically and physically terrorized. Public
beatings were common and there were 250 reported summary executions at the small fortress
although a further 600 bodies were exhumed from a mass grave late in 1945 (13). A gas chamber
was eventually constructed at the small fortress however there is no evidence to suggest it was
ever used (14).
I’d like to go away alone
Where there are other, nicer people,
Somewhere into the far unknown,
There, where no one kills another.
Maybe more of us,
A thousand strong,
Will reach this goal
Before too long.
Alena Synkova (Terezin survivor) (15)
Large numbers of casualties arose from diseases linked to weakened auto-immune
responses. Long term under nourishment, overcrowding and forced labor led to reduced
resistance against disease. At least 35,000 prisoners are known to have died under such
circumstances in the ghetto (16). Conditions in the ghetto can only be described as appalling.
Hygiene was poor, beds flea-ridden and Terezin’s pre-war population of 5000 grew to an
astounding 58,000 at the height of WWII. Such overcrowding, coupled with poor provisions and a
lack of clean water led to devastating epidemics. An epidemic in 1942 led to the deaths of over
half the ghetto population (17). Infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, scarlet fever and
dysentery carried unusually high rates of mortality. In mid-1945 nearly 1000 prisoners died of
typhoid (18). These severe mortality rates are hardly surprising when one considers how poor the
food rations were. When food was available it consisted of little more than watery soup and a
small piece of bread. Some inmates took to scavenging garbage, further promoting disease and
sickness.
When a new child comes
Everything seems strange to him.
What, on the ground I have to lie?
Eat black potatoes? No, not I!
I’ve got to stay? It’s dirty here!
The floor- why look, it’s dirt, I fear!
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And I’m supposed to sleep on it?
I’ll get all dirty!
Hear the sound of shouting, cries,
And oh, so many flies.
Everyone knows flies carry disease.
Oooh, something bit me! Wasn’t that a bed bug?
Here in Terezin, life is hell.
And when I’ll go home again, I can’t yet tell.
“Teddy” (19)
Years of food deprivation resulted in inmates being unable to concentrate on little more than food
gathering. As such, pain was an integral part of daily life. Survivors of such sustained deprivation
became ravaged souls (20).
The poor thing stands there vainly.
Vainly he strains his voice.
Perhaps he’ll die. Then can you say
How beautiful is the world today?
Zdenek Ohrenstein (Terezin survivor) (21)
THE ART
“There is heroism in fighting with what is left to us”(22).
It is, at first glance, perhaps surprising that Terezin should come to be known as a place of
vibrant cultural and artistic endeavour. One would expect the Arts to be irredeemably
compromised by the wretched conditions at Terezin however it appears that the majority of
artists at Terezin refused to give in to the hopelessness of their situation. It is an appealing thought
that this misery should be transformed from one of oppression and fear into energy and
inspiration. In this sense, one could surmise that the Arts were a direct expression of spiritual
resistance aimed at their Nazi captors.
There are however other contributing factors that could explain how the Arts came to
thrive in such a harsh, spiritual wasteland. One of these reasons may ironically be due to the
nature of Terezin as a model relocation camp itself. It is entirely feasible to entertain the claim that
the Nazis tolerated public entertainment in the hope of diverting thoughts of rebellion or escape.
More likely is the proposition that the Arts were tolerated in order to be used as a later
propaganda tool (23). As previously indicated, prisoner entertainment committees
(Freizeitgestaltung) existed which organized up to forty different activities, from opera to football.
Those involved in organizing these events enjoyed a relative degree of freedom and were even
absolved from labor detail. Many artists were in fact able to devote more time to their passion
than ever before (24). It is a macabre thought that precisely due to their incarceration, top
composers, artists and performers were brought together and had plenty of opportunity to work
collaboratively.
Artistic partnerships and possibilities flourished within the confines of the ghetto. Verdi’s
Reqiem, conducted by Rafael Schaechter contained a choir of 150. An entirely new children’s
operetta, Brundibar, by Hans Krasa, was completed in Terezin and performed over 55 times
there. Compositions by Voskovech and Werich were developed, including the ‘Terezin Ramparts’
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and Rudolf Karel continued to compose operas from inside the ghetto. Excellent portraits were
produced by noted artists such as Blazkova, Brukner, Geisler, Stipl and Stech (25).
It has been claimed by Anita Frankova that the high standard of artistic and literary work
was indeed quite natural within an environment such as Terezin as this made the daily grind of
pure survival more bearable (26). This, of course, introduces the notion that the Arts were very
much a panacea to mask an essentially horrid existence and was thus motivated primarily by
escapism. Some of the poetry that has survived from Terezin unsurprisingly tells of homesickness
and longing for other places, places far removed from Terezin.
The wind is singing in the crowns of the trees
A sad song of eternal longing:
We want to go home, just home
But this time is so long’
When we wait for our ardent wishes to come true
Or… perhaps we’ll be waiting until we die.
When this life full of suffering and sorrow ends
Will we still experience a few happy years?
No answer anywhere, waiting again without end.
Perhaps in a year, a month, perhaps tomorrow
It has to be one day!
It will be one beautiful morning
And then we’ll start to live again.
Anna Klausnerova 1932-44 (27)
It would be hard to deny that the Arts were shaped by a compromised sense of reality. All
around Terezin the dominant themes of prison and ghetto, rules and regulations of beatings and
torture would have been hard for the prison population to ignore. For the children of Terezin this
would have represented a cruel right of passage into the Arts. For these young minds it must have
been hard to separate art from suffering.
THE CHILDREN OF TEREZIN
I was once a little child,
Three years ago
That child who longed for
Other worlds.
But now I am no more a child
For I have learned to hate.
I am a grown up person now,
I have known fear.
Extract of a poem by Hanus Hachenburg 1929-44 (28)
Children were forced to grow up quickly in the ghetto. Of the 15,000 Jewish children that
passed through Terezin there are only 100 known survivors. For these chidren the horror lived
inside them forever. At any given time during the war there were around 2000 children living in
the ghetto. Many of these children would have already known humiliation and suffering before
their arrival at Terezin with the star of David sewn on to their clothes and deprived of an
education under the Nazi regime (29). Surprisingly, Terezin offered these poor souls opportunities
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denied to them outside the confines of the ghetto. Whilst there was little formal schooling,
children were encouraged to attend concerts, theatre and cabaret presentations. After the
working day lectures were held by adults for the children on a diverse range of topics from art
and history to basic hygiene and lifeskills. There was even a secret newspaper called Vedem which
contained poetry, news reports and articles by artists and academics (30). In the girl’s block of
L417 regular art lessons were conducted by renowned artist Friedl Dicher-Brandeis.
Over 4000 paintings and drawings and hundreds of children’s poems remain from Terezin;
many of them detailing their observations of life in the ghetto. It is this art that has afforded us not
only the opportunity to gain a deeper awareness of the horrors of Nazi atrocities but also to shed
light on the inner feelings of the young artists themselves. For that we thank you.
Terezin is full of beauty,
It’s in your eyes now clear
And through the street the tramp
Of many marching feet I hear.
In the ghetto at Terezin,
It looks that way to me,
Is a square kilometer of earth
Cut of from the world that’s free.
Death, after all, claims everyone,
You find it everywhere.
It catches up with even those
Who wear their noses in the air.
The whole, wide world is ruled
With a certain justice, so
That helps perhaps to sweeten
The poor man’s pain and woe.
Miroslav Kosek 1932-1944 (31)
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION
How does art heal? Does it?
Is good art inherently an expression of resistance against the status quo?
When does childhood end and adulthood begin?
How can art offer hope?
Is the beautification of the terrible an innate human attribute?
How does art help the historian?
How does history help the artist?
Does false humanity invariably lead us into a world that closes in on itself?
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Can art only be understood by drawing on one’s own images and emotions?
Are art and totalitarianism incompatible?
Is art that is produced in an abnormal environment, really art? What is abnormal?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
I thoroughly recommend “I have not seen a butterfly around here”
(ISBN – 80-85608-81-2).
Excellent foreward, excellent examples of children’s poetry from Terezin and over 80 pages of
inspiring art work.
And…
“Draw What You See” by Helga Weissova
(ISBN – 3-89244-783-7).
Written by a Terezin survivor, excellent examples of her art accompanied by very useful
descriptions of life in Terezin.
REFERENCES
1)
I have not seen a butterfly around here.
A. Frankova, J. Weil, H. Volakova (ed)
(Jewish Museum, Prague, 2004) p.9
2)
The Small Fortress Terezin, 1940-45.
M. Benesova, V. Blodig, M. Poloncarz, P. Liebl
( Vraji Publishing House, 1996) p.50
3)
deathcamps.org/reinhard/terezin (www) p.2
4)
ibid. p.1
5)
Terezin, Places of Suffering and Braveness.
Terezin Memorial
(VRay’s Publishing, 2003) p.8
6)
Draw what you see.
H. Weissova
(Wallstein Verlag, 1998) p.10
7)
The Third Reich.
D. J. Williamson
(Longman, 1995) p.76
8)
I have not seen a butterfly around here. op.cit. p. 54
8
9)
The Third Reich op.cit. p. 77
10)
author’s notes
11)
The Small Fortress Terezin, 1940-45. op.cit. p.9
12)
ibid. p. 42
13)
Terezin, Places of Suffering and Braveness op.cit. p.21
14)
jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/terezin (www) p.3
15)
I have not seen a butterfly around here. op.cit. p.65
16)
Draw what you see. op.cit. p.145
17)
deathcamps.org/reinhard/terezin (www) op.cit. p.2
18)
The Small Fortress Terezin, 1940-45. op.cit. p.50
19)
I have not seen a butterfly around here. op.cit. p.13
20)
Fragments of Memory.
H. Greenfield
(Gefen, Jerusalem, 1998) p.35
21)
I have not seen a butterfly around here. op.cit. p.77
22)
Fragments of Memory. op.cit. p.20
23)
interdisciplinary.neu.edu/terezin (www) p.1
24)
ibid. p.2
25)
I have not seen a butterfly around here. op.cit. p.30
26)
ibid. p. 81
27)
ibid. p.16
28)
ibid. p. 22
29)
ibid. p. 10
30)
Draw what you see. op.cit. p. 143
31)
I have not seen a butterfly around here. op.cit. p.14
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1)
The Small Fortress Terezin, 1940-45.
M. Benesova, V. Blodig, M. Poloncarz, P. Liebl
( Vraji Publishing House, 1996)
2)
I have not seen a butterfly around here.
A. Frankova, J. Weil, H. Volakova (ed)
(Jewish Museum, Prague, 2004)
3)
Draw what you see.
H. Weissova
(Wallstein Verlag, 1998)
4)
Fragments of Memory.
H. Greenfield
(Gefen, Jerusalem, 1998)
5)
The Third Reich.
D. J. Williamson
(Longman, 1995)
6)
Terezin, Places of Suffering and Braveness.
Terezin Memorial
(VRay’s Publishing, 2003)
7)
wikipedia.org/Brundibar (www)
8)
deathcamps.org/reinhard/terezin (www)
9)
jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/terezin (www)
10)
interdisciplinary.neu.edu/terezin (www)
11)
holocaustresearchproject.org (www)
Karl Lappel graduated from the University of Western Australia, with a degree in Modern
European and Asian History. He is an experienced IB teacher and taught at the Danube
International School, Austria as well as running the History programme at the United World
College of Hong Kong for four years. Karl moved to Cornwall with his wife, two children and two
cats in 2001.
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