T
heresienstadt was a unique facility in the Nazi camp system. Theresienstadt served as a transit camp for Jews on their way to the killing centers and labor camps in the east. It also served as a ghetto-labor camp where thousands were incarcerated, and it was used as a holding center for the sick and elderly who the SS hoped would die before being transferred to a killing center. This unique ghetto-labor camp was used by the Nazi regime as propaganda to make others believe that concentration camps were humane living and work centers for Jewish and political prisoners. Theresienstadt had a rich cultural life because of the Jewish artists, writers, and musicians interned behind its walls. However, the conditions at Theresienstadt were terrible and led to many deaths from disease and starvation. Before the Soviet Army liberated the area, SS officials gave the care of the camp and the remaining 30,000 prisoners over to the Red Cross.
Location: City
Theresienstadt
Other: Camp Begins Operations
Nov 24, 1941
Other: Camp Liberated
May 9, 1945
Other: SS send 7,503 prisoners to Auschwitz for space
May 15, 1944
Other: 42,005 prisoners are deported to killing centers
Other: Prisoners arrive from evacuated camps
Other: Theresienstadt will be used as propaganda
Jan 20, 1942
Other: 1,260 Polish Jewish children arrive
Aug 2, 1943
Other: SS 1st Lt. Siegfried Seidl becomes camp commandant
Oct 30, 1941
Other: SS give command of camp over to the Red Cross
May 2, 1945
Other: Two Red Cross representatives tour the camp-ghetto
Jun 23, 1944
Other: 1,196 of the children are sent/killed at Auschwitz
Oct 5, 1943
Other: SS deport 75,000 Czech Jews to Theresienstadt
Other: Theresienstadt organized as camp-ghetto for Jews
Oct 10, 1941
Other: Red Cross reps. try to get more food for prisoners
Mar 1945
Other: Approx. 11,077 Jews remain in the camp-ghetto
Oct 28, 1944
Other: SS deport 46,750 prisoners to Auschwitz
Other: SS deport 58,087 Jews from German Reich to camp
Other: Soviet troops enter camp, 30,000 prisoners remain
May 9, 1945
Other: SS abandon the camp-ghetto
May 5, 1945
Prisoners: Total deported to Theresienstadt
Approx. 140,000
Prisoners: Total number of deaths
Approx. 33,000
Prisoners: Total transferred to other camps
Approx. 90,000
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