On June 10, 1940 the Gestapo took over Terezin and set up a prison in the small fortress. By Nov. 24, 1941 the Main Fortress, or the village of Theresienstadt, was turned into a walled Ghetto.
The function of Theresienstadt was to provide a front for the extermination of Jews. To the outside it was presented by the Nazi's as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration camp. Theresienstadt was also used as a transit camp for Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. Theresienstadt was established by the head of the SS, Reinhard Heydrich. It soon became home to a great many Jews from occupied Czechoslovakia. The 7,000 non-Jewish Czechs living in Terezin were expelled by the Nazis in the summer of 1942. As a consequence, the Jewish Community became a closed environment.
On June 23, 1944 the Nazis permitted the Red Cross to visit the camp, hoping to dispel rumors about the extermination camps. To minimize the overcrowding in Theresienstadt, large transports began moving the Jews to Auschwitz and other extermination camps to the East. The Nazis erected fake cafe`s and shops to imply the Jews at Theresienstadt lived in relative comfort. The Danes whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms, not more than 3 people in one room. The guests enjoyed the performance of a children's opera, Bundibar, which was written by inmate Hans Krasa.
The hoax against the Red Cross was so successful for the Nazis that they went on to make a film version of the Red Cross visit. Shooting of the film began Jan. 26, 1944. It was directed by Kurt Gerron (a director, and actor who appeared with Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel) The film was meant to show how well the Jews lived under the "benevolent" protection of the Third Reich. After the shooting was done, most of the cast, even the director himself, were sent to Auschwitz. Gerron and his wife were executed in the gas chambers on Oct. 28, 1944. The film was not released at the time, but was edited into pieces that served their purpose. Only a few segments of the film remain. Often called: The Fuhrer Gives a Village to the Jews, the correct name of the film is: Terezin: a Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettlement.
About 144,000 Jews were sent to Theresienstadt. About a 1/4 of them - 33,000 - died in Theresienstadt from hunger, stress, disease, especially the typhus epidemic towards the end of the war.
