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Home , Karl Rahm, Maurice Rossel, Nisko, Pinkas Synagogue, Terezin, Theresienstadt Ghetto

Miroslav Karny, ed.. Terezinska pametni kniha. Praha, : Melantrich, 1995. 1-668 pp.p and 678-1559 pp. ISBN 978-80-7023-209-5.

Reviewed by Herbert Schur

Published on H- (January, 1997)

The purpose of this work may be stated were "liquidated" as a result of various actions or briefy: to provide, for the frst time, a widely as active anti-Nazi resistance fghters. All these available memorial in printed form, recording ba‐ will be remembered in a second (but separate) sic data and notes on the fate of each one of the Memorial Book which is in preparation (p. 1337). 81,397 Jewish children, women, and men from the A third volume of the present work will Protectorate of and and the Re‐ record the fate of prisoners brought to Terezin ichsgau (Sudetengau) deported to the from Germany, , the , and Den‐ Terezin (Theresienstadt) "ghetto" and to destina‐ mark, accounting for 47 percent of the total num‐ tions in "the East" in the period from 16 October ber of the more than 150,000 prisoners deported 1941 to 16 March 1945, and including children to Terezin (p. 1337). It is not made clear whether born in Terezin. Included are not only the names the prisoners who arrived from Sered' in Slovakia of those who did not survive the largest institu‐ (e.g.,Transports XXVI/1 to XXVI/4 between 23 De‐ tionalized systematic mass murder in European cember 1944 and 7 April 1945) are to be included, history, but also of those who, having experienced or who among the 13,000 victims of death march‐ humanly unimaginable conditions, lived to greet es who arrived on foot and by rail on and after 20 the day of their liberation. April 1945 from Hungary, , Roumania, the These two volumes do not include the names USSR, Slovakia, France, and Yugoslavia, including of the victims from the Protectorate of Bohemia also Belgian, Greek, Italian, and other nationals, and Moravia deported directly to Nisko in occu‐ will be included (p. 53). pied Poland as early as 18 October 1939 (unless In a brief introduction, Vaclav Havel identi‐ the individual victims concerned were subse‐ fes two main reasons why we need continually to quently included in transports to Terezin), the remind ourselves of the events recorded in this thousands from the Protectorate, the Sudetengau, work: frst, "because of the natural respect for the and the "Sudetenland" areas not incorporated in infnite sufering undergone by our fellow human the Sudetengau but in Bavaria and the Oberdonau beings and respect for their memory"; and sec‐ and Niederdonau parts of the Ostmark (Austria) ond, because of the continuing need for a warn‐ who were sent to German prisons for allegedly in‐ ing of the dangers posed by fanatics, perverse ide‐ fringing one or more of the numerous race "laws," ologies, and human knavery. " has been or to fatal interrogations, or directly to defeated, but it would be naive to imagine that the Gestapo prison in the Terezin "Little Fortress," the spirit of racialism, of collective hatred and the to concentration camps in Germany, or those who readiness of mean human souls to confrm them‐ H-Net Reviews selves in their importance by the commission of (Le Memorial de la Deportation des Juifs de crimes, has vanished from this world.... The an‐ France [Paris, 1978]), and had participated in the tagonism to people of other nations, races or reli‐ production of the Memorial Books for the of gions, this desperate substitute for the individual Belgium (with Maxime Steinberg), Luxembourg human self-awareness, latently slumbers all (by Paul Cerf), and Italy (by Liliana Picciotto Far‐ around us. It is necessary to resist it right from its gion), among others, began to work on a Memori‐ apparently innocuous initial manifestation. It is al Book of Jews from Bohemia and Moravia, using necessary to confront even the indiference to resources at in Jerusalem, Israel; he such manifestation." was supported by Ilan Kaufthal of New York (p. 9) Virtually all the records from which the data and by Joseph and Betty Saville of France, who on the individuals listed have been extracted created a computerized database with informa‐ were in existence, often in multiple copies and tion on "more than 70 000 Jews deported from Bo‐ from multiple sources, in in May 1945. hemia and Moravia" (p. 10). The completion of the Some of these records, in the form of lists and work was efectively sabotaged by Czech bureau‐ card indexes, were immediately made use of by crats who, in spite of the intervention of the Min‐ dedicated workers in the new Rada zidovskych istry of Foreign Afairs of France, denied Klarsfeld nabozenskych obci v Cechach a na Morave [Coun‐ access to the records in Prague of those deported cil of Jewish Religious Communities in Bohemia in eight transports sent directly to "the East" be‐ and Moravia] in providing an efective and ef‐ fore Terezin became the main concentration cient search service. The work of correcting and camp, euphemistically called a "ghetto" or even flling in the gaps in the records appears to have "ghetto for old people," for Jews from Bohemia continued until at least 1954-59, when the names and Moravia. These bureaucrats presumably re‐ (with date of birth) of 77,297 Jewish victims from lied on the regulation (not mentioned by Klarsfeld Bohemia and Moravia murdered in Terezin and or Karny) concerning access by, or for, foreigners elsewhere were being inscribed on the walls in to State archives less than ffty years old, which the Pinkas , which had become the states that "Permission to view will not be granted Holocaust memorial in Prague. However, as a if, by viewing the archives, state or societal inter‐ consequence of the political change in February ests could be endangered, or [could endanger] the 1948, ideological (nominally "Socialist" or "Com‐ legitimately protected interests of persons still liv‐ munist") regulations and pressures ensured that ing ..." (Vladimir Bystricky and Vaclav Hrub, only minimal progress in the work of correcting Prehled archivu CSR [Praha: Archivni sprava min‐ and flling gaps in the records and in exploiting isterstva vnitra CSR, 1984], p. 23). The interests of these resources could take place, especially when the state, the party, and Nazis and their collabora‐ requiring use of complementary documentary re‐ tors at that time still clearly rated higher than the sources and collaboration with research workers dissemination of information about the victims abroad. The freedom required for this work did and of the claims of the many still unsatisfed de‐ not return until the major political changes fol‐ mands of timely justice. lowing the November 1989 "," With the change in the balance of power in notwithstanding some exchange of data in the leadership of the Communist Party of Czecho‐ 1968-72 with the Juedisches Komitee fuer There‐ slovakia in November 1989, photocopies of these sienstadt in , Austria. lists were provided to Serge Klarsfeld overnight Early in 1980 Serge Klarsfeld, who had pub‐ (p. 9). In 1990, the Terezinska iniciativa [TI] adopt‐ lished the Memorial Book of the Jews of France ed a proposal by Miroslav Karny for publishing a Memorial Book, and when Klarsfeld learned of

2 H-Net Reviews this initiative he and his colleagues presented the The third section, "Terezin as ghetto and con‐ TI with all the data and computer programs and centration camp" (pp. 32-37), outlines the changes the computerized database they already had in Terezin, a garrison town of 3,825 civilian inhab‐ available, to enable "the researchers in the coun‐ itants, 3,478 of Czech and 347 of German "nation‐ try who are cognizant of the problems and have ality" (at an unspecifed date) and a total popula‐ available the most accurate documentation" to tion (including military) never exceeding 7,200, complete the work (p. 10). from the arrival of the Aufbaukommando of 342 The chapter by Miroslav Karny, "The Geno‐ Jewish prisoners on 24 November 1941 and that cide of Czech Jews" (pp. 19-54), provides a histori‐ of the frst transport of 1,000 Jewish prisoners cal background briefng for the Czech user of the from Prague just six days later, to the end of 1942. database. It touches on the Nuremberg race The frst 1,000-strong transport left Terezin for "laws" and the concepts of "Glaubensjuden" and Riga on 9 January 1942 and was followed by an‐ "Geltungsjuden," of importance in the treatment other one six days later, followed by transports to of individuals and in statistics, notes the escape of Izbica, Piaski, Rejowiec, Lublin, , Zamosc, some 90 percent of the Jews from the "Sudeten‐ Sobibor, Ujazdow, Trawniki, Maly Trostinec, Bara‐ land," following the Munich four-power accord, to novici, and Raasika, and 2,000-strong transports the then-unoccupied parts of , and to Treblinka, with the frst transport to Auschwitz the legal and "illegal" escape from the Protec‐ (Osvetim, in Czech) comprising 1,866 prisoners on torate of Bohemia and Moravia after 15 March 26 October 1942. The non-Jewish inhabitants of 1939. Terezin were required to move out by 3 July 1942, and the (Czech) Protectorate gendarmerie, who In the frst of the seven sections under sub‐ had been there to ensure the observance of the headings, "The ghetto without walls" (pp. 23-27), strict orders for the segregation of the Jewish pris‐ examples of "legal" restrictions imposed on Jews oners from contact with the residents, and men by physical segregation (similar to the isolation of from women, was withdrawn by 12:30 on 6 July persons with highly infectious and contagious dis‐ 1942. eases), asset stripping and restriction on incomes (both current and potential), "race"-restricted This period had seen the deportation to food rations (i.e., slow starvation), and concentra‐ Terezin of some three-quarters of the Jewish tion in localities from which mass deportations members of the population of the Protectorate of were planned to take place, are noted. Bohemia and Moravia, as well as the arrival of transports of elderly Jews from Austria and Ger‐ In the second section, "The beginning of the many so that, in spite of the massive deportations stream of deportations" (pp. 27-32), an account is to "the East," the number of Jewish prisoners in given of the discussions of various plans consid‐ Terezin increased to 58,491 by 18 September 1942. ered for carrying out the Fuehrer's wish to "liber‐ With "living space" of 1.6 square metres (about ate" the Reich and the Protectorate from the pres‐ 17.2 sq. ft.) per prisoner (p. 34), some 6,000 of ence of Jews (p. 27), resulting in the selection of these "accommodated" in damp eighteenth-centu‐ Terezin as the centre in which Jews would be held ry fortress casemates without light, water, or toi‐ for despatch to destinations in "the East." Even lets, and with bare foors, death from "natural" while these discussions were taking place, fve causes reached 156 for that day. 1,000-strong transports were despatched from Prague to Lodz and another one from to The narrative in this and the next, fourth, sec‐ Minsk, the frst on 16 October 1941, the last exact‐ tion on "Metamorphoses of Terezin" (pp. 37-41) ly one month later. suggests that, far from an efcient selection of

3 H-Net Reviews prisoners in support of the Nazi ideological aims All the children shown at play in these photo‐ on one hand and of the manpower needs of the graphs were sent to death in the gas chambers war efort in support of the on the within four months. Rossel's report also described other, the actual selection (for instant death or for Terezin as an "Endlager"--that is, a fnal destina‐ death after a period as slave labourer) was the re‐ tion camp, even though, by July 1944, 68,000 had sult of ad hoc decisions at various levels of the SS been despatched to death camps in "the east," and hierarchy. Following the decisive defeats of the some 32,000 of the Jewish "residents," not having Wehrmacht and its allies (and collaborators) at El- survived the actual conditions prevailing in Alamein (2 November 1942) and Stalingrad (2 Terezin, had been cremated. This incorrect de‐ February 1943), a third objective gained in impor‐ scription of Terezin placed in doubt the truthful‐ tance--namely, the use of Jewish prisoners for ness of the Alfred Wetzler-Walter Rosenberg purposes of propaganda in an attempt to convince () report of April 1944 (Rudolf Vrba neutral observers and potential allies in an anti- and Alan Bestic, I Cannot Forgive [London, 1963]) Bolshevik campaign of the humane and generous noting the deportations from Terezin to treatment of elderly Jews. Auschwitz, and may well have had the efect of This theme is developed in the ffth section, persuading the ICRC not to proceed with the "The Terezin Pseudoalibi" (pp. 41-48). This period planned visit to the "Arbeitslager Birkenau bei saw the frst "beautifying" action, when, along the Neu-Berun"--that is, to the "family camp" for some proposed distinguished visitors' route, shops were Czech Jews from Terezin in a section of the built, one of the squares got a park-like green area Auschwitz concentration camp complex, prepared with a bandstand, another a children's play‐ for such a visit. This "family camp," kept ready for ground, a cafe and a concert hall and theatre some six months, was liquidated in July 1944, were constructed, and even streets were re- when it became clear that it was not going to be named from the unattractive L1-6 and Q1-9 to required. Almost 6,500 surviving prisoners there, names like Tower Street, Spa Street, Park Street, including hundreds of children, were sent to the Lake Street, and so on, to suggest a thriving spa gas chambers, and 3,500 prisoners, considered to town, populated by well-clad elderly Jews enjoy‐ be ft for dangerous work in the war efort, were ing a happy retirement in the company of chil‐ sent to various plants, including some built un‐ dren. To create space and to eliminate the all-too- derground, mines, and quarries, and concentra‐ obvious overcrowding, the population was re‐ tion camps in Germany, with a few dozen of the duced by the tried expedient of despatching the survivors fnding themselves back in Terezin by "surplus" to the death camps in "the East." This late April and May 1945. On 6 April 1945 another carefully staged and choreographed play was per‐ performance was staged for a delegation from the formed, after several postponements, on 23 June ICRC, the report by Otto Lehner being "even more 1944 for two Danish ofcials and , unconscionable than that of Maurice Rossel" (p. a Swiss member of the Berlin delegation of the In‐ 52). ternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Dr. In the sixth, brief, section "Autumn [Fall 1944] Rossel was impressed and sent photographs of his liquidation transports" (pp. 48-50), the major push visit to Eberhard von Thadden of the German given to the programme for murdering as many Ministry for Foreign Afairs, who used these in a Jews as possible, in the rapidly shrinking period foreign-press conference as evidence against "en‐ before the ever more probable end of the Thou‐ emy propaganda on alleged irregularities in the sand-Year Reich, led to eleven transports with treatment of Jews resident in " (p. 47). 18,402 prisoners being despatched within one month from 28 September 1944 from Terezin to

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Auschwitz, with just 1,474 of these prisoners sur‐ camps ahead of the Allied armies, with the sur‐ viving there and, following evacuation, to other vivors, exhausted, starved, and, sufering from ty‐ death camps, some incorporating branch plants of phoid, , and other infectious diseases, ulti‐ well-known and proftable German industrial un‐ mately increasing its population to over 30,000. dertakings, and death marches. Before these An epidemic spread rapidly, and of the more than transports were despatched, a flm unit produced 2,000 victims afected, some 500 died. Terezin was a "documentary flm" on the sweet life in Terezin. handed over to Paul Dunant of the ICRC on 5 May In the event, the Nazi propagandists did not make 1945, SS Lagerkommandant leaving, use of this flm. by SS chaufeur-driven car, on the same day. On 8 The seventh section describes "The fnal May, shooting by retreating SS units still caused metamorphosis of the Terezin camp" (pp. 50-54). two deaths in Terezin, but by the evening, the frst The last transport from Terezin left on Czechoslo‐ units of the advancing on Prague from vak Independence Day, 28 October 1944, and ac‐ the north were welcomed there. tion was taken to destroy any remaining evidence This introduction is followed by the raison of the high "natural" mortality of prisoners in d'etre of this work, the database. This, it is hoped, Terezin by throwing the ashes of some 17,000 cre‐ can be used efectively by readers not fuent in mated prisoners into the river Ohre and the re‐ Czech, by using information provided in the ap‐ mainder into a pit near the Litomerice (Leit‐ pendices to this review--Appendix A: Contents, meritz) concentration camp in the Sudetengau Appendix B: Guide to database entries and to use nearby (p. 52). Karny outlines various attempts, of the Index of Names, and Appendix C: Cata‐ both by Jewish and other (US, Swedish, Swiss, etc.) logues and other sources used. negotiators to exploit the increasing realization Comments among some of the leading Nazi criminals that the The major contribution of the team working Thousand-Year Reich was coming to an end to on the database lies in the care taken to identify save at least some of the the Jewish victims from each individual by an exhaustive (and exhaust‐ certain death. Although a few thousand concen‐ ing) comparison of records in various sources, tration camp prisoners, including 1,368 from and, in some cases, by supplementing these by Bergen-Belsen on 6 December 1944 and about checking with survivors, including Alisah 1,200 from Terezin on 5 February 1945, were al‐ Schillerova, who heads the computerized data‐ lowed to reach and to enter Switzerland, the over‐ base of Beit Theresienstadt, Givat Chaim Ichud, Is‐ riding priority for the Nazis still remained the rael. Although not all the information available perfect crime with no survivors, no witnesses able has been published in this printed database, the and willing to testify, and no evidence, such as gas description of the primary sources used (pp. 55-61 chambers, crematoria, unburied or even buried and Appendix C of this review) should enable bodies, and, as second priority, at least for some, those wishing to fnd additional information, such the retention of small numbers of hostages to be as place of birth, names of parents, last known ad‐ used as a shield in a last stand in Bohemia and dress, etc., to go to the most promising sources-- Austria while attempting to persuade the western which, it may now be expected, will be opened to Allies to join Germany in forming a victorious all, regardless of citizenship, "nationality," or oth‐ common front against the "Bolsheviks." er restrictive characteristic, and without bureau‐ Terezin became, from 20 April 1945, a desti‐ cratic obstacles and procrastination. nation for death marches and for transports evac‐ The most disappointing part of this work is, uating concentration camps and forced labour unexpectedly, the paper on the "Genocide of

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Czech Jews" (pp. 19-54) by Miroslav Karny. The come, acceptable even to professors in top univer‐ Czech reader will fnd not a single full reference sities, a few Nobel Prize laureates, as well as to to a publication in Czech relating to and amplify‐ some members of the "nobility," captains of indus‐ ing the details of the events leading to the geno‐ try, and church dignitaries and might efciently cide, nor, for that matter, will the reader fnd ref‐ be implemented by the government and bureau‐ erences to publications in any other language, crats of just such a "civilized" European country whether published in Czechoslovakia (such as (see, e.g., Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of Euro‐ Karny's own papers in Judaica Bohemiae and pean Jews [New York and London: Holmes and elsewhere) or abroad. There is not even a short Meier, 1985], or earlier editions: Chapter 1. bibliography for "further reading" to help the in‐ "Precedents," pp.5-28, esp. Tables 1-1 and 1-2, and terested reader. Chapter 10. "Refections: The Perpetrators," pp. The reader, even one having a command of 993-1029). Czech, will fnd that places are mentioned, both in For the Czech reader, taught to lump all oppo‐ Bohemia and Moravia and in other parts of Eu‐ nents of "socialism" under the blanket label of rope under German occupation, but no glossary is "fascists," there is the need to point out that the provided of place names in Czech and their equiv‐ one feature which distinguished the Nazi move‐ alents in other languages, such as Litzmannstadt ment from all other "fascists" was that of "race." It (a name not recorded in the pre-Nazi edition of was the Nazi concept of "race," within which Jews the Meyers Lexikon, vol.7 [: Bibliographis‐ were specifcally singled out as posing the ulti‐ ches Institut, 1927], but, possibly, named after the mate threat to the continued existence of human Prussian General Karl Litzmann) for Lodz, Osve‐ life on earth, that led to the "." Mus‐ tim/Oswiecim/Auschwitz, Drazdany/Dresden, Lip‐ solini despised the Nazi racialism in 1933 and sko/Leipzig, Vratislav/Wroclaw/Breslau, Kralovec/ 1934 (see Meir Michaelis, Mussolini and the Jews: Koenigsberg/[now Kaliningrad], and so on. No German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question maps are provided to show where these places in Italy, 1922-1945 [Oxford: The Clarendon Press, are (perhaps also showing the road, rail, and river 1978], pp. 74-77). communications). The identifcation of places Though the enthusiastic voluntary collabora‐ such as labour camps and temporary concentra‐ tion by some opportunists (individuals, govern‐ tion camps (e.g., in Most), and places such as ments, and public, professional, and trade institu‐ mines and agricultural and industrial plants em‐ tions and associations) with the Nazis, even be‐ ploying slave labour, in Bohemia and Moravia fore the total occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, and elsewhere, would have been particularly use‐ must not be forgotten, the help given by decent in‐ ful. dividuals at the risk of their, and the prisoners', In view of President Havel's warning, the lives needs to be praised and remembered. One point should have been made that many of the would therefore have expected more to have been features of the "solution of the Jewish problem" as said about, for instance, the help given to the implemented by the Nazis, their allies, and collab‐ Terezin prisoners as soon as the SS fag there was orators were not unknown in European "culture," taken down, by the medical personnel, adminis‐ legal codes, and practice, including in Bohemia trators of hospitals and sanatoria, the ambulance and Moravia. It was the wishful thinking that "it and the Red Cross services and pharmacies in can't happen in civilized countries in this modern Prague, less than 40 miles distant, particularly be‐ age" that led to ignoring even the possibility that fore the Red Army placed its own medical services many of these features might be, or might be‐ and army hospitals in the service of saving life in

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Terezin. It is signifcant that, according to Eva 1945, pp.814-16; Abraham J. Edelheit and Herschel Schmidt-Hartmann, some 700 "Protektoratsange‐ Edelheit, op. cit, p.147). And one could multiply hoerige" prisoners managed to leave the Terezin such examples of ex-cathedra assertions. "ghetto" in the days before its liberation (Eva The database, on the other hand, has, when Schmidt-Hartmann, "Tschechoslowakei," in Wolf‐ tested, proved reliable. When tested against a list gang Benz, et al., Dimension des Voelkermords of just twenty names that had been checked in [Muenchen: R. Oldenbourg, 1991], p. 368). Prague in May 1946, of which two were then re‐ Since this work was published in 1995, one ported as "no record found," all were found in this would expect that it would have taken into ac‐ work; of thirty dates of birth checked, only one count earlier publications. While Karny dates the was partly incorrect, though the correct year arrival of the Red Army in Terezin as 8 May 1945, (1933) could have been deduced from a note of Lederer (Zdenek Lederer, "Terezin," in Avigdor age in three of Eva Schurova's drawings dating Dagan, et al., The Jews of Czechoslovakia, vol. 3 from 1943 and 1944 in the Prague Jewish Museum [Philadelphia, Pa.: The Jewish Publication Society collection (e.g., Drawing 133.258/3.325/), and con‐ of America, 1984], p.145), dated this 11 May 1945, frmed from a source in the Yad Vashem library. and Edelheit (Abraham J. Edelheit and Herschel Finally, the editors' appeal (p. 1339), for all Edelheit, History of :.. [Boulder, corrections, addenda, and comments, to be sent to Colo.: Westview Press, 1994], p. 334), implausibly, them at the Nadace Terezinska iniciativa, Maiselo‐ as 2 May 1945. Similarly, there is doubt about the va 18, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic, should be exact date from which the ICRC was in charge of noted, so that they can be taken into account in Terezin. Karny states this (p. 54) as 5 May 1945, the continuing project and publications. Lederer (op. cit., p.145) as 2 May 1945, when the References SS fag was hauled down and replaced by the fag of the ICRC. Anon. "Belsen Concentration Camp: The Medi‐ cal Services Take Over," Lancet, 12 May 1945, pp. In view of Karny's comment on Otto Lehner's 604-5. [First report in a medical journal reporting report on Terezin (p. 52), it would have been use‐ on period from 12 to 17 April 1945.] ful to know whether or not Paul Dunant of the ICRC and SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Adolf Karl Benz, Wolfgang, et al. Dimension des Voelker‐ Eichmann were present at this ICRC visit on 6 mords: Die Zahl der juedischen Opfer des Nation‐ April 1945, a three-man ICRC delegation visit "ac‐ alsozialismus. Quellen und Darstellungen zur companied by and other SS of‐ Zeitgeschichte Herausgegeben vom Institut fuer cers" on that date being noted by Lederer (op. cit., Zeitgeschichte, Band 33. (Muenchen: R. Olden‐ p. 143), and whether Paul Dunant met Benjamin bourg, 1991), ISBN 3-486-54631-7, 584 pp. [For Murmelstein on this occasion, as also noted by Czechoslovakia see Eva Schmidt-Hartmann. Other Lederer (op. cit., p. 143). countries include the German Reich, Austria, Lux‐ embourg, France and Belgium, the Netherlands, The lack of any bibliographical references , Norway, Italy, Albania, Greece, Bulgar‐ also makes it impossible to discover why the au‐ ia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Roumania, Poland, the thor states (p. 52) that it was at Bergen-Belsen that USSR, and a general survey, all including numer‐ "American soldiers stood in horror at the sight of ous bibliographical references to sources.] heaps of bodies" and not, perhaps, at Ohrdruf ("Belsen Concentration Camp," Lancet, 12 May Bystricky, Vladimir, and Vaclav Hruby. 1945, pp. 604-5; W.R.F. Collis, "Belsen Camp: A Pre‐ Prehled archivu CSR (Praha: Archivni sprava min‐ liminary Report," British Medical Journal, 9 June isterstva vnitra CSR, 1984), 209 pp; p.23. [N.B. CSR

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= Ceska socialisticka republika] [Guide to archives Moravia," in Dagan, Jews of Czechoslovakia, pp. in the CSR] 75-103. Collis, W. R. F. "Belsen Camp: A Preliminary Marrus, Michael R.,ed. The Nazi Holocaust: Report," British Medical Journal, 9 June 1945, pp. Historical Articles on the Destruction of European 814-16. [First, brief, report by the Senior Medical Jews, vol. 9: The End of the Holocaust (London Ofcer "after 24 hours' contact with the camp." In‐ and Westport, Conn.: Meckler, 1989), ISBN cludes sketch plan of camp.] 0-88736-256-6. [Collection of selected reprints. See Dagan, Avigdor, editor-in-chief. The Jews of particularly Rothkirchen, cited below.] Czechoslovakia: Historical Studies and Surveys. Michaelis, Meir. Mussolini and the Jews: Ger‐ Vol. 3 (Philadelphia, Pa.: The Jewish Publication man-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Society of America and Society for the History of Italy, 1922-1945 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press for Czechoslovak Jews, 1984). ISBN 0-8276-0230-8; xli the Institute of Jewish Afairs, London, 1978), + 700 pp. [See particularly Kulka, Lederer, Lexa, ISBN 0-19-822542-3. xiii + 472 pp., pp. 74-77. and Rothkirchen, as well as other studies in this Rothkirchen, Livia. "The Jews of Bohemia and volume.] Moravia, 1938-1945," in Dagan, Jews of Czechoslo‐ Edelheit, Abraham J., and Herschel Edelheit. vakia, pp. 3-74. History of the Holocaust: A Handbook and Dictio‐ Rothkirchen, Livia. "The 'Final Solution' in its nary (Boulder, Colo., Francisco, Calif. , and Last Stages," in Marrus, Nazi Holocaust, pp. Oxford: Westview Press, 1994). ISBN 342-55. 0-8133-1411-9; ISBN 0-8133-2240-5(pbk.) 524p. p. Schmidt-Hartmann, Eva. "Tschechoslowakei," 147 [includes picture], 334. in Benz, Dimension des Voelkermords, pp. 353-79. Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of European Vrba, Rudolf, and Alan Bestic. I Cannot For‐ Jews (Chicago, Ill.: Quadrangle Books, 1961). 788 give (London: Sidgwick & Jackson; Anthony Gibb pp.; (New York: Octagon Books, 1978), ISBN & Phillips, 1963), 278 pp. 0-347-93888-1. viii + 790 pp.; (New York and Lon‐ don: Holmes and Meier, 1985, rev. and defnitive Appendices ed.), ISBN 0-8419-0832-X (set). xii + 1274 pp. (in 3 [In order to make this book, written in Czech, vols.). [Concerned primarily with the policy and more useful to non-Czech-readers, the reviewer the organizational, and management aspects of has prepared several appendices to his review: a this "enterprise." Note on, mainly primary, detailed list of the table of contents, guides to the sources for further study, pp.1223-31.] notation used in the entries and to the index of Klarsfeld, Serge. Le Memorial de la Deporta‐ names, and a list of the sources used by the edi‐ tion de Juifs de France (Paris: B. et S. Klarsfeld, tors of the book under review.] 1978). (not paginated, no ISBN). Appendix A: List of Contents Kulka, Erich. "The Annihilation of Czechoslo‐ The following Contents List in English, pre‐ vak Jewry," in Dagan, Jews of Czechoslovakia, pp. pared by the reviewer, is an expanded version of 262-328. the text in Czech in the original publication. Lederer, Zdenek. "Terezin," in Dagan, Jews of Volume 1 Czechoslovakia, pp. 104-64. [Includes a particular‐ 1. A word from Vaclav Havel [President of the ly relevant annotated bibliography, pp.152-64.] Czech Republic].. 7 Lexa, John G. "Anti-Jewish Laws and Regula‐ tions in the Protectorate of Bohemia and

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2. Serge Klarsfeld: toward the Terezinska ["Arbeitseinsatztransporte" of Jewish "mixed-mar‐ pametni kniha .... 9 riage" and "mixed-descent" prisoners] 3. Guide to the Terezinska pametni knih (31.1.1945-16.3.1945) [annotated list of prisoners] ...... 13 ...... 1272 4. Miroslav Karny: The genocide of Czech 15. Transports to Terezin from the Sudeten‐ Jews ...... 19 gau (13.11.1942-7.3.1945) [annotated list of prison‐ ers] ...... 1317 5. Sources used [see also Appendix C of this review] ..... 55 16. Children born in Terezin (13.2.1942-5.3.1945) [annotated list of prison‐ 6. Chronological survey of Jewish deportation ers]...... 1332 transports from Prague to Lodz and Ujazdow, and from Brno to Minsk, and of all deportation trans‐ 17. Documentation appendix [a note] ports to Terezin and from Terezin ...... 1337 (16.10.1941-15.4.1945) [list of transports] [date of 18. Table 1: List of deportation transports departure/code of transport/departure from/num‐ from Bohemia and Moravia [Protectorate and ber of persons /destination].. 63 Sudetengau] to Terezin and the fate of the prison‐ 7. Equivalents of given names: Part I: Czech- ers [code of transport/place of departure/ date of other [usually German], Part II: other-Czech [see departure/number of prisoners/died/liberated/ 24. below] ...... 75 fate undetermined, and notes] ...... 1341 8. Transports A to E from Prague to Lodz 19. Table 2: Fate of prisoners deported [direct‐ (16.10.1941-3.11.1941) [annotated lists of prison‐ ly] from Prague and Brno to Lodz, Minsk, Ujaz‐ ers] ...... 77 dow, and Auschwitz (16.10.1941- 27.10.1944) [code of transport/place of departure/ destination/date 9. Transport F from Brno to Minsk of departure/number of prisoners/died/liberat‐ (16.11.1941) [annotated list of prison‐ ed]...... 1344 ers]...... 139 20. Bar chart of Table1 [x=date of departure, 10. Transports to Terezin from the Protec‐ y=number of prisoners; black=died, torate Bohemia and Moravia white=liberated] ...... 1345 (24.11.1941-26.6.1942) [annotated lists of prison‐ ers] .. 151 21. Bar chart: Fate of prisoners deported to Terezin from Bohemia and Moravia 11. Transports from Prague to Ujazdow (24.11.1941-16.3.1945) [not deported from Terezin/ (10.6.1942) [annotated lists of prison‐ deported from Terezin. y=number of persons; ers]...... 666 black=died, white=liberated; the frst column in‐ Volume 2 cludes among those liberated those transported 12. Transports to Terezin from the Protec‐ on 5..2.1945 to among those liberated those trans‐ torate Bohemia and Moravia (2.7.1942-26.1.1945) ported on 5.2.1945 to Switzerland. Of the 7,240 ...... 689 prisoners liberated in Terezin only 3,376 had been 13. Transports St-Ez to Terezin from Prague of transported there before 28.10.1944 when the last individual prisoners [Sondertransporte-Einzel‐ transport departed for the extermination camps reisende] (7.2.1942-13.11.1944) [annotated list of in occupied Poland. The majority of those liberat‐ prisoners] ...... 1264 ed were prisoners from transports AE (see 14, above). The 110 prisoners whose fate could not be 14. Transports AE to Terezin from the Protec‐ torate Bohemia and Moravia and the Sudetengau

9 H-Net Reviews determined are not included in this chart.] ..... na, dubna, kvetna, cervna, cervence, srpna, zari, 1346 rijna, listopadu, prosince.] 22. Bar charts: Fate of prisoners aged to 15, 3. 756 zahynulych : (number of prisoners) deported to Terezin from Bohemia and Moravia died (24.11.1941-16.3.1945) [as previous chart; age at 4. 66 osvobozenych: (number of prisoners) date of deportation] Fate of children born in liberated Terezin to parents deported from Bohemia and 5. 1 osud nezjisten: (number of prisoners) fate Moravia [no child deported from Terezin survived undetermined to liberation] ...... 1347 Section subheading 23. Bar chart: Age structure of prisoners de‐ ported to Terezin from Bohemia and Moravia. Age Zahynuli: died at date of deportation .... 1348 Osvobozeni se dozili: survived to be liberated 24. Index of names [See also 7, above]. Since Dalsi osud nezjisten: further fate not deter‐ given names were not consistently recorded in mined Czech or German or as normally used by the pris‐ Individual entry: oner himself or herself, Jan might be recorded as 1. Schindlerova ( ) Vera: Surname/(variant Hans, and, later, Siegfried or Viktor as Vitezslav. spelling)/Given name The "race-identifer" names of Israel and Sara were omitted when added by the authorities for 2. [ ]: [postwar married or changed name] that purpose. Surnames in parentheses are vari‐ 3. *22.7.1931: date of birth (day, month, year) ant versions found in the card-index sources; 4. Es-19.10.1944: Transport code - date of de‐ those in square brackets are the [most recent] sur‐ parture from Terezin (day, month, year).[N.B. GSt name following marriage or name change follow‐ = moved to the Gestapo prison in the Little ing liberation. See also Appendix B of this re‐ Fortress in Terezin] view].... 1349 5. Outcomes: Plates: 16 pages of b/w plates are inserted in v: died in (place) on (date) [N.B.: The v is a each one of the two volumes, following p. 144 in downward-pointing solid triangle.] Vol. 1 and p. 1336 in Vol. 2. osv.: liberated Appendix B [N.B.: The place of liberation is either the ac‐ The following notes have been prepared by tual place or the last concentration camp impris‐ the reviewer on the basis of information provided oned in. This part completed only if information in the volume (pp.13-17, 1349 et seq.): relating to the specifed individual has been The entries are arranged in the following recorded -otherwise fate unknown, presumed form: dead (on the basis of totals recorded for give Heading for transport transport).] 1. Transport Z - Transport code - place Index of names [p.1349 et seq.] of departure 1. The alphabetic sequence is that of the 2. Terezin 26. unora 1942 Destination - date of Czech alphabet, i.e., ch follows h, and consonants departure for destination [N.B.: the genitive forms C, R, S, and Z with a hacek (v) follow those with‐ of the months of the year are: ledna, unora, brez‐ out.

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2. Note that in Czech the feminine form of the card index together with a series of supplemen‐ surname has the sufx -ova (with an acute accent tary indexes built up on the basis of the then- on the a), e.g. Schindler (m), Schindlerova (f); available sources, such as lists and written mate‐ when the masculine form ends in a short vow‐ rial of the Rada starsich v Praze [Council of Elders el(i.e., one without an acute accent), this vowel is in Prague], the successor of the Prazska zidovska dropped before adding the sufx, thus Fanta (m), nabozenska obec [Prague Jewish Religious Com‐ Fantova (f), except in names ending in i or y of munity] closed down in 1943. The central card in‐ foreign origin, such as Levi (m), Leviova (f). How‐ dex made use of lists of [deportation] transports ever, when the name can be considered as de‐ then held by the repatriation section of the Minis‐ rived from an adjective in Czech, or is of an adjec‐ terstvo ochrany prace a socialni pece [Ministry of tival form, such as Levy (with an acute accent on the protection of labour and of social welfare] and the y) (m), appearing to be derived from the Czech material lent by the narodni sprava [national cus‐ for "left," the feminine is formed as if it were an todian] of the Ustredna pro zidovske vystehovatel‐ adjective, hence Leva (with an acute accent on the stvi [Central Ofce for Jewish Emigration], later a) (f). Names ending in -ek or -ec in the masculine renamed Ustredni urad pro usporadani zidovske form usually drop the e in the feminine form, otazky [Central Ofce for the Solution of the Jew‐ such as Jelinek (m), Jelinkova (f), Moravec (m), ish Problem]. This card index is currently being Moravcova (f), but practice is not consistent and held in the archive of the Federace zidovskych the feminine form of Hayek (m) appears as both obci v Ceske republice [Federation of Jewish Com‐ Haykova (f) and Hayekova (f), and of Hatschek munities in the Czech republic]. (m), as Hatschkova (f) and Hatschekova (f). The 2. The second source was the book Terezin- adjectival form also infuenced a small number of ghetto, published by the Ministerstvo ochrany names derived from nouns. so that Krejci (with a prace a socialni pece [Ministry of the protection of hacek on the c) (m), from the Czech for "tailor," re‐ labour and social welfare] in 1945. This includes mains unchanged as Krejci (with a hacek on the c) the names and basic personal details of all prison‐ (f) in the feminine form. ers deported to Terezin and liberated in Terezin, For an outline of the grammatical rules and arranged in two sections: the frst, of those de‐ exceptions to them in actual practice see, for in‐ ported before 20 April 1945, the second of the stance, Bohuslav Havranek and Alois Jedlicka, fewer than 14,000 survivors of death marches Ceska mluvnice (Praha: SPN, 1963), pp. 118, from concentration camps "evacuated" just ahead 157-58. of the liberators. Appendix C 3. The result of the work between 1968 and The following note on existing sources used 1972 of the Jewish Committee for Terezin [Juedis‐ (directly or indirectly) in the present project was ches Komitee fuer Theresienstadt] in Vienna (Aus‐ prepared by the reviewer on the basis of informa‐ tria) was made available in the form of a micro‐ tion provided in the publication (pp. 55-61) in flm listing nearly 120,000 prisoners of the Terezin Czech only. "ghetto." This database made use, inter alia, of the records in the Prague central card index (noted in 1. The basic source is the card index prepared 1, above), and microflms of records held by the in the immediate postwar period by the Records International Search Service [Internationaler Ofce [evidencni oddeleni] of the Rada zi‐ Suchdienst] in Arolsen (Germany). Copies of this dovskych nabozenskych obci v Cechach a na listing were presented to the Pamatnik Terezin Morave [Council of Jewish Religious Communities [Memorial "Terezin"] in Prague, the International in Bohemia and Moravia], comprising a central

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Search Service in Arolsen, Yad Vashem in and Ujazdow, from Brno to Minsk, from Moravska Jerusalem, and other institutions. The names are Ostrava to Nisko, and by data on the Jewish pris‐ grouped by countries from which the deporta‐ oners in the "Little Fortress" in Terezin. This sec‐ tions took place, including Austria, Czechoslova‐ ond stage provided the data for the present publi‐ kia, Germany, and the Netherlands (all in the cation following an exhaustive checking and pre-1938 borders), and other "Foreign" according cross-checking of data obtained from sources held to citizenship of the prisoner. It was expected that in the archive of the III. oddeleni Statniho ustred‐ the various countries of origin of the victims niho archivu Koncentracni State Central Archive would carry out further work on the listings, and Concentration Camps - Occupation Prison tabory - the frst printed database, for Austria, was pub‐ okupacni vezenske spisy (KT-OVS) [Third Section lished as Totenbuch Theresienstadt (Wien: Juedis‐ of the Records]. This archive comprises two parts. ches Komitee fuer Theresienstadt, 1971) and an The frst part comprises documents from prisons enlarged and corrected edition, Totenbuch Oester‐ and courts in the Protectorate of Bohemia and reich - Deportierte aus Oesterreich (Wien: [Mary Moravia and fragmentary documentation of this Steinhauser and] Dokumentationsarchiv des type from Berlin and Breslau, all for the period oesterreichischen Widerstandes [DOW], 1987). 1939 to 1945. The second part comprises docu‐ The entries include given name, surname, date of ments from concentration camps, penitentiaries birth, prisoner's number for the transport to and prison transports, card indexes and registers, Terezin, and date of death in Terezin, rarely including: recorded when following a further deportation. 1) Transport lists to the Terezin "ghetto" from 4. By 1991 both the political environment and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: the technological facilities available for work in a) sequential number of the person in the this area had changed radically, and work was transport started by the Terezinska iniciativa with the help b) surname and name, and, in some cases, the of the Ustav teorie informace a automatizace academic title Akademii ved v Praze (UTIA) [Institute for the Theory of Information and Automation of the c) profession Academy of Sciences] on the frst machine-read‐ d) date of birth able database of the names and personal details e) last address before deportation of some 150,000 victims deported to Terezin. On f) registration number of the person 25 November 1993 a report on the frst stage of the project "Stopadesat tisic jmen--stopadesat tisic g) code and number of transport from Terezin lidskych osudu" [150,000 names--150,000 human h) date of death in Terezin fates (sic--a more appropriate term might be The registration number (f) is the personal tragedies)] together with the database on a set of identity number assigned to each individual per‐ diskettes was presented to President Vaclav Havel. son falling within the scope of the Nuremberg This database made use of the data in 2 and 3, "laws." above, together with data on some 3,400 prisoners 2) Transport lists from Terezin to further con‐ who survived a further deportation from Terezin, centration camps: gathered from various sources. As 1), above, except that e) includes the code 5. In the second stage of the project (see 4, and number of the transport to Terezin. These above) the database was enlarged by the addition lists represent the actual "despatch lists" for each of data for the transports from Prague to Lodz transport.

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3) Deportation card index of persons sent to d) date and code of transport to Terezin Terezin from the Protectorate of Bohemia and e) date and code of transport from Terezin to Moravia: "the east" a) name and surname, and, in some cases, the f) particulars of return and address academic title A list of survivors, based on this card-index, b) profession also exists. c) registration number 6) Card index of prisoners who died in the d) last address before deportation Terezin "ghetto": e) date of birth a) name and surname f) particulars of return b) place and date of birth g) date and code of transport to Terezin c) names of parents (not invariably included) h) date, code, and destination of transport d) nationality from Terezin e) address before deportation ch) particulars of death in Terezin or other f) date and place of death concentration camp. g) note (usually designation of transport to The card index comprises some 74,000 cards, Terezin) which appear to have been prepared on the basis This card index includes cards for all prison‐ of transportation lists and updated with informa‐ ers dying in Terezin, i.e., including also those from tion on return by the repatriation section of the regions outside the Protectorate of Bohemia and Ministerstvo ochrany prace a socialni pece [Min‐ Moravia. The card index, compiled after the war, istry of the protection of labour and social wel‐ is based on contemporary documents from fare]. Terezin and accounts of witnesses. 4) The original card index of the Terezin 7) Card index of prisoners cremated in the "ghetto": In most cases two cards were completed Terezin "ghetto": for each person: one for identifcation purposes, the other for "residential" ones. It is highly proba‐ Includes only name and surname, registra‐ ble that this card index includes only persons lib‐ tion number, and date of cremation. erated from the Terezin "ghetto," including those The KT-OVS archives (see 5, above) also in‐ arriving after 20 April 1945 with the death march‐ clude a card index of deportations to Terezin and es. Information recorded is similar to that record‐ incomplete transport lists from regions outside ed in 3), with the addition of religion. The "resi‐ the Protectorate. dence" card includes information of the address The Archives of the Pamatnik Terezin of the prisoner in Terezin and of the departure [Terezin Memorial] received in 1986 from the from or date of death in Terezin after liberation. Rada zidovskych nabozenskych obci v Praze 5) Card index of survivors of those transport‐ [Council of Jewish Religious Communities in ed to "the east": Prague] contains registration lists of Jewish inhab‐ a) name and surname itants in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and transport lists of all transports from b) date of birth the Protectorate to Terezin. The transportation c) region from which the person had been lists were annotated, immediately after the War transported to Terezin in the Rada, with information about date of death

13 H-Net Reviews in Terezin, whether transported from Terezin, which transport and transport number, and whether survived. Noted here is also information about the handing over of the prisoner to the Gestapo, escapes, and, in a few cases, "de-ghet‐ toization." The records also include information about children born in Terezin and their fate. The fles of direct deportation transports from Prague and Brno to Lodz, Minsk, amd Ujazdow are held in the Zidovske muzeum v Praze [], formerly the Statni Zidovske muzeum v Praze [State Jewish Museum in Prague]. Some of the remaining problems of identifca‐ tion were cleared up with the help of an analo‐ gous project at Beit Theresienstadt, Givat Chaim Ichud, Israel (Alisah Schillerova, Head) and mate‐ rials from the estate of G. Weiss in the archives of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel. Copyright (c) 1997 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ tact [email protected].

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Citation: Herbert Schur. Review of Karny, Miroslav, ed. Terezinska pametni kniha. H-Holocaust, H-Net Reviews. January, 1997.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=759

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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