Terezín
World War II meant suffering for millions of people, and its atrocities should not be forgotten. You can worship the memory of tens of thousands of innocent victims of Nazi hell in the Terezín Memorial, the only institution of its kind in our country. It was founded in 1947 as a Monument of National Suffering by the then government of Czechoslovakia, and throughout its existence it has been striving to develop museum, research and educational activities. Reflecting on the incomprehensible actions of the Nazis and the unbelievable suffering of people who have done nothing wrong will certainly make you humbly thank you for living in peace and tranquility now.
Information for visitors
Interesting facts Terezín
Terezín Fortress was founded in 1780 by Joseph II. and served the armies until the 1990s. Unfortunately, she became very sad just during World War II. world war. Although Terezín was not a concentration camp, as is often mistakenly presented, it was a cruel Nazi prison and a Jewish ghetto. From there, the prisoners traveled to various concentration camps, mainly to Auschwitz, Majdanek or Treblinka, where death awaited them.
The main seat of the monument is the Small Fortress, which served in the years 1940-1945 as a prison of the Prague Gestapo. The exhibition shows the appalling conditions in which the prisoners of that time lived here. From the cells, where hundreds of people crowded on wooden benches, and the solitude, where six people were locked up to an area of 1.5x2 meters at a time, there is a chilling horror even after decades. Even more freezing is caused by the still damaged wall of bullets at the execution site, where people were executed by shooting. Most of them were then buried in a mass grave, but after the war at least part of the bodies were excavated and buried in the National Cemetery in front of the Small Fortress. During the tour, you will gradually walk through the courtyards, the gate with the typical inscription Arbeit macht frei, the former hospital, fortifications, bastions and the gate of death back to the Small Fortress.
In addition to this Small Fortress, you can also visit the Ghetto Museum in the building of the former Terezín school, the exhibition in the former Magdeburg barracks, the columbarium, the ceremonial room and the central morgue, where the remains of cremated Jews, the former crematorium in the Jewish cemetery and the Terezín ghetto.
Author: Martina Limbergová