Terezin - Not a happy place

We thought that it was important to visit a former concentration camp at least once. It was an educational experience.

Terezin was not a "death camp" per-se. Intellectuals and other "enemies of the state" were kept here. The Jews were in the Getto in the larger part of the city. I had always thought that the bulk of the Jews killed were killed in the gas chambers as part of the final solution. This is not true. The majority were kept in horrible horrible conditions. Conditions that make bulk animal farming look very humane. You could look at examples of these conditions and think "there is no way you could survive is those conditions". That is correct and the people who were keeping you there did not care. People were worked to death, froze to death, starved to death or died of disease or suffocation in the super crowded conditions.

"Work will set you free." This slogan was used by the Nazis and later by the communist party after the war.

The gas chamber was not used at Terezin. This was a real shower room. Transport for Terezin to "death camps" such as Aushwitz was regularly around 1000 people. Usually between 2 and 18 of each 1000 survived the camps. Shipment after shipment is logged in the books.