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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
24 Nov 1941
Other: Camp Liberated
9 May 1945
Other: SS send 7,503 prisoners to Auschwitz for space
15 May 1944
Other: 42,005 prisoners are deported to killing centers
Other: Prisoners arrive from evacuated camps
Other: Theresienstadt will be used as propaganda
20 Jan 1942
Other: 1,260 Polish Jewish children arrive
2 Aug 1943
Other: SS 1st Lt. Siegfried Seidl becomes camp commandant
30 Oct 1941
Other: SS give command of camp over to the Red Cross
2 May 1945
Other: Two Red Cross representatives tour the camp-ghetto
23 June 1944
Other: 1,196 of the children are sent/killed at Auschwitz
5 Oct 1943
Other: SS deport 75,000 Czech Jews to Theresienstadt
Other: Theresienstadt organized as camp-ghetto for Jews
10 Oct 1941
Other: Red Cross reps. try to get more food for prisoners
Mar 1945
Other: Approx. 11,077 Jews remain in the camp-ghetto
28 Oct 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
9 May 1945
Other: SS abandon the camp-ghetto
5 May 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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