474, 17.000 SURVIVED! di Lliana Angheluta

I visited Prague some months ago, surprised to see that the Jewish drama is part of its daily life. The Jewish part of the city is still on the same place of the old ghetto. There are shops, synagogues, one may see many persons that come from the religious meetings, wearing those small black hats.  Many tourists from Israele and from all over the world come to Prague, looking for their old ancestors into the Old Cemetery.

One of the most interesting places is the Spanish Synagogue where there is also a small exhibition that speaks about Terezin. I didn't known anything about this place but I discovered another part of the tragedy that killed milions of Jewish. A sadic part, maybe one of the cruelest. Terezin was a small town conquered by Hitler'soldiers in 1941. One SS captain, Reinhard Heidrich, sent out the real inhabitants (7000 people), ordered a high wall around and thansformed the town into a place for Jewish people. Here they met together everybody, women, children, men from many countries, Austria, Germany etc. The initial idea was to create a Jewish town but soon the number of persons deported here was of 50000 (instead of 7000, as first) and  the living conditions were dramatic. However, the nazists tried to give the sensations of a normal life, separated by others. This was part of Hitler's propagande, this is how he tried to convince the world that everything is under control.  Children went to school, it's true! But after school they were pushed into big cars and sent to die. However, there were teachers that taught them to sing, to draw, to dream and at Prague there is the huge collection of drawings made by children that didn't become adults at all.      Terezin was a place full of lies: the nazists organised concerts and invited Jewish to sing to the piano, to act, pretending that life was so good that everybody could be an artist. The truth is that 140.000 people of all ages were deported here and 33.000 died because of hunger and of various diseases. 80.000 persons were sent to Auschwitz – final part of their destiny. The nazists believed that Terezin could calm down the governments of the world that asked news about their citizens, so they made a film where everything seemed to be nice and clean. They promised life to the Jewish that made the film and they didn't kept the promise: he was killed after the first inner show. 140.000 Jewish people were send to Terezin.17.000 survived! LILIANA ANGHELUTA