Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre,UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Sherman Campus 4600 Bathurst StreetToronto, ON, M2R 3V2

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There are many valuable resources that you can engage to learn about how Theresienstadt functioned and its history. The following are a few that you can utilise to further your study of the Holocaust and Theresienstadt.

Websites: www.bterezin.org.il/en_general_info.htm Beit Theresienstadt at Kibbutz Givat Chaym Ichud in Israel was erected in memory of the Jews of Theresienstadt who perished during the Nazi persecution. Today it serves as an educational and resource centre.www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/documentary/theresienstadt The website for the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota.www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/showdoc.do?docid=164 The Terezin Memorial, the only institution of its kind in the Czech Republic, commemorates the victims of the Nazi political and racial persecution during the occupation of the Czech lands in World War II.www.terezinmusic.org A non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and advancing the resilience of the human spirit as expressed in and inspired by the music and art created in the Terezín concentration camp.www.terezinstudies.cz/eng/main The Terezin Initiative is an international association of former prisoners of Terezín Ghetto and other concentration camps. Provides scholarly information about Theresienstadt.

DVDs & Audio CDs:Brundibar / Czech Son: 1941-1945, CD. Channel Classics, 2003.Prisoner of Paradise. DVD. PBS Home Video, 2005.Terezin / Theresienstadt. CD. Deutsche Grammophon, 2007.Voices of Theresienstadt. Bente Kahan, artist. CD. Pläne, 1998

Books of particular interest for educators:Bondy, Ruth. “Elder of the Jews”: Jakob Edelstein of Theresienstadt. Grove Press, 1989.De Silva, Cara. In Memory’s Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women in Terezin. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2006.Dwork, Deborah. The Terezin Album of Marianka Zadikow. University of Chicago Press, 2008.Friedman, Saul S. (Editor). The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich. Scholarly Book Services Inc., 1999.Karas, Joza. Music in Terezin, 1941-1945. Pendragon Press, 1990.Krizkova, Marie R. and Paul Wilson, (Editor). We Are Children Just the Same: “Vedem,” the Secret Magazine by the Boys of Terezin. Jewish Publication Society of America, 1995.Makarova, Elena and Regina Seidman Miller. Friedl Dicker-Brandeis: Vienna 1898 - Auschwitz 1944. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1999.Makarova, Elena,-Sergei Makarov & Victor Kuperman. University Over The Abyss. The story behind 520 lecturers and 2,430 lectures in KZ Theresienstadt 1942-1944. Verba Publishers Ltd., Pressburger, Chava (editor). The Diary of Petr Ginz. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007.Rubin, Susan Goldman. Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin. Holiday House Inc., 2000.Schiff, Vera. Hitler’s Inferno. Toronto, 2002.Schiff, Vera. Theresienstadt: the Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews. Toronto, 2006.

About this guide:This educational program is designed to provide concise background information on the Theresienstadt concentration camp. It introduces the various manners in which the camp functioned, as well as the complex ways in which individuals coped with the circumstances they found themselves in. The activities are designed to engage and develop students’ critical thinking skills so that they can analyse the passage from a variety of angles, thereby deepening their understanding of the Holocaust.A variety of sources are used to assist students of all ages and backgrounds in engaging in the study of the Holocaust, and with Theresienstadt specifically. These include memoirs such as Theresienstadt: The Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews (2006) by Vera Schiff, and archival images from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Music and film can also be added to enrich the learning experience.We welcome your lesson plan and programmatic examples so that we can continue to share ideas to effectively teach about the Holocaust.Contact: Carson Phillips, PhD, Assistant Director @ cphillips@ujafed.org Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

About Theresienstadt:Among all the ghettos, labour camps, concentration camps and death camps, Theresienstadt was unique. Theresienstadt served several purposes for the Nazis: to manage special categories of Jews who they felt they could not treat as they treated other Jews without raising questions or suspicion; as a transit camp to facilitate the movement of Jews to the death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland, and to manipulate international public opinion. As such, Theresienstadt functioned as a prison for “privileged” Jews from Western Europe, including WWI veterans, elderly German and Austrian Jews, “half-Jews” (referred to as Mischlinge by the Nazis) with one Jewish parent or one or more Jewish grandparent, and those in mixed marriages. As a “model ghetto,” it was the showplace of the Nazi camps, designed to deceive the outside world about the “Final Solution,” the Nazi plan to exterminate European Jewry.

Jews were gathered in this ghetto/camp before being sent farther east to the extermination camps. Jews from all over Europe passed through Theresienstadt on their way to death, although the main population was made up of German, Austrian and Czech Jews. From November 1941 until Soviet liberation on May 9, 1945, over 60,000 Jews from the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, and almost 34,000 German and Austrian Jews passed through.

Another unique fact about the camp’s makeup was the percentage of the population who self-identified as Christian. At any given time, a minimum of ten percent of the inmates were socialized and educated as Christians. Many of these individuals had been sent to the camp for having one Jewish parent or grandparent, yet they had little or no connection to the Jewish inhabitants of Theresienstadt. Given the diverse nature of the camp’s population that also included practicing Roman Catholic nuns and European royalty (the Countess Seyssel d’Aix and Baroness von Bleichröder), the social, political and cultural values of Theresienstadt were indeed varied. Yet the one common factor between all Theresienstadt inmates was their classification as Jews according to Nazi racial ideology.

Activity 1: Journaling & Responding to Holocaust MemoirIn a double or triple entry journal, students can describe their feelings, emotions, or reactions to reading the following passage. This text is taken from the memoir by Vera Schiff and offers students the opportunity to learn from the first-hand, personal account of an individual who survived the Holocaust.

Journaling Prompt: When you have learned more about Theresienstadt, or finished reading the book, go back and re-read this specific passage. Have your thoughts changed? Pick out other passages from the text and include them in your journal following the same pattern noted above. i.e. describe your reaction when reading them for the first time, again at the end of the entire book, and once again when you have completed a unit on the Holocaust.

Alternately, you could use the other columns in your journal to express additional thoughts and feelings. For example, if you could say something to the author, who was not quite 16 years old at the time these events happened, what would you say to her?

About The Reading Passage:In the following passage the author is describing the process by which her family was de-tained and registered before being deported to an unknown destination. Only later would she discover that it was Theresienstadt. The text documents a time of tremendous change and great uncertainty. She describes not only the physical surroundings, but also how she was treated by the SS men in charge and what it was like to be a young girl, not quite 16 years of age, removed from her home along with her family to face an uncertain future.

Reading Passage from Theresienstadt: The Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews. pp 51 -52“It was in this building that, for the first time, I experienced physical violence. It happened by chance, but I never forgot the first brutal punch to my face. My lack of knowledge of conver-sational German provoked an SS man who likely interpreted my non-compliance of orders as defiance. According to the rules, when an SS officer passed through the hall, all the Jews had to sit down. On the first day there, I had no idea what they were ordering us to do. I was not really defiant; I was just rushing to the latrines. I had delayed this need for as long as possible; I dreaded the filthy, crowded place and the total lack of privacy. I was not toughened up yet, that came much later. SS officer Fiedler did not waste much time looking at me; he motioned me to get nearer, and when I did, he smashed his fist into my face with such ferocity that I was sent flying. Somebody pulled me away from the irate SS man; while the representative of the Jewish community accompanying him tried to soothe his temper, explaining that some of the Czech Jews did not understand German.”

In your journal, record your reaction to this passage. The useless currency, the fake stores and acidic spread all contributed to the illusion that was Theresienstadt – nothing was as it appeared to be. How might the IRC delegates have been able to decipher these illusions? Why do you think the delegates accepted what they were shown and told by the Nazis? Why did they not probe deeper into the day-to-day operations of the camp during their inspection?

Additional Activity Prompt:The visit by the IRC delegation has been well documented by historians. The members of the delegation included Dr. Franz Hvass, representative of the Danish Foreign Office; Dr. Yuel Henningsen, representing the Danish health commissioner on behalf of the Danish Red Cross; Dr. M. Rossel, commissioner of the IRC in Geneva; the commissioner of the German Red Cross; the heads of the Gestapo in the Protectorate, the head of the department for Jewish affairs, representatives of the German Foreign Office, and the Czech propaganda minister.

Many have raised the issue of why the delegates adhered to the schedule and route they were given instead of trying to investigate conditions further. In her text Elder of the Jews (1989), Ruth Bondy, also a survivor of Theresienstadt, writes, “From the German viewpoint, the visit had passed satisfactorily in all respects. Since the representatives of the Danish Red Cross were satisfied that all the Danes had remained in Theresienstadt, and their chief worry after all had been for the Danish Jews, they did not insist on a visit to an additional labor camp.”

In describing the actions of the delegation further Bondy concludes, “They saw a performance of the children’s opera Brundibar. They did not see the mass residences, the quarters of the old or mentally ill, the transport files, the thousands of cartons containing ashes, the Czech police on guard. Like obedient children they walked along the route laid out for them, and their general impression was exceedingly positive, as revealed in their reports, written on their return to their respective countries. Most impressed was Dr. Rossel, the representative of the International Red Cross in Geneva, who in a confidential report wondered with surprise why the Germans had postponed the visit for so long: they had nothing to hide after all. Theresienstadt was in all respects an admirable Jewish city, unifying the various elements of the Jewish population, who had come from different countries and diverse economic levels.” (pp 437- 441)

Why do you think the delegates accepted without question what they saw? Do these delegates bear any responsibility for the deaths of the thousands of Jews who were deported to death camps upon conclusion of the IRC visit? Or for those who were deported after the positive reports they wrote about the camp? If they are not responsible, did they have any moral obligation to probe deeper into the operation of the camp? What do you feel is (or should be) the role and responsibilities of a member of such a delegation? Defend your position with examples or evidence.

Activity 4: Deciphering Propaganda and the Role of the Theresienstadt CurrencyAbout the Activity: This is an opportunity for students to use their journals to record their reflec-tions and ideas about the role that propaganda played in creating the “illusionary city” of There-sienstadt. In the summer of 1942, the Nazis decided to create a ghetto bank, with each inmate receiving a fixed amount of money depending on how they were classified within the prisoner categories. The currency was designed by Maximillian Spiegel, a graphic artist and inmate in Theresienstadt. He was ordered by the Nazis to design the image of Moses to conform to the Nazi caricature of a Jew. The other side of the banknote contains the printed signature of Jakob Edelstein as the “Elder of the Jews in Theresienstadt.” The notes are dated January 1, 1943, but did not go into circulation until May 1943. They had no real value, and there was nothing that could be bought with them. The currency was one more element in the Nazi propaganda strategy.

Theresienstadt held an extremely important role as a model of Nazi propaganda. Described as a “model camp or ghetto,” its purpose was to persuade the world that Jews under Nazi rule were not being mistreated. In an attempt to silence speculation and questions about the fate of the Jews, Nazi leaders allowed delegates from the International Red Cross (IRC) to visit to Theresienstadt. In preparation for the visit, the camp underwent Verschönerung, a process of beautification. Dummy shops, cafés and even a bank were opened in addition to a concert hall and children’s playground. Many prisoners were deported to Auschwitz to alleviate the severe overcrowding. Additionally, some children were given increased food rations to appear healthy and well-fed in anticipation of the IRC visit. Fully taken in by the deception, the Red Cross did not critique the camp or the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews. In recent years, the IRC has been severely criticized for giving the Nazis good reports after the inspections. In reality, up to 58,000 people were crowded into attics and cellars in a town which had been built to house 3,500. Overcome by disease and exhaustion, thousands perished. Of the 140,000 Jews who passed through the gates of Theresienstadt, only 19,000 survived the war.

Writing Prompt: Examine the images of the Theresienstadt currency. What characteris-tics in the design of Moses seem exaggerated? Why do you think it was important for the Nazis to create a currency with an image that conformed to the standards of a Nazi caricature? What other purposes might the currency have served?

On page 126 of her book, Theresienstadt: the Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews (2006), Vera Schiff describes the one item that the Theresienstadt currency could buy. “Some of us owned at times the “Theresienstadt spread,” a strange concoction of mustard and vinegar that had a sharp acidic taste. The Germans introduced this spread during the preparatory stages of the camp’s beau-tification. It was, and remained, the only item purchasable by the camp’s money, distributed at the place of work. The camp’s currency elicited little interest because nothing could have been had for it except for the spread, and few cared for this acidic mixture that failed to fill the stomach and only intensified the hunger pangs.”

Writing Prompt:You may want to read the passage more than once to consider some of the themes that the author, who survived three years in this camp, is conveying through the re-telling of her experiences. As you reflect on this passage, consider some of the following ideas: How important was language to survival? By assaulting the author what tone does the SS officer set for the other prisoners? While being detained by armed SS men, the parents and other adults are unable to come to the defence or assistance of the author, a young girl. How do you think these actions might have made a parent or adult feel? Why do you think the Nazis treated families in this manner?

Additional Activity Prompt:In 1989, the United Nations recognized children, human beings below the age of 18 years of age, as deserving and requiring special legal care and protection. This resulted in the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child.’ (www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm ) Considering the previous reading passage, what were some ways in which children were denied their rights during the Holocaust? How might children have been protected? (By community members? By their nation’s government? By other governments? )

Activity 2: Examining Children’s Art in Theresienstadt In Theresienstadt, children under the age of 16 were housed in barracks separate from their families. Their teachers and youth leaders cared for them, taught them in secret, and

encouraged them to engage in art as a means to express their feelings, to remember happier times, and to cope with the realities of life in the camp. Many of the drawings and art pieces have survived. Some are on display in Jewish Museum of Prague, while others can be seen at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., and the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City.

Discussion Prompt: Look closely at this image. What are some unique characteristics of this drawing? Why do you think the boy created it? What feelings or emotions might have gone in this drawing? Does it make you think of hope, or possibly a happier time? How might such drawings have functioned to maintain morale even under the dire conditions of life in a concentration camp? Can you think of ways in which someone might convey secret messages in drawings?

Drawing from a children’s memory book written in Theresienstadt with a picture of a skyline of Theresienstadt and a horse

For the Educator: Additional Information about the Drawing - Background information on this picture can be found in the on-line photograph archives of the USHMM, photograph #29503. It is a page from a children’s memory book written in Theresienstadt with a picture of a sky-line of Theresienstadt and a horse. The book was presented as a gift to Misa Grunbaum.

The message at the top of the drawing is translated as: “When we part from each other, remember your friend Kuzmo, Jenda Hermann.” Michael (Misa) Grunbaum (later Gruenbaum) is the son of Karel (b. 1897 in Ceska Kamenice) and Margaret Popper Grunbaum. He was born on August 23, 1930 in Prague where his father was a successful and affluent attorney. Michael has one sister, Marietta, born July 24, 1926. Karel Grunbaum was attorney to one of the wealthiest families in Czechoslovakia; the Grun-baums lived in a large apartment in a building with an elevator, and they owned their own automobile which they parked in a garage two blocks away and used mostly for weekend excursions. In Theresienstadt, Misa had a number of jobs including working in the garden and later transporting baked goods from the bakery. His older sister worked in the camp laundry, and his mother manufactured artificial flowers and teddy bears. Margaret’s sister-in-law was deported to Auschwitz. She sent Margaret a postcard with downward slanting handwriting. Margaret understood this to mean that her life was in danger, and she became even more determined to keep her family off the deportation list. She argued her case based the im-portance of her work - preparing toys to send to Germany for Christmas -- as well as the role her husband played and the assistance he gave to the Jewish community before the war. The Grunbaums remained in Theresienstadt until their liberation by the Soviet Army.

Activity 3: Journaling and Responding to Holocaust MemoirAbout the Reading Passage: In this second passage from Theresienstadt: the Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews (2006) the author describes how different groups of Jews could be treated by the authorities in There-sienstadt. The arrival of approximately 500 Danish Jews was noticed by all the inmates. They received supplemental food rations, better living conditions and were not subjected to the same regulations as other Theresienstadt inmates. The author poignantly recounts not only the arrival of the Danish Jews, but her surprise at how they were treated – both by the Nazi authorities and their Danish countrymen.

Reading Passage from Theresienstadt: The Town the Nazis Gave to the Jews, pp. 93“In early October 1943, a new transport arrived. Surprisingly the new inmates were not shabby, hungry or frightened Jews. The transport was made up of well-fed and equally well-dressed people, without any trace of past suffering. They did not even wear the Star of David on their clothes. Who were they? Were they Jews or some other nationality that displeased the dictator in Berlin? ... They were Jews alright, but Danish Jews who enjoyed the shelter and protection of their King, Christian X. …They were to receive better shelter than the rest of us, and the Danish Red Cross was authorised to supply them on a bi-monthly basis with food parcels.

These packages contained butter, jams, cookies and other delicacies, the kinds of which we had not seen in years. To us, they became an instant aristocracy, living in a near paradise. They were a class unto themselves, spared all pain, fear, beatings and hunger. The only indignity imposed on them was the theft of their properties, which were confiscated right after they wrote the compulsory cards about their safe arrival in ‘beautiful Theresienstadt’. We all thought and marvelled about the extraordinary qualities of the Danish monarch and his subjects. Though defeated in the war and occupied by the Nazis, he faced up to the military conqueror and extracted from them the promise of shelter and protection for the weakest among them - the Jews.”

Writing Prompt:After reading and reflecting on the passage, consider some of the following points to include in your journal: What was the significance of the additional food packages the Danish Jews received? Why do you think they author chose to describe the Danish Jews as ‘living in a near paradise’? Why do you think the Nazis had the Danish Jews write the compulsory cards detailing their safe arrival in a beautiful city?

Develop these ideas further and consider concepts such as: What is the role of government, even one defeated in war, in protecting its citizens? Why do you think the Danish King continued to press for the care of the Danish-Jewish citizens? What does it mean to be a responsible citizen? How can the actions and behaviour of even one person make a difference?

Additional Activity Prompt: To learn more about how the people of Denmark responded to the situation facing the approximately 8000 Danish Jews, visit http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/denmark.htm The majority of Danish Jews were transported to the safety of neutral Sweden. In a truly national effort, many small fishing boats carried the Danish Jews across the water at night, to safety. As a result, only about 500 were deported to Theresienstadt, and the Danish king continued to advocate for their well-being.

Why do you think the Danish people responded in this manner? What sort of characteristics do you think can be attributed to those individuals who rescued Jews during the Holocaust? The author describes her surprise at the arrival of the Danish Jews – why do you think she was so surprised that they were not wearing yellow stars on their clothing? How might the arrival of these Danish Jews been a source of hope for the inmates in Theresienstadt?