2. Preparation for delegations to Poland
From the Theresienstadt Ghetto there were transports to
the extermination camps in the east. One of the special
chapters is the story of the family camp at Auschwitz-
Birkenau, to which thousands of prisoners from the Ghetto
arrived.
This programme deals with spiritual resistance, NAZI cover-
up and deception, Jewish leadership in the Ghetto and the
family camp in Birkenau.
The programme is designed for pupils in their final school
year, delegations to Poland, teachers, guides and students.
Projects
History, Music and Memory – Seminar for the commemoration
of the musical heritage of the Ghetto.
Women in the Holocaust – Seminar in cooperation with
Beit Berl and the Ghetto Fighters House Museum.
Perach La’Nitzul – Youth assisting Holocaust survivors.
Coexistence – Combining Jewish and Arab youth in
learning about the Holocaust.
3. Educational Programme:
“Children writing in the wake of the children’s
newspapers in the Ghetto”
A rich children’s journalism developed in the children’s
dormitories in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. It gave expression
to the hardships that they had to endure, their fears, their
dreams and their hopes. During the workshops, participants
are exposed to the lives of the children in the Ghetto through
writings and drawings that they left behind.
The activity is aimed at pupils from grades five to eight
and consists of two meetings, one at Beit Theresienstadt
and the other at their school. The product is a newspaper
produced by the children.
“The game was our life…”
The programme focuses on the educational and moral
significance of sport, and introduces the participants to the
sports organisers and players in the Ghetto.
The place of sport in the children’s education at the Ghetto
was of most importance, especially for Freddy Hirsch, deputy
manager of the Youth Department and revered guide. By
use of sports games, especially football, educational values
were transmitted, and memories of normal life offered
some consolation in the awful reality of the Ghetto.
The programme can be adapted for youth and adults.
“Growing up between walls”
Most of the children aged 12-16 in the Ghetto grew up in
children’s dormitories, separate from their parents. The
reality of breaking up the family unit changed the lifestyle
and expressed independence and maturity.
This programme deals with the different relationships
between parents and children, and between children
themselves. The meaning of maturing under these conditions
will be investigated by examining diary entries and letters
of the Ghetto’s youth.
We also offer activities for parents and children in
preparation for Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
5. Archive
The archive includes thousands of original items from the
life in the Ghetto. It also includes an electronic database with
details about 160,000 Jews who were interned in the Ghetto.
The Educational Centre
The educational Centre offers: Target Audience:
• Seminars • School pupils from grade 5,
• Workshops middle school, and high school
• Lectures • Delegations to Poland
• Educational Material • Teachers and Guides
• Books • Students
• Website • Soldiers
• Guidance for students in • Retirees
written assignments • Domestic and Foreign Tourists
6. the artistic and cultural creativity of the Ghetto, and the
role of the Ghetto in the “Final Solution”.
Exhibitions:
“Kamarad – They Called it friend”
The archives of Beit Theresienstadt offer a peek into the
world of the children in the Ghetto through a children’s
newspaper written in the boys’ dormitory, Q-609.
Extracts from 22 issues of the newspaper that were written
and illustrated by hand are displayed. Sections of the
newspaper include articles about the daily life in the boys’
dormitory, events in the Ghetto, stories, imaginations and more.
“Terezin League –
Sport and Youth in the Theresienstadt Ghetto”
Sport was an inseparable part of the educational activities
in the Ghetto. The exhibit displays the football league and
stories of the sportspeople in the Ghetto. Original exhibits
and testimonies highlight the additional ways in which
internees coped with the terrible reality that surrounded
them in the Ghetto.
7. portrayed to the Jewish leadership in Prague as a “Jewish
City”, where the Jews from Bohemia and Moravia would be
concentrated. However, it was soon revealed to be a transit
camp in which Jews from central Europe were held and
then sent to the death camps in the east. At the end of the
war death marches also reached the Ghetto.
At its peak capacity about 58,000 people were held in the
Ghetto, in a place designed for only 7,000. 160,000 Jews
were brought to the Ghetto, of which 88,000 were sent to
death camps, and another approximately 35,000 died in
the Ghetto from illness, hunger and distress.
Despite the difficult conditions and the deportations to the
east, the Ghetto had an active cultural life that emphasized
the care and education of children and youth.
On 8 May 1945, the Ghetto was liberated by the Soviet Red Army.
The Historical Museum –
“Theresienstadt 1941-1945”
Through original exhibits, documents, drawings and
photographs, the story of the Ghetto from its founding to its
liberation is spread out before the visitor.
The exhibition portrays the Jewish leadership,
the deportations to and from the Ghetto, the
day-to-day life, the world of the children,
8. Beit Theresienstadt:
Beit Theresienstadt was opened in 1975 in Kibbutz Givat
Haim Ichud as an organisation to commemorate the prisoners
in the Theresienstadt Ghetto that perished in the Holocaust.
The goals of the organisation: a centre for survivors to meet
and to forge their vision of learning about the history of the
Ghetto and of the people who experienced it. The location
includes a historical museum, exhibition rooms, an archive
and library.
Theresienstadt Ghetto:
In November 1941 the heads of the SS decided to establish
the Theresienstadt Ghetto in the fortress city of Terezin,
located some 60km from the city of Prague. The Ghetto was
