Terezin

Sixty miles outside Prague is the fort of Terezin, which became the Jewish ghetto for Prague, and then much of eastern europe during the second world war. Sixty miles outside <a href="topcontent/Pictures/czech/prague/index.html">Prague City</a> is the fort of Terezin. It was built in the 18thcentury to defend Prague from invading force from the east, but never saw action.It has two main parts, the small fortress (where most of these photos were taken) and the main fortress. Both had their rolein Nazi Germany's attempt to realize the Final Solution. The small fortress was a prison, for both Jews and other undesirables.The main fortress is in fact a garrison town. There were about 3500 people living there before the war, and they were eventually moved onand the town became a ghetto for the Jews of Prague, and then much of the surrounding countries. At the peak, about 60,000 people lived there.Most of them eventually moved on the death camps, and did not survive the war.The town had another purpose. It became a model Jewish town that allowed the Nazis to invite the RedCross to look at it, and they could pretend it was a working, independent community - a model for theones they pretended they were going to house the Jews in after the war.To read more about Terezin, look at <a href="http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/terezin.html">Terezin</a>