Internment camp Theresienstadt (1945–1948)

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A few days before the end of the Second World War , the National Socialists evacuated Theresienstadt , which they had turned into a concentration camp since 1940 . On May 2, 1945, the International Committee of the Red Cross took care of the prisoners in the city and in the Small Fortress. On May 8, 1945, the Red Army entered the city and Soviet and Czechoslovak doctors began caring for the survivors. The repatriation of the prisoners lasted until August 1946. The local population returned to their houses and apartments in the course of 1946.

The Small Fortress became an internment camp until 1948 for people accused of crimes related to Nazi rule and for Germans who were to be expelled from their homeland .

On May 6, 1947, the Czechoslovak government decided to build the “Memorial of National Suffering” in the Small Fortress.

Little Fortress Gate

History of the internment camp

Garrison town

During the time of the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , the National Socialists set up a collection and transit camp for the local Jewish population in the garrison town in November 1941, and in the following years they interned thousands of Jews from Germany and other European countries in the “old age ghetto”. For a time, Theresienstadt served as a “model ghetto ” to deceive the international public about the character of concentration camps and the “ final solution to the Jewish question ”.

In April 1945 there were 17,000 Jewish prisoners in the city. From April 20th, thousands of people from evacuated concentration camps in other Eastern European countries poured into Theresienstadt, so that the number of camp inmates rose to around 30,000. The new residents to dangerous infectious diseases such as common stain and typhoid fever .

A few days before the Red Army marched in, SS commander Karl Rahm and the SS garrison fled Theresienstadt, and the International Committee of the Red Cross took over the administration and care of the prisoners. On May 8, Soviet doctors, along with local Czech medical services and doctors and medical staff from among the surviving prisoners, began caring for the sick. Theresienstadt was quarantined on May 14th . More than 2,000 people died as a result of the infections throughout Theresienstadt - including the Small Fortress. The return of the surviving prisoners to their homeland was completed in August 1945.

On May 11, 1945, the camp was formally dissolved. Since then, the city has been subordinate to a representative of the Czechoslovak National Committee , who represented the new state power. His priority tasks were to support the fight against epidemics and to clean up and rehabilitate the city. In the fight against the epidemic, mainly former prisoners provided help. Help was also provided by volunteers from the area and citizens of German nationality who were imprisoned in the small fortress were employed.

In June 1946, the residents of the city, expelled by the National Socialists, were able to return to their houses and apartments. The restored barracks were used by the Czechoslovak army in the following years . She left the city in 1990, which has been used exclusively for civil purposes ever since.

Small fortress

Courtyard IV of the Little Fortress

The prisoners in the Gestapo prison were also affected by the infection that had infected the prisoners in the garrison town. Since 1940 the National Socialists had imprisoned more than 32,000 mainly political prisoners and prisoners of war here . When the International Committee of the Red Cross took over the camp on May 5, 1945, there were around 4,800 prisoners there. 220 prisoners suffering from tuberculosis were released on May 1st under pressure from prisoners. The other prisoners were left unattended despite their illness. As in the garrison town, it was local medical services who took care of the first care measures and took the sick to the surrounding hospitals. After May 8th there were still 700 people who were looked after on site. The last people arrested by the National Socialists left the Small Fortress at the end of May.

Internment camp for Germans

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After the liberation, former prisoners took over the administration of the Small Fortress. They immediately started using the facility as an internment camp for Germans. The Small Fortress Theresienstadt had this function until 1948. The development phase of the internment camp - Czech historians call it the "wild" phase - was determined by former prisoners and lasted until July 1945. In this phase there were German prisoners of war and National Socialists or persons who committed war crimes were accused of being detained there. On July 2, 1945, the Ministry of the Interior of Czechoslovakia took over the administration of the Small Fortress and used the facility mainly to intern Germans who were to be expelled from their homeland. In the third phase - it lasted around four months in 1946 - most of the internees were deported from the camp either to other camps or directly to Germany. The subsequent liquidation of the camp lasted until 1948, when the last German prisoners left Theresienstadt.

Creation of the camp

Single cell wing in courtyard IV - one of these wings is now home to the exhibition about the internment camp

Shortly after the last guards left the premises of the Small Fortress on May 5, 1945, former prisoners formed the "National Revolutionary Committee", which took over the management of the facility. Stanislav Franc, who had been imprisoned in Theresienstadt since mid-1944, because he was suspected of membership in the Czechoslovak resistance movement, became the leader.

The first extensive internment of Germans took place on May 10th. At least 43 soldiers, who received medical care in the military hospital of the garrison town, were transferred from there to the Small Fortress and " most likely placed in the solitary cells of the 4th Court ", in the area of ​​the Small Fortress, where the Nazis were the worst Conditions had prevailed for the prisoners. Other Germans who had been arrested in the vicinity of Theresienstadt, in places in the Litoměřice district , followed in the next few days, including civilians such as B. a 12 year old boy.

The stream of consignees has increased since May 15th. On this day, the first transport of prisoners - mostly women - from Prague reached Theresienstadt. Some of them stayed in the garrison town, where the people affected were used as workers for cleaning operations, the other part came to the Small Fortress. The following transports from Prague mostly brought prisoners from the Pankrác prison .

The following table shows the number of Germans imprisoned in this first phase:

Accesses Departures Refugees deceased Freedmen
Men 939 3 1 111 8th
Women 640 0 0 3 2
total 1579 3 1 114 10

In the first phase of the camp, the number of people released was just 3 people. The “departures” from the camp resulted from the deaths. The mortality rate among male prisoners during this period was 24%. In addition to inadequate nutrition and hunger, poor hygienic conditions and inadequate medical care, the causes of death were also acts of violence on the part of the supervisory staff.

"Internment camp of the Small Fortress Theresienstadt"

Community cell in courtyard IV

After the formal transfer of administration to the Ministry of the Interior, Otakar Kalal took over the management of the camp on July 2, 1945, which was now officially called the “Internment Camp of the Small Fortress Theresienstadt”. In this phase the number of internees grew steadily and the largest transport to Theresienstadt took place in this phase. It took place on August 10, 1945. 629 women and 519 men were first transported from the Prague stadium camp to the garrison town for decontamination and from there to the Small Fortress. Internments were practically suspended until the end of 1945 and only started again in early 1946.

The "most prominent" prisoner since January 26, 1946 was Heinrich Jöckel , the former SS commander of the Small Fortress. A few days later, his wife and eldest daughter also followed him. Jöckel stayed here until the beginning of his trial before the court in Litoměřice , in which he was sentenced to death and then executed.

The number of released prisoners at this stage was small. If there were dismissals, it was mostly in cases in which the persons were transferred to other penal institutions or courts in Czechoslovakia. Those released included a number of children under the age of 14. On December 13, 1945, 36 of them left Theresienstadt for a children's home in Stirin, Czechoslovakia .

Table of the "change in internment stocks" up to April 30, 1946:

Accesses Departures Refugees deceased Freedmen
Men 850 245 103 245 113
Women 823 77 76 166 122
total 1673 322 179 411 235

Deportations

From May 1946 on, there were no more internments in Theresienstadt with a few exceptions. The exceptions are ten women who had worked for the Gestapo in Ostrava and eleven SS members who were transferred from the Stará Boleslav prison . The former deputy commander of the Gestapo prison in the Small Fortress, Wilhelm Schmidt, and several Czech employees of the German police from Prague were also housed in the Small Fortress during this phase.

Deportations were decisive for this time . The first deportation transport took place on May 11, 1946 to the “collection center” Modrany. On that day, 173 people left Theresienstadt on this transport. This collection center was the destination of further transports in the days and weeks that followed. Other dismissals went to the courts, where the people concerned were awaiting trials.

Table of the "change in internment stocks" up to August 31, 1946:

Accesses Departures Refugees deceased Freedmen
Men 40 662 6th 13 55
Women 48 999 1 7th 48
total 88 1661 7th 20th 103

Dissolution of the camp

Inscription in courtyard IV with reference to the "Internment camp of the Small Fortress Theresienstadt" (2006)

After the extensive deportations in the summer of 1946, the number of internees in September 1946 was 241 people. The reduction in the number of prisoners resulted in an improvement in hygienic conditions. Most of the newcomers were former SS members, but there were also people among the new internees who were to be deported after trials, so that the Small Fortress took on the role of a collection center for deportations to Germany, to one of the occupation zones at the time.

In February 1948 the camp was officially closed. On February 29, 1948, the last two prisoners were placed in the care of the occupational health and safety authorities at the District National Committee in Litomerice.

Table of the "change in internment stocks" up to February 29, 1948 (p. 24):

Accesses Departures Refugees deceased Unknown Freedmen
Men 221 445 4th 1 1 19th
Women 31 62 1 0 0 6th
total 252 507 5 1 1 25th

exhibition

An exhibition in one of the cells in Court IV today commemorates the use of the small fortress as an internment camp for Germans from 1945 to 1948.

literature

  • Miroslava Benesova: The situation in Theresienstadt after the end of the war . In: Theresienstädter Blätter , No. 18/90 (Czech).
  • Vojtech Blodig: The city hit by a tragedy. Theresienstadt in the post-war period 1945–1946 . In: Theresienstädter Blätter , No. 24/96 (Czech).
  • Max Frisch : Diary 1946–1949 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1958, contains his impressions and thoughts during a stay in the former Theresienstadt concentration camp . Text also in: Lillian Schacherl: Böhmen - cultural image of a landscape . Prestel Verlag, Munich, pp. 348-350.
  • Marek Poloncarz: The internment camp for the German population - The Small Fortress Theresienstadt 1945–1948 , Theresienstadt 1997.
  • Marek Poloncarz: The evacuation transports to Theresienstadt (April – May 1945) . In: Theresienstadt studies and documents 1999
  • Gerhard M. Riegner: The relationship of the Red Cross to Theresienstadt in the final phase of the war . In: Theresienstadt studies and documents 1996
  • Theodor Schieder , Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims (ed.): Documentation of the expulsion of Germans from East Central Europe, Vol. 4, 1: The expulsion of the German population from Czechoslovakia . Bonn 1957.
  • Wilhelm Turnwald together with the working group for the protection of Sudeten German interests (ed.): Documents on the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans . 4th edition, Munich 1952.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marek Poloncarz: The internment of the German population. The Small Fortress Theresienstadt 1945–1948 . Theresienstadt 1997, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Marek Poloncarz: The internment of the German population. The Small Fortress Theresienstadt 1945–1948 . Theresienstadt 1997, p. 13.
  3. ↑ Marek Poloncarz: The internment of the German population. The Small Fortress Theresienstadt 1945–1948 . Theresienstadt 1997, p. 19.
  4. ↑ Marek Poloncarz: The internment of the German population. The Small Fortress Theresienstadt 1945–1948 . Theresienstadt 1997, p. 22.
  5. ↑ Marek Poloncarz: The internment of the German population. The Small Fortress Theresienstadt 1945–1948 . Theresienstadt 1997, p. 24.