Prague Part 3

Late in 1938, German majority regions of all three Czech lands were relinquished to Germany as Sudetenland. Poland and Hungary both grabbed up portions of Czech lands. Czechoslovakia had lost approximately 1/3 of its population. In 1939 the Bohemia and Moravia parts of Czechoslovakia were occupied and proclaimed a protectorate of the German Third Reich. Slovakia became a nominally independent state. 

ANTHROPOID
Reinhard Heydrich was a high ranking Nazi official and main architect of the Holocaust. On  September 27, 1941, Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into the Reich in 1939) and assumed control of the territory. In Prague, Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of the Czech resistance. Several thousand Protectorate Jews were to leave for Minsk and Lodz. The first of 5 transports carrying Czech Jews to Loda left Prague on Oct 16, 1941. The rest would be "ghettoed" at Terezin. About 30,000 people were killed in the Protectorate alone.  He was directly responsible for the Einsatzgruppen, the special task forces which traveled in the wake of the German armies and murdered over two million people, including 1.3 million Jews, by mass shooting and gassing.

The Czech foreign resistance in London came up with a plan to assassinate Heydrich: codename Anthropoid. A group of men parachuted into the region at the end of 1941. On May 27, 1942, Czechoslovak paratroopers, Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik fulfilled the goal of Anthropoid and mortally wounded Heydrich. He died on June 4. They had eliminated the hated killer of the Czech nation. Seven paratroopers in total had been involved. After the assassination, they hid in houses then found refuge in the Orthodox Cathedral of Ss. Cyril and Methodius. 

They were helped by church representatives and the Gestapo could not find them at first. However, ultimately, someone ratted them out. 

There is a very good but small museum dedicated to the 7 paratroopers within the walls of the Cathedral. We were able to walk into the crypt where the paratroopers died. Trapped in the crypt of the church with no escape, most of the men took their own lives. The 7th man, Jan Kubis, was gunned down in the nave by the Gestapo.

In September and October, 1942 the paratrooper collaborators were transferred to the police prison of the Prague Gestapo in the Small Fortress in Terezin.  Soon this group was transferred to the Mauthausen camp.There were immediate and harsh reprisals from the Germans including mass exterminations in the towns of Lidice and Lezaky because the Germans had falsely linked these two small towns to the assassins.  13,000 people were arrested, deported and imprisoned.  Everyone, or nearly everyone, who had helped the paratroopers before and after the assassination were eventually executed. Following Heydrich's death, the plans for the "Final Solution" were accelerated.

TEREZIN
We took a day trip out of Prague to visit Terezin which is located about 60 km north of Prague. 

Terezin was founded in 1780 as a fortress by the Hapsburgs. There is a Small Fortress and a Large Fortress (walled garrison town). The Small Fortress was a prison from the beginning. The Large Fortress was essentially a military barracks.

During WWII, Terezin was a Gestapo Prison for non-Jewish political prisoners (Small Fortress) as well as a concentration camp-Ghetto (Large Fortress) serving as a gateway camp to the death camps in Eastern Europe and as a propaganda tool to share with the rest of the world. Today the Small Fortress houses a museum about the persecution of the Czech nation by the Nazi regime.

Why did Hitler select Terezin? It was fully fortified, so there was a reduced chance of escape. The location was near the German border. Because it had been a military barracks, it could hold a lot of prisoners. Also, rail lines made it easy to  transfer prisoners to within 5 km of Terezin.(By 1943, prisoners had completed rail lines all the way to Terezin.)

The Small Fortress was never used in battles.
The town of Terezin was cleared entirely of Czech citizens. While about 7500 people lived in Terezin before the war, the Ghetto, in September, 1942, held about 60,000 people. Transfers to the extermination camps were ordered due to crowding.
About 160,000 passed through Terezin- at first just Jews from Czech lands, later they came from all over Europe. They were held for months or even several years before being transferred out.
Many of the people transferred out of Terezin went directly to extinction camps like Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka, etc. Some were first sent to other Jewish Ghettos, to be later transported again to the extermination camps. Transports out of Terezin began on Jan 5, 1942. 87,000 prisoners were deported to the East from Terezin.
Initially, the dead at Terezin were buried, but space filled so a crematorium was built to handle cremating up to 155 per day.
In 1943 a bypass road was built around Terezin to isolate it completely.
Many people didn't even survive the transfer to Terezin from their home cities.
Most of the 30,000 plus who died at Terezin did so due to disease and malnutrition.
Terezin was believed to be "survivable." Most didn't know it was also a transit hub.
Prisoners were actually held here quite some time after the war ended, isolated, due to fears of disease transmission.
26,000 people liberated here were from 29 countries. 200 died after liberation from disease contracted at the camp.


The Propaganda!!!!!
In June, 1944, the International Red Cross Committee delegation in combination with German Red Cross representatives were permitted to tour the Terezin Ghetto. However, this tour was not allowed until the camp had been properly prepped. Many people were transferred out so reduce the overcrowding. Fake shops were constructed to give the illusion that the inhabitants were leading a normal life. People were seen gardening. The healthiest and newly arrived individuals were engaging in sports. There were musical performances. They even built a special bathroom which was never used. The Red Cross was only allowed to see specific things and left with the opinion that the Jewish population was being treated well.


The Small Fortress

Isolation cells in the prison.

Cell #1 held the assassin of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.

As part of the propaganda beautification, this bathroom was constructed. It was never used.

Pix of one of 5 cells used to hold 600 people.

We were taken on a tour of several flats in the Ghetto- still in same condition. There were 4-6 people in a flat and there was one toilet per block of the Ghetto. We also saw the single prayer room--the only place where they were allowed to pray.

The Yalta Agreement said Bohemia would be liberated by the Red Army so US General Eisenhower's request to assist in the liberation of Prague was declined. On May 12, 1945, all fighting ceased on Czech lands. German occupation had resulted in the the deaths of over 77,000 Czechoslovak Jews. Their names are inscribed on walls of the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague.

Even though Soviet troops left Czechoslovakia a couple of months after the war, the country remained under heavy Soviet political influence. Just a few years later, in February 1948, Prague became the center of a communist coup. In June 1990, the first free elections were held in Czechoslovakia since 1946. On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia had been dissolved and two new countries had been formed: Slovakia and the Czech Republic.