How Theresienstadt - Terezin Passed "Inspection"

How could a ghetto-concentration camp have a school, a library, prayer rooms.

Read "Avenues of Intellectual Resistance In The Ghetto Theresienstadt: Escape Through the Ghetto Central Library, Reading, Story-Telling, and Lecturing."

Memorial to Terezin, Theresienstadt, Jewish Quarter, Prague

This paper is by Miriam Intrator in April 200, written for a Master's Degree course in Library Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Go to www.unc.edu/~intrm/miriamintrator.pdf.

Parts of Terezin were staged as a fraud on the Red Cross inspectors, who saw nothing of the ultimately 30,000 who died here over time, and saw only that Jews were housed here, away from Aryans, and life was ok. They saw a fake. A facade.

See how musicians and composers at Terezin appeared not only at Terezin, but in propaganda films. A children's opera, Brundibar, was a favorite. See Czech Republic Road Ways, Brundibar and the Music of Terezin.

The memorial is at the Jewish Quarter in Prague.

Petr Ginz lived for two years at Terezin, Theresienstadt.  See those and other facts listed at Factbites, ://www.factbites.com/topics/Petr-Ginz/
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Petr Ginz and other children line up with these diaries by adults, listed at thttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/15/arts/dutch-war-diaries.html. For every account, a film could well emerge. This film is of Petr Ginz himself, at https://forthelifeofme-film.com/.  The Diary of Petr Ginz is also on Amazon, and https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-diary-of-petr-ginz/

We are familiar with Operation Anthropoid and assassination of German Reinhard Heydrich in Prague,marked in the diary of Petr Ginz with later film  Operation Daybreak in 1975,

This list of adult diarists focuses on The Netherlands.More films please. Do our children know.: See also Netherlands Road Ways..

From Petr Ginz and Anne Frank, move on to Helga Weiss,  Helga's Diary: A Young Girl's Account of Life in a Concentration Camp, translated by Neil Bermel.  She had lived in an apartment in Prague, friends went missing, Jews had to wear the star, school expulsions, and finally the deportations.

Barred entry, end of tracks, Terezin, Theresienstadt CZ

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Petr Ginz was half-Jewish.  That status delayed his being sent to Theresienstadt, then to his death in Auschwitz. He lived with his family in Prague until all fell apart, and kept his diary, including references to the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich:  organizer of Kristallnacht, death squads and the steps intended to exterminate the Jews.

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Heydrich is the subject of a renewed interest in the novel, HHHhH.

Records at Yad Vashem

Holocaust Names, Information

Records are accessible on the Internet for researching information of the missing and believed or known dead, as provided in an extensive clearinghouse of data from third parties or records of transport, and whether the person perished. See ://www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/IY_HON_Welcome

"Full Record Details for  Ginz Petr

"Source      Terezinska Pametni Kniha/Theresienstaedter Gedenkbuch, Terezinska Iniciativa, vol.

PRAGUE:  VIEW TOWARD ST. VITUS' CATHEDRAL

Gate Towers

Prague, view from Charles Bridge toward the Lesser Town Bridge Tower, and Judith's Tower; and more distant St. Vitus' Cathedral

Petr Ginz lived with his family in Prague during the German occupation in World War II. He wrote poems and stories, drew, and kept a diary.
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Mischling.

Mixed Blood

Formal Designation, Nazi

Degrees of Mischling

Petr Ginz is not only a boy, a son, a student, a brother, nephew, grandson, person. He also is a Mischling - the Nazi designation of someone of mixed "blood" - One parent, a Jew. One parent a Roman Catholic. Their child is a Mischling. See a Nazi Certificate for this category at Lotte's story at timewitnesses.org/english/2npreviw.html. A child of mixed blood.

Good Duke Wenceslas, in Wenceslas Square, mounted, Prague CZ

Petr writes that, at one point, Jews were not allowed to walk in this Square. Page 111.

Here is Wenceslas at the Square, on his horse.

The area is not really a square - it is a long, wide boulevard that used to be a horse market. www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=605. See also www.prague.net/wenceslas-square. See more on Wenceslas, and photos and post information at Czech Republic Road Ways, Wenceslas post.

Operation Anthropoid

Assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heidrich

and the Czech Resistance

Later Film:  Operation Daybreak 

What Petr tells us about the events in Prague that came to be known as "Operation Daybreak."

For an experience of the Heydrich assassination in film, see the 1976 or 1975 film about the Czech Resistance assassinating Nazi Reinhard Heydrich*, see post here, including at Places of Petr Ginz, Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.

Assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich

Petr wrote of one of the most memorable and history-changing events in Prague of his time:  the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the highest ranking Nazi in Czechoslovakia and other areas contiguous, an architect of the Holocaust, and known as the Butcher of Prague.

We put together here Petr Ginz' references to that event, its aftermath, and some research about the references.

Liben.

1. Vinohrady, or Vinobrady

And the girlfriend of one of the Czech resistance fighters, Rela Fafek.  The paratroopers who assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, known as the Butcher of Prague, were often guests of the Fafek family who lived in the Vinohrady District.

Troja

1.  Recreation.  Here Petr and Eva (sister Chava Pressburger, who later edited the diary) got a boat ride. Page 28; or Petr would walk there with his friend, Popper. Page 44.

Once he and Eva were walking there, and she cried from the cold. Page 64.  Petr seems never to talk about himself and his reactions, but does refer to others. Ms. Pressburger says that Troja is a suburb and Jews were allowed to go there.

Train Stations 

Railroads:  the targeted populations could not have been transported to the camps without them. Is that so? The perversions of technology. 

1.  Prague Main Train Station - Woodrow Wilson.

This is the train station where there is a commotion celebrating Hitler's 53rd birthday. Page 100.  This was the occasion where the British-trained Czech resistance operatives (and others) carried out Operation Anthropoid that up the assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich.

The Czech Resistance Assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich

Exhibit, Boromejsky Church

Orthodox Church of St. Cyril and Methodius

Reinhard Heydrich assassination, Prague, Czech Resistance exhibit, Boromejsky Orthodox Church

Readers of Petr's Diary, who do not have a firm grounding in WWII history, may be misled by the reporter-type detached entries of Petr Ginz. His listing of the Occupation events can be bland.

The Orthodox Church of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, Prague

The Resistance Hid Here 

after their Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi Butcher of Prague

Petr Ginz followed the story as it unfolded.

Orthodox Church of  St.  Cyril and St. Methodius (Boromejsky) interior exhibit, WWII Czech resistance, assassination Reinhard Heydrich, Prague

The report unfolds in Petr's diary: In summary, with some of the factual statements in boldface, page cites, and explanations:

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Streets of Prague

Squares Mentioned in Diary of Petr Ginz 

Shorter reference

Miscellany - in passing

Prague is visual riches. Facades vary, there is ornamentation on street lamps, doorways, windows.  Its streets are livable:  narrow enough to walk across easily, but traffic still flows reasonably. As in much of Europe, older buildings are perhaps 4-5 stories tall, no more. This is a typical street in Prague.

Prague street; ornamentation.
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Places of no access for Jews

Prikopy.

Jews are not allowed to walk here. Page 110. This now is the pedestrian way at the lower end of Wenceslas Square. See www.radio.cz/en/article/60725. A place for shopping, and you can choose a walking tour focusing on that. See www.accommodation.cz/t/sight.html

Narodny Avenue.

Jews cannot walk here, either. Page 111. Take a long detour to a tunnel that goes under it in order to get places. Page 114.

Petrske Square.

Petr goes there to say goodbye to friends being transported to Theresienstadt. Page 100. Transport to Terezin - same.  Terezin is the Czech name for the German Theresienstadt.

It looks like an area of shops and restaurants. Do an Images search for Petrske Street, and find the map that shows also how close Dlouha Street is, above.

Lublanska Street.

The Jewish hospital, that treated Petr's father, and where doctors removed "...three litres of water from Daddy's lungs!" writes Petr. Page 85.

A violin-maker also is there, a master craftsman and restorer, www.housle-vavra.cz/en/history.php, still in business since 1870 despite all. See the family faces and talent shown there. Also Earth Day celebrations. See /archiv.radio.cz/listings/fest.html

Bulovka.

Vezenska Street.

There was a "pub the Gestapo chased people out and into a van." Page 48.

A Jewish ambulatory clinic was also there. Page 86. Looks like this is still a victuals place, also hotels.

Klimentska Street.

Peter goes here early to help Mr. Emil Bondy * with his luggage for his forced transport to Poland. Petr needed a pass: curfew for Jews until 6 AM. Page 45. Here it is: down from Stefanik's Bridge - www.mapy.cz/searchScreen?query=ulice%20Klimentska,%20Praha.

From the websites, it appears to be a residential street.

Hagibor.

This sounds like a skating area, see Page 57.  Rather, it is a larger enterprise - a sports club, sponsoring track and skating - see Hagibor Club at www.jewishsports.net/historical_view.htm.

Site summaries: After WWI, many Jewish sports clubs emerged, with an umbrella organization, the Maccabi World Union.

Podskalska Street.

Friends sublet an apartment there at number 22. Page 56.

Libri Prohibiti:  During the Nazi and Communist years, writers continued to create and publish underground literature. These are displayed and preserved in a Prague second-floor downtown apartment. The original location of the Library of Prohibited Books was Podskalska Street; now it is at Senovazne. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libri_Prohibiti.   See also  bol.praguepost.com/categories/93/2673/.

PETRIN HILL, STEFANIK'S BRIDGE

Prague, Petrin Hill, Stefanik's Bridge, Vltava River, CZ

This Prague view looks across the Charles Bridge toward Petrin Hill. Petrin Hill has a network of parks near Prague Castle. See photos here: www.pragueholiday.cz/fotogal/galery.php?d=0; and at www.prague.net/gallery/petrin-hill/.

Home. Petr lived near the Prague central slaughterhouse, near Petrin Hill (page 15), and I think this is in the Holesovice area. See his sister's notes at page 144.

Dlouha Avenue

This street is called (writes Petr) the "Milky Way" because of all the sheriffs there. Page 28.

The Central Jewish Museum was there, and administrators there processed the property of Jews being deported. Nazi property administration. The Reich collected a portion of assets in some cases, in exchange for small living stipend, or required that the person being transported to the camps pay his or her own way, made certain items of clothing (the warm ones) forbidden, and the like.

Veletrzni Palace

This was a large palace with courtyard used as a transit stop and holding place for collecting people to send to the ghettoes and concentration camps.  People had to go to get on the transports out to Theresienstadt or Poland. Page 19.

Jews stayed there 5 days before transport, sleeping on sawdust sacks (that people helped fill) Page 35. The modern picture of Veletrzni, the "Trade Fair Palace," does not look like a 1940's building. See www.prague.net/veletrzni-palace.
Above: Prague; the Charles Bridge.
Above: Prague; the Charles Bridge.
Above: Prague; the Charles Bridge.
Hradec Kralove, Petr's mother's home town
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