The First Transport to Terezín

2008

The Small Fortress at Terezín, the Habsburg garrison town requisitioned in 1941 as the ghetto and transit camp Theresienstadt. Place: Terezín (Theresienstadt), 60 km north of Prague Figures: 342 Jewish men of the Aufbaukommando · Jakob Edelstein, first Judenältester · the Habsburg garrison town, requisitioned Terezín was built by Joseph II in 1784 as a fortress against the Prussians. It never fought a battle. Its bastions enclose a small garrison town of barracks, parade grounds, and four straight streets. In October 1941 Heydrich's office selects it as the destination for what is officially called the Sammellager, the assembly camp, for the Jews of the Protectorate. The civilian population, some 3,500, is evicted by May 1942. On November 24, 1941, the first transport arrives: 342 men, designated the Aufbaukommando, the construction detail. Their task is to convert the barracks into a ghetto for what the planning documents estimate as 50,000 people. The figure will be exceeded. The subject dates from 1941; this photograph was taken in 2008.