Roughly 11,000 prisoners
continued to live in Terezin after October of 1944’s last transports to the
East, but these numbers swelled in late April of 1945. As the Russians bore
down upon the Nazis from the North and through Poland, the Germans sensed
impending doom in their war efforts. Fearful of retribution for their genocidal
ways, the Nazis frantically began covering their tracks in the Eastern
concentration camps. After final bouts of liquidations in places like Auschwitz
and Birkeneau, gas chambers were destroyed to conceal evidence of their crimes.
As prisoners were cleared out en masse in Buchenwald, enormous pits were dug
large enough to hold the bodies of 10,000 victims of SS bullets.
Those
people that the SS couldn’t murder in time at such camps were
shipped farther away from the war front. Terezin was safer
from discovery than many other locations, and thus by May
of 1945 14,000 prisoners had been transferred to the fortress
town. These new additions to the population were in particularly
desperate shape, having suffered in the abhorrent conditions
of Nazi death camps. While Terezin was assuredly a trial to
human spirit and survival, it was, in the words of Holocaust
historian Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, “a kindergarten in comparison”
to the hell of the death camps. These ragged survivors were
barely alive after their previous brutal treatments, their
long, traumatic rail journeys, and the ravages of filth, vermin,
and disease. In fact, many were infected with spotted fever,
or typhus, which grew to have major implications for the populace
of Terezin.
 Prisoners from evacuated camps are brought to TerezinAt 7:45 PM on May 8th, Russian tanks
passed through the gates of the Terezin fortress on their
way to Prague. Their arrival signaled the official end of
the Nazi regime at the camp—liberation was finally a reality.
The Germans had gone from retreating to capitulating, and
World War II had drawn to a close. But by no means was the
situation immediately or fully alleviated for the long-suffering
prisoners. Most of the remaining inhabitants and the newer
arrivals were in pitiful health, and the typhus epidemic pervading
the camp only worsened matters. Also detrimental was the generosity
of the rescuing soldiers who returned to Terezin on May 10.
Brimming with compassion for the near-skeletal people they
encountered, soldiers impetuously shared rich and hearty meals.
Tragically this glut of well-intentioned food was too much
for the prisoners’ delicate and damaged digestive systems.
After months upon months of inhumane rations, one hearty meal
caused a number of deaths among the newly liberated.
|
