In December of 1941, an additional Aufbaukommando unit of 1,000 engineers, physicians, and laborers arrived along with 23 men who would supposedly run operations in Terezin under Nazi SS-Commandery supervision. The Prague Religious Community had selected these individuals as appropriate to form a ghetto administration officially known as the Jewish Council of Elders, headed initially through SS orders by Jakub Edelstein. While it was to appear to the outside world that the Jews were governing themselves, this was all illusion. The Council of Elders were quick to realize they only served as the mouthpiece for SS orders, for even everyday administration was guided by groundwork dictated by the SS-Commandery. Changes to protocol were announced by Orders of the Day, and detailed issues such as the lifting or imposing of bans on posting mail, using lights, holding cultural activities and the like.

Jakub Edelstein

The SS were not without a sense of cruel irony however. One department in which the Council had full power was the selecting of Jews to be deported to the East—the equivalent to a death sentence. While the Jews were not fully aware of the terrors of the East, such as the gas chambers in Poland’s Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps, enough rumors circulated to strike fear into every heart of those who received a transport notice. From 1942 to 1944, 87,000 Jews were taken away from Terezin in transports of typically 1000 people each. Only about 3,000 survived these deportations by the close of the War.

Understandably these selections were a torturous duty for those involved—to create lists that necessarily included friends and acquaintances and even strangers was immeasurably difficult and painful. Prisoners attempting to bribe or beg their way out of deportation often approached the Council members in an appeal to their “power.” Success was never guaranteed, though some prisoners did manage to assure themselves a level of protection from an uncertain fate in the East. Members of the first two Aufbaukommandos, Council members themselves, and anyone performing duties critical to the running or the propaganda of the camp (as well as all their families), had a stronger sense of security than most of the prisoners, especially the old and the sick. Yet careful efforts were also made to keep as many children as possible off of the transport lists. Through the horrors of imprisonment, hope for future freedom of the Jews was inextinguishable. While many adults were despondent about their own chances for survival, the children represented a generation that just might be able to outlast this wretched persecution.

Meeting of the Council of Elders
(A still from the Terezin propaganda film)

The camp government contained a number of supplementary departments to keep the camp running as smoothly as possible. Besides the Administration department, there were Economic, Financial, Technical, and Health and Social Care departments. These factions kept track of the full gamut of camp operations, from devermination to fire fighting to burials. To keep the prisoners’ behavior in check, prison guard was supplied by a combination of 150 Czech policeman and an unarmed ghetto guard formed by the prisoners themselves. After a time, however, the SS was wary of even a weaponless military unit and deported them all, to be later replaced by a new guard of one hundred prisoners—but only men over 40 were allowed since they were viewed as less likely to uprise.