The Concentration Camps and the Ghetto: Litoměřice and Theresienstadt (Terezín)
It is first important to understand this: Theresienstadt was a centuries-old military base that housed a regiment of Czechoslovakian military personnel in 1938. After the Germans annexed Moravia and Bohemia (the German Sudetenland) in the fall of that year, the Czechoslovakian guards were dissolved and the Wehrmacht took over.
The Gestapo set up its prison and headquarters in the Small Fort. Political prisoners and criminals were held there. The Wehrmacht was housed in the various barracks in the town outside of the Small Fort.
In the fall of 1941, that Wehrmacht was replaced by male prisoners from German camps, who were then given the task to fortify the barracks and to reconstruct the spaces and the town to accommodate what would later become the Theresienstadt Jewish ghetto. In the spring of 1942, women and children were included in the deportations and sent to Theresienstadt. The crackdown and the initial subjugation of the Jews in the ghetto was harsh and unmerciful. However, when word got out about the treatment of the Jews there, Christians and Jews alike protested across the Third Reich. By the end of summer 1942, the Nazis allowed letters and parcels and eased up on the inmates. They quickly learned to use that to their advantage as a propaganda tool.
In 1942 and in 1944, two films were produced in Theresienstadt for the purposes of propaganda. In 1942 the Nazi administration held a contest for best screenplay. In 1944 the famous film director and Jew, Kurt Gerron, was ordered to produce a film. The Nazis built a swimming pool, renovated the facades, provided food and clothing, a park, and entertainment to make it all look so very…appealing. As one friend said, “It sounds worse than a Stephen King story.” It was.
At first the ghetto was used as a transit depot for sending Jews and prisoners from the west on to other camps established in the newly won territories of the Reich, mostly Poland. At the end of the war, as the Nazis became trapped between the Soviet and American fronts, the inmates from camps in both the east and west were transferred to Theresienstadt in a final effort to “save” labor resources. However, many of the railroads were sabotaged by resistance fighters, and many of those prisoners were forced on long death marches before—and if—reaching Theresienstadt.
Litoměřice—across the river from Theresienstadt—is a real town in the former Sudetenland, with two mining tunnels nearby. These tunnels were fortified in 1944 by some five hundred prisoners brought in from Dachau. The inmates were ordered to prepare the tunnels to house two factories: a tank motor manufactory and an electrical components factory (today Audi and Osram—although Audi did send their tank motors to the Richard I tunnel, Osram never made the relocation to the Bohemian district). More prisoners were brought to the camp to work.
These prisoners were placed in a concentration camp not far away. TB and typhus killed thousands between 1944 and 1945. In the chaos, the Litoměřice concentration camp commander released the prisoners by bringing them to the bridge and letting them go. The majority had only one destination available to them: Theresienstadt. Doctors from Prague rushed to the camp to help and faced one of the worst horrors many had witnessed in the war. Widespread disease and epidemics were killing hundreds of people daily. Crime rates in the district escalated, the squalor contributed to the diseases, and there was utter chaos in a multitude of languages for quite some time.
Berlin insisted that the Germans hold Litoměřice. It was the last bridge to the west. As the Germans fled from the Red Tide, they hoped to land in American zones, where they knew they would be treated better, especially the officers. Litoměřice presented their last chance, and it is one theory that some merciful soul—perhaps the concentration camp commander—released the inmates on the bridge before fleeing themselves.
The Jewish Situations
There are a few things that I want to point out regarding the research conducted on the Jewish aspects in this book. I knew from the offset that I would not be focusing on the family or the Holocaust when I began creating Magda’s character. She would be separated from the Jewish family, and all that she could possibly know about them was what might have been filtered in from the Underground. It was one reason I brought Karol into the story. However, there were other aspects I needed to make sure I had correct before this story could come together.
The Taubers Not Being Deported until Spring of 1942
When I read a study about how quite a number of Jews were able to avoid deportation based on their influential status or good connections to Gentiles, the Taubers’ story finally had some credence.
Magda as a Sandek
I’m very happy to say that I had several Jewish people read through the first story I’d written about Magda. It was quickly clear that not only was the situation plausible, but the ceremony was accurately depicted. I’m grateful for the feedback and the kind, encouraging words.
Karol’s Escape from the Cattle Train
This escape is based on a hodgepodge of different accounts by Jewish eyewitnesses and escapees.
The Locations
Villa Liška is based on Villa Pfaffenhof, located near the Richard I and Richard II tunnels on the mountain of Radobýl. It was the home of the commander of the Litoměřice concentration camp and not the district’s Obersturmbannführer.
The abandoned village behind the villa is wholly fictional. There is a village there called Michalovice. I have no idea whether it existed in WWII, whether it was abandoned or occupied by Germans, but in this book I needed it to be abandoned.
St. Stephen’s cathedral in Litoměřice has catacombs, but the layout and the church’s role in this story was wholly fictionalized, as were all the characters. Also, it was nearly impossible to hide in Litoměřice. Most of the Czechs and Slovaks fled the city after it was annexed in 1938. Very few local
