Terezin

Theresienstadt (currently known by its Czech name, Terezin), which lies about 40 miles north of Prague, became a model walled Jewish ghetto for the middle-aged and elderly in 1941. Because the camp housed numerous professors, artists and writers, there was always an emphasis on cultural activities like lectures and concerts. In fact, during the life of the ghetto, more than 2,400 talks were delivered on such diverse and oftentimes sophisticated topics as the Jews of Babylon, the theory of relativity, Alexander the Great and German humor. There was even a functioning library with 49,000 books that had been brought from private collections, as well as a police force, a fire brigade and several other civic services. Terezin brings together photographs of the town, bleak remnants of the camp and historical documents that photographer Daniel Blaufuks unearthed in his research.