Terezin Memorial

Terezin is 60 kilometers north of Prague and takes about an hour by direct bus from the Florenc station. Emperor Joseph II built the star-shaped fortress in 1780 as a military defensive work; the Nazis converted it into a Jewish ghetto and transit camp in 1941. Between 1941 and 1945, approximately 140,000 Jews passed through. About 33,000 died inside the ghetto from disease and malnutrition; most of the remainder were transported to Auschwitz. The Nazis simultaneously used Terezin as a propaganda instrument, producing a 1944 film for the International Red Cross to show supposedly happy residents. The director, Kurt Gerron, a German-Jewish actor forced to make the film, was sent to Auschwitz and murdered shortly after. The memorial today covers the Small Fortress, the Ghetto Museum, and the Magdeburg Barracks; allow a full day. The combination ticket covers the main sites. This is the most visited memorial site in the Czech Republic and one of the most important historical visits in Central Europe.