theresienstadt concentration camp

Terezin is a concentration camp like no other. The "model camp" where the SS used a beautification process to fool the Red Cross into believing all was well within the camps. The area is steeped in history from the 1700s onwards. The history of the area under Nazi rule is gut wrenching and leaves you in awe that so many awful things could have happened in that very spot where you are stood. Terezin was a "transit camp' where most prisoners were transported elsewhere to meet their demise, however the Nazis had begun to build a gas chamber but had not had a chance to use it before the camp was liberated. The area is now a functioning town although it seems to have been ravaged by floods recently. Our tour did not consist of any elements of the small fortress, which I would recommend to anyone who has not been to a concentration camp before. To understand the true horrors I believe it is best to see the entire area. We booked the Terezin Concentration Camp tour through Sandemans New Prague tour company. It cost around £12 each and Tijo guided us from the meeting point right up until the last minute where he directed everyone where they needed to go. Every human should make a point to visit somewhere like this at some point in their life, it gives you such an appreciation for how lucky you and your family are and gives you a new sense of humility.

Booked this tour through Viator. Tour guide walked us round the entire camp and provided an extremely interesting insight into what life was like here for prisoners during WW2. Our English speaking guide spoke very good English. Only downside was that we finished the tour with a visit to a museum in Terezin, based on the concentration camp. However, we were only able to spend 30 minutes here, so unfortunately it was a very rushed walk around the museum, and we didn't get a chance to see everything. Tour lasted for around 6 hours, including travel time. Didn't stop for lunch though, so be prepared!Would definitely recommend this tour to anyone visiting Prague.

This site gives you a sense of what the camp was like when it served as the transit site for the "final solution"

This was an experience I was not necessarily looking forward to , but my wife aske me to take her.All I would like to say is that whilst this was a "Transit" camp it still shows the horrors and atrocious behaviour of the SS in the war, something that we can quite often look at on TV, but until you stand next to, or in these places do you feel the unbelievable cold run through your body as to what went on, and leaves you feeling very sad.Enough said.My Thanks to the guide from Viatour for a well informed tour.Lino Len

significant part of history very well preserved and presented excellent guide good English explanations. It's is an emotionally difficult visit but very much recommended.Guide willing to show whole site off season and helpful to find local cafe.Do allow a full day to see art works

We visited this camp, also called Terezin, while visiting Prague. We had a guide who was most informative with the history. It is hard to believe man could be so inhuman to another man. History at it's worst. Odd to know this camp was "typical" so said the Nazis to the International Red Cross (IRC). To see the showers and wash basins that were to be used by the prisoners, simply a sham to impress the IRC however they were never used. Came away very depressed knowing this had happened, however the "real" concentration camps were far and away worse.

This was a very interesting experience. It was hard to imagine how these people survived. The site is very large. The stories from the guide were fascinating. There was also a short film you can watchA tip - When you arrive ask to go with a guide then you will have the insight and the stories of the camp.

We were slightly apprehensive about visiting Terezin, expecting that we might find the experience too emotional and upsetting. However, we are so glad we went and although there is cause for reflection, to miss the chance to go would be a betrayal of those imprisoned here for their political or religious beliefs, or their racial status. Terezin was not an extermination camp, so you won't be seeing any gas chambers.Terezin is divided into the Small Fortress and the Large Fortress. We had an excellent guide, Petr, who showed us around the Small Fortress. This was a military fort and has been in existence for about 200 years, used as defence against the Prussians, and also to house military and political prisoners. Gavrilo Princip, who shot Archduke Ferdinand and thus caused the 1st World War, was held here in solitary confinement, and it is possible to see the actual cell where he was held.There were a few executions here, and many Jews and others died, mainly as a result of overcrowding and insanitary conditions, but Terezin was primarily a transport camp where people were held before onward journeys to the true death camps of Auschwitz and Dachau. It is certainly sobering to be in a cell with others in the party (numbering about 14), and be told that often several hundred prisoners were crowded into the same cell with only 1 toilet!After seeing the Small Fortress, we were taken by bus to the Large Fortress, which consists of several streets lined by mainly 19th century buildings. These are now used as government offices and for administration purposes, but during the 2nd World War, this was the Jewish Ghetto. The exhibitions here are so interesting. They show life in the ghetto where, although living in overcrowded conditions, the Jews managed to produce art, poetry and drama.We are so glad we made this trip and were pleased to see a group of German students. Our guide told us that visits here, or to other camps, are included in the school curriculum in Germany.So - if you are visiting Prague, please also go to Terezin and ensure that none of its inmates will ever be forgotten.

very interesting place,the actual site is quite large and you need a lot of time to get round everything but well worth the effort.

Many people think of concentration camps as places where people were gased, this complex fort was a holding camp not an extermination camp but the gas chambers were being built as the war ended. Sadly however, many of the occupants of the camp were transported either to Auschwitz Birkenau or Dresden thats if they had not died from the conditions beforehand. There were however atrocities performed at this camp and it has a chillling past, not just associated with WW2.The cemetery is an emotional sight as soon as you arrive and the whole experience is sobering. When we arrived we were lined up, face against the wall just as the new inhabitants would have been during WW2 and told that sometimes they had been left there for 10, 12, maybe more hours, some dying from the cold - it can reach -5 deg Celcius.During WW2 the comendant wanted a concentration camp in Terezin but was not given one so he made the occupants of Terezin suffer in many other nasty and inhumane ways. He fooled people into believing it was the best place for the jews and they were being treated well - he even managed a beautification project on the Town and fortress specifically designed to sucessfully fool the Red Cross during their brief visit. We would recommend using a guide who has a good knowledge of the history of the place and it's true history, not what they think a tourist wants to hear.

We have just completed an amazing tour of this terrible place. Our guide Pavel Batel is passionate, informative and articulate. He was able to convey the brutal truth with cool clarity.Terezin illustrates Nazi Germany's ability to fool the world when it created a 'model village' that was in fact a concentration camp built within an 18th century fortress.It's well worth a visit, and Pavel is an outstanding guide. You can read more detail in other Tripadvisor reviews.

I wanted to walk the path that these people like me a human being had walked feeling every emotion they must have felt. We who have been so lucky in life need to experience a tour like this as a wake up call to the atrocites of what these people experienced and pray that they are never be repeated.Our guide at the Terezin Concentration Camp was most knowledgeable and compassionate about the Nazi Holocaust and I felt so much emotion for those people. This is a must in Prague and is a emotional and moving experience and you can't help putting yourself as a mother, father or child into their shoes. It's not a tour to be rushed as there is so much to take in and learn.

We took a tour with one other couple to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in early September, 2014 from Prague with Pavel Batel as our guide. He picked us up at our hotel right on time and drove us to the camp. During the drive he gave us information about his country past and present, and other facts important to our understanding of what we were about to see. He was very knowledgeable as well as interesting. He spent the day with us, driving us from place to place, giving us all the time we wanted to spend at each point of interest. Though not an uplifting place to tour, we feel that it is a place people should visit. It will give them an understanding of what can happen to people when hatred is spread. On our return trip he drove us to a medieval town before returning us to our hotel.

Having visited other concentration camps in Europe, this was different! Understandably the conditions in this place were. Terrible, however this camp was more of a holding tank for the other, far worse killing camps. From what I saw, the people had more food, clothing, and services than other places! Surely the eventually died in another place, but when they were here, it was a bit better! Very sneaky of the nazis to make this place a "model" camp!

I recommend to everybody who wants to hear everything about Terezin as we did : terezin-private-tours com. After 45 min. drive we visited Small fort, where we spent two hours. We had to rest for a while after this horror experience. Both movies and exhibition of Ghetto museum prepared us to see the rest. Next stop was Hidden synagogue. We came inside and small group of Jewish UK tourists were making pictures of writings on the wall, to find out meaning later on. Pavel, our guide started to translate it immediately and told us very moving story of rabbi who preached there. After this the two UK couples joined us to follow our specialist. He had no problem with that as long as we agreed. Of course we did. Magdeburg barracks are full of Terezin artists work. In Columbarium and mortuary we heard the story of resistance and German old jews, who suffered the most. Story of Crematorium, Jewish cemetery and fragment of tree, which used to belong to Terezin children we will never forget!! Before we visited quiet place along the river where Nazis got rid of the ashes, Pavel took us on ride through the whole town, explaining almost every single building!! It is been a couple of months we are back in Palermo and we still talk about our unforgettable Terezin experience and Pavel Batel! After disappointment with famous company (has commercial on every synagogue in Prague) we were so lucky that we found him.