Theresienstadt

Terezin/Theresienstadt - darkometer rating : 8 - A fortress/fortified town in the north of the Czech Republic , originally dating from the late 18th century, but known mostly for its use as a Gestapo prison, Jewish ghetto and concentration camp during the German Nazis ' occupation of Czechoslovakia in WWII . > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Theresienstadt, or Terezin in Czech, is divided into two parts, a large fortress, primarily a military barracks complex and later used as the ghetto, and the "small fortress", the prison proper. The prison complex has been a memorial site since shortly after the end of World War II , and the Czech Republic 's prime site of this kind. In more recent years, further memorial sites, mostly within the actual town, the large fortress, have been added. From the beginning, prominent inmates were kept here, including the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (whose murder is generally considered the decisive spark that triggered World War One – cf. Sarajevo and Military History Museum , Vienna ). The main notoriety of Theresienstadt stems from the Nazi era, though. Soon after the Nazi invasion of Czech lands, the existing fortress and military prison were taken over by the Gestapo in 1940 as a central prison for incarcerating political prisoners, resistance fighters and all manner of otherwise "undesirable" individuals, mostly Czechs but also other nationalities. As could be expected, the prison was soon overcrowded and living conditions became horrendous. Some 2,500 died here either from disease and torture or were executed. The ghetto set up by the Nazis in the town of Theresienstadt, however, was of at least the same historical significance.