Forty-seven miles north of Prague in Czechoslovakia, there is a town named Theresienstadt, or Terezin. Terezin was built in 1780 by the Austrian Emperor, Joseph the II, and named after his mother, the Empress Maria Theresa. It consisted of a Small Fortress on one side, and a Big Fortress on the other side of the Ohre River. Terezin's Small Fortress served as a prison for military and political opponents to the Hapsburg monarchy in the early 19th century. 4 However, the most tragic part of Terezin's history came after the Czech lands were occupied by Nazi Germany. Terezin's Small Fortress was converted to a police prison of the Prague Gestapo in June 1940; in November 1941, a ghetto and concentration camp for the Jews was established in the Big Fortress and town of Terezin. 4 "Here, horror overcame us, shook us, and ate into our very soul." 7

Originally, Terezin was meant to house...