TEREZÍN

The Small Fortress

1. Entrance Gate

2. Administration Court

3. Reception Office : Prisoners records were kept here by the deputy prison commander W Schmidt who after WWII was sentenced & executed.

4. Guards Office : Inmates were interrogated and their mail was censored here

5. Prison commanders office : The post was held by Heinrich Jöckel for the duration of the war he was a man noted for his cruelty and was sentenced & executed in 1946

6. Clothes store : This was managed by K. Wachholz who dressed the prisoners in discarded uniforms of defeated soldiers. K Wachholz was sentenced to death in what was East Germany in 1968

7. "Arbeit macht frei" was the inscription above this gate: A common inscription at most nazi camps but not usually Gestapo prisons. This was the entrance to the first court yard

8. First Courtyard : This courtyard was in two parts Blocks 'A' & 'B' in them they contained 17 large cells and 20 solitary confinement units. The courtyard was the home of some 1500 inmates

9. The Cells : up to 100 prisoners were crowded in to each cell. Cell no: 1 was for the Russian prisoners, cell nos: 2 & 3 were for Jews who had been arrested for political activities & for violation of anti-Jewish regulations.

10. The Surgery : Was the domain of the officially appointed police doctor B.Krönert of Litoměřice

11. Commanders office (First Courtyard) : A Neubauer & then S Rojko ran this office it was where records of the prisoners in cells were kept and where working commandos were put together

12. Solitary Confinement : As the name implies prisoners were isolated from others while they waited for their punishment or execution

13. Bathroom & Delousing room

14. Sick Room : Imprisoned doctors attended the sick prisoners here

15. Shaving Room : This was a so called "Show Shaving Room" designed to show prison authorities how well sanitary conditions were for the prisoners

16. Hospital Block : towards and at the end of the war hundreds of prisoners died here form typhoid fever in horrible conditions. during 1944 the women's section was temporarily moved here

17. Underground Passage : This was part of the original fort but was not used during the war

18. Mortuary : The corpses of tortured prisoners were kept here. they were burned in the crematorium from 1942

The Small Fortress was built in the late 18th century near the Elbe And Ohře rivers. 

It was named after the Empress.

Since construction almost it has been used as a prison with various elements from history being held here.

During World War II the existing jails were gradually filled up due to the Nazi terrors, so the Small Fortress became Prague's Gestapo prison during 1940.

The first prisoners arrived on June 14th 1940. During the war some 32,000 prisoners including 5,000 women went through the gates.

Originally it was mainly Czech citizens, but as the war progressed other nationalities began arriving.

There were Soviets, Poles, Germans Yugoslavs & towards the end of the war POW's from the British Army.

Terezín was primarily a way station for the majority of prisoners who had been arrested for various "crimes" of protest against the Nazi system. They awaited shipment to concentration camps where some 8000 died.

In Terezín itself 2500 prisoners died due to jail conditions, torture by guards and disease.

The guards finally abandoned the fortress on May 5th 1945.

 Physicians and nurses from Prague and surrounding towns moved in to stop the epidemic of typhoid that had broken out which had gone uncared for by the guards.

With the Soviet Army arriving on May 8th 1945 the epidemic

 was finally controlled with the help of the Soviet Medical staff.

Terezín was used as a detention camp between 1945 & 1948 for the Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia

Monumental Tributes

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19. Place of execution : From 1943 prisoners were executed about 250 were shot, on may 2nd 1945 the largest execution was carried out with some 52 inmates being killed. The gallows were only used for hanging once for three prisoners

20. Mass graves : In the summer of 1945 601 corpses were exhumed and reburied in the national cemetery

21. Gate of Death : Prisoners had to pass through here on their way to execution

22. Swimming pool : The pool was built in 1942 for the guards and their families to swim in. It was constructed by students and Jewish prisoners who were beaten and tortured while they worked

23. Cinema : The cinema was established in 1942 for the use of the guards

24. Fourth Courtyard : The construction of the fourth courtyard began in 1943 with the arrival of the first prisoners in the autumn of 1944. by the end of the war nearly 3000 prisoners lived and nearly died here

25. Fourth Courtyards Administration Building : Today it holds earth from all the concentration camps the prisoners were sent to

26. Individual Mass Cells : These cells held 400-600 people, prisoners marked XYZ in cell no: 44 were concentrated until execution#

27. Cells in raised courtyard & warning gallows : in March 1945 three prisoners failed to escape from cell no:38, one of the escapees two other men and a woman were selected at random and executed in the courtyards corner as a warning to others. The remaining two were caught and stoned to death near the solitary confinement blocks in the first courtyard

28. Solitary confinement blocks : These were used as mass cells during 1945

29. SS-Barracks : 120 SS-guards lived in this block

30. Lord's House (so-called) : This was home to the Prison commander and some of the guards and their families

31. Second Courtyard : Contained in this courtyard were mostly workshops where prisoners were made to work

32. Canteen : The canteen was for the use of the prison staff

33. Third Courtyard : The third courtyard was reserved for women from 1942, but in 1944 they were moved temporarily to the hospital so the first working transport for the Litomĕřice concentration camp could be housed here

34. National Cemetery : The cemetery was gradually filled between 1942 & 1958, It now contains some 10,000 corpses from the small fortress, Terezín ghetto and Litomĕřice concentration camp, 2386 corpses are buried in individual graves.