PROPAGANDISTIC ROLE OF TEREZÍN
 
Terezín was supposed to fulfill three roles in the so-called “final solution to Jewish question“. The first was gathering the Jewish people before their deportation to the east, second was the role of decimation and last was the propagandistic role. The aim of the propaganda was to demonstrate to the whole world that the Nazis had given the Jewish people a town that they could run themselves. After the military set-backs in 1943 and 1944, the Nazis agreed that a delegation of representatives from the International Red Cross could visit Terezín in order to shoot a propagandistic documentary film.
 
In the spring of 1943 the “beautifying of the town“ began. A café house was opened, as well as the Bank of Jewish self-rule, which issued banknotes without any real value. The names of the new streets were named Lake, Station or Spa streets and flowers were planted. A new music pavilion was established in the square and new children’s facilities were built, although children were not allowed to enter them. The new kindergarten and sport center in the area of South hill, the so-called bastion, were also opened. A cultural movement in the ghetto was supported too. The local Sokol house turned into a cultural house which held theatre performances every evening during the planned visit.
 
To reduce the number of inhabitants in the overcrowded town, several transports were dispatched to Auschwitz. The visitation in June 1944 passed most satisfactorily for the Nazis. The delegation’s report created throughout the world an illusion of a nice spa town, which Adolf Hitler gave as a present to the Jews.
 
 
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