Beit TheresienstadtKibbutz Givat - Haim Ihud

Hefer Valley

Preparation for delegations to PolandFrom the Theresienstadt Ghetto there were transports to the extermination camps in the east. One of the special chapters is the story of the family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, to which thousands of prisoners from the Ghetto arrived.This programme deals with spiritual resistance, NAZI cover-up and deception, Jewish leadership in the Ghetto and the family camp in Birkenau.The programme is designed for pupils in their final school year, delegations to Poland, teachers, guides and students.

ProjectsHistory, Music and Memory – Seminar for the commemoration of the musical heritage of the Ghetto.

Women in the Holocaust – Seminar in cooperation with Beit Berl and the Ghetto Fighters House Museum.

Perach La’Nitzul – Youth assisting Holocaust survivors.

Coexistence – Combining Jewish and Arab youth inlearning about the Holocaust.

Educational Programme:“Children writing in the wake of the children’s newspapers in the Ghetto”A rich children’s journalism developed in the children’s dormitories in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. It gave expression to the hardships that they had to endure, their fears, their dreams and their hopes. During the workshops, participants are exposed to the lives of the children in the Ghetto through writings and drawings that they left behind.The activity is aimed at pupils from grades five to eight and consists of two meetings, one at Beit Theresienstadt and the other at their school. The product is a newspaper produced by the children.

“The game was our life…”The programme focuses on the educational and moral significance of sport, and introduces the participants to the sports organisers and players in the Ghetto.The place of sport in the children’s education at the Ghetto was of most importance, especially for Freddy Hirsch, deputy manager of the Youth Department and revered guide. By use of sports games, especially football, educational values were transmitted, and memories of normal life offered some consolation in the awful reality of the Ghetto.The programme can be adapted for youth and adults.

“Growing up between walls”Most of the children aged 12-16 in the Ghetto grew up in children’s dormitories, separate from their parents. The reality of breaking up the family unit changed the lifestyle and expressed independence and maturity.This programme deals with the different relationships between parents and children, and between children themselves. The meaning of maturing under these conditions will be investigated by examining diary entries and letters of the Ghetto’s youth.

We also offer activities for parents and children in preparation for Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

THERESIENSTADT MARTYRS REMEMBRANCE ASSOCIATION

Beit Theresienstadt,Givat Haim Ihud,

M.P. Emek Hefer, Israel, Zip:38935 Phone: 04-6369515, 04-6369894

Fax.04-6369793

info@bterezin.org.il www.bterezin.org.il

ArchiveThe archive includes thousands of original items from the life in the Ghetto. It also includes an electronic database with details about 160,000 Jews who were interned in the Ghetto.

The Educational CentreThe educational Centre offers: • Seminars• Workshops• Lectures• Educational Material• Books• Website• Guidance for students in written assignments

Target Audience:• School pupils from grade 5, middle school, and high school• Delegations to Poland• Teachers and Guides• Students • Soldiers• Retirees• Domestic and Foreign Tourists

the artistic and cultural creativity of the Ghetto, and the role of the Ghetto in the “Final Solution”.

Exhibitions:“Kamarad – They Called it friend”The archives of Beit Theresienstadt offer a peek into the world of the children in the Ghetto through a children’s newspaper written in the boys’ dormitory, Q-609.Extracts from 22 issues of the newspaper that were written and illustrated by hand are displayed. Sections of the newspaper include articles about the daily life in the boys’ dormitory, events in the Ghetto, stories, imaginations and more.

“Terezin League – Sport and Youth in the Theresienstadt Ghetto”Sport was an inseparable part of the educational activities in the Ghetto. The exhibit displays the football league and stories of the sportspeople in the Ghetto. Original exhibits and testimonies highlight the additional ways in which internees coped with the terrible reality that surrounded them in the Ghetto.

east, the Ghetto had an active cultural life that emphasized the care and education of children and youth.On 8 May 1945, the Ghetto was liberated by the Soviet Red Army.

The Historical Museum – “Theresienstadt 1941-1945”Through original exhibits, documents, drawings and photographs, the story of the Ghetto from its founding to its liberation is spread out before the visitor.

The exhibition portrays the Jewish leadership, the deportations to and from the Ghetto, the day-to-day life, the world of the children,

portrayed to the Jewish leadership in Prague as a “Jewish City”, where the Jews from Bohemia and Moravia would be concentrated. However, it was soon revealed to be a transit camp in which Jews from central Europe were held and then sent to the death camps in the east. At the end of the war death marches also reached the Ghetto.At its peak capacity about 58,000 people were held in the Ghetto, in a place designed for only 7,000. 160,000 Jews were brought to the Ghetto, of which 88,000 were sent to death camps, and another approximately 35,000 died in the Ghetto from illness, hunger and distress.Despite the difficult conditions and the deportations to the

Beit Theresienstadt:Beit Theresienstadt was opened in 1975 in Kibbutz Givat Haim Ichud as an organisation to commemorate the prisoners in the Theresienstadt Ghetto that perished in the Holocaust. The goals of the organisation: a centre for survivors to meet and to forge their vision of learning about the history of the Ghetto and of the people who experienced it. The location includes a historical museum, exhibition rooms, an archive and library.

Theresienstadt Ghetto:In November 1941 the heads of the SS decided to establish the Theresienstadt Ghetto in the fortress city of Terezin, located some 60km from the city of Prague. The Ghetto was