Theresienstadt: Red Cross Visit

International human rights showcase themselves prevalently within world events and human atrocities. Throughout the course of history, the Holocaust has been one of said atrocities that has provided the largest impact and amount of remembrance of them all. As one of the most influential world leaders, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, has stated, “Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free… Inner peace is the key: if you have inner peace, the external problems do not affect your deep sense of peace and tranquility.” His Holiness’ words broadcast what the Holocaust was really about and the overwhelming effect the Nazis’ actions had on its victims. The human destruction directly correlated with the lack of peace and the desire for power. Numerous events throughout the course of the Holocaust can be discussed to show the Nazi purpose and point of view towards the Jews. One in particular is of utmost importance in showing the role that non-profit organizations played in the ghettos and camps of the Holocaust. The Theresienstadt ghetto receives its fame from the legendary Red Cross visit and the Nazi beautification process. The discussion of such occurrences creates an understanding of the implications behind Red Cross cover-ups and the dismissal of ethics.

Although there were countless concentration camps and ghettos throughout the span of the Holocaust, each camp and ghetto survived on its own set of characteristics and layouts. For the purposes of this discussion, a thorough analysis of the ghetto of Theresienstadt is pertinent to explain. The camp/ghetto of Theresienstadt was established by the Gestapo in the city of Theresienstadt, which is located in what is now the Czech Republic. The purpose for the walled ghetto of Theresienstadt was to provide a form of “transit camp” for European Jews on their way to Auschwitz. In true Nazi fashion, the camp was presented on the outside by the Nazis to resemble a model Jewish settlement.

According to one article found, more than 140,000 people moved through Theresienstadt from 1941-1945 and, as stated, most went on to Auschwitz. The Theresienstadt ghetto had a regime like that of a concentration camp, but because the ghetto was not equipped with gas chambers, one could not call Theresienstadt an extermination camp (Bonifas, 1992). In addition, a well-written summary of Theresienstadt was written by Philip Friedman as a response to a book written on the camp/ghetto. Friedman states that, “Theresienstadt was different from the other Jewish ghettos in the Nazi era. It was the only one in the area of the so-called Greater Reich…In 1940 it was a small town with 3,700 civilian inhabitants. But from 1941 on, the town ‘accommodated’ an average of 35,000 to 40,000 Jews in the same unchanged number of houses and barracks…However, this crowded ghetto with its high death rate, hard work, bad food, poor water, harsh treatment, and frequent deportations to the East was still a paradise compared to the ghettos of Eastern Europe…” (Friedman, 1954). Nevertheless, these statements are not to downplay the horrors of the camp/ghetto in any sense. The over-crowding alone gives understanding of the harsh conditions Theresienstadt prisoners were accustomed to. It seems difficult to even compare one concentration camp as appearing better than another one, even though that was the case in some instances.