The First Experience

Available in: English | Česky | Deutsch

Although Karel Veselý spent a “mere” three months in the Little Fortress in Terezín, this period has remained engraved in his memory forever. Immediately upon his arrival in May 1942, he realized that he had just entered hell: “They lined us up in the yard; there were about two hundred of us. An SS-man marched up and down the lines and then he picked a young man from Litomyšl and told him: ‘You are a Jew!’ And he answered: ‘No, I am not a Jew. I am a Christian.’ And the SS-man repeated: ‘You are a Jew!’ And the boy said: ‘No, I am a Christian.’ At that instant the SS-man pulled out his gun and shot him dead, right there in the middle of the line of people. It was the first demonstration of who is in charge in Terezín. They wanted to show us that the prisoners are nothing to them. The guards could treat the prisoners as they wanted, everything was allowed.”

Gallery (3)

Hodnocení

Hodnotilo 0 lidí

Abyste mohli hodnotit musíte se přihlásit!

Routes

Not a part of any route.

Add to user route

Comments

No comments yet.

Insert comment

Karel Veselý

Karel Veselý was born in 1922 in Heřmanův Městec. During the war, he worked in the Flugzeugwerke Chotzen, (Choceň), aircraft factory that belonged to Ing. Jaroslav Mráz. In Choceň, he joined a local resistance group and together with his friend Ludvík Kodýtko they distributed leaflets throughout the city. In April 1942, he was arrested and subsequently subjected to a number of very brutal interrogations by the Gestapo in Pardubice. After the interrogations, he was imprisoned in the Little Fortress of the Terezín ghetto and later in prisons in Bautzen, (Budyšín), Dresden, and Berlin. He was sentenced to five years and was jailed in prisons in Straubing and Ebrach. In April 1945, he was sent on a so-called "death march" to the Dachau concentration camp. Most of the prisoners who took part in this march perished. Of the four thousand that went on the march, only 1,200 survived. The others were shot, beaten to death or died of starvation or complete exhaustion. After the war, he at first lived at home in Pardubice and later in Nové Sedlo. He eventually settled in Šumperk, where he still lives today.

More info

Terezín (Theresienstadt), Small Fortress

Available in: English | Česky | Deutsch

The Small Fortress of Terezín comprises a significant part of the city lying on the right bank of Ohře River. Originally a military citadel, the place was founded together with the rest of the city in the late 18th century, and functioned as a prison already during the 19th century. During WW1, the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip was imprisoned here – the man who had assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Princip died of tuberculosis after spending four years in the horrendous conditions of the Terezín gaol. During WW2, the place served as a prison for the Prague Gestapo. Due to bad hygienic conditions, the inmates of the jail suffered from an epidemic of typhus. In 1945–8 the Small Fortress functioned as an internment camp for German prisoners of war and also for civilians of German nationality who were to be deported from Czechoslovakia to Germany under President Beneš’s Decrees. Today, the Small Fortress houses the Terezín Memorial, and the main western gate leads out to the Terezín National Cemetery.