Terezín (Theresienstadt), Small Fortress

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.