Theresienstadt - the Bialystok children
1/n
On August 21, 1943, at the time of the annihilation of the Bialystok ghetto and the uprising there, the Gestapo demanded that 1,200 children ages 6-12 be gathered in order to transfer them, so they said, in an exchange deal to Palestine
1/n
On August 21, 1943, at the time of the annihilation of the Bialystok ghetto and the uprising there, the Gestapo demanded that 1,200 children ages 6-12 be gathered in order to transfer them, so they said, in an exchange deal to Palestine
2/n The transport of 1,200 children and 20 adults, traveled for 3 days by train and arrived on the 24 or 25 August at Theresienstadt.
At Theresienstadt the children were placed in a special camp Crete, which had been built outside the citadel.
At Theresienstadt the children were placed in a special camp Crete, which had been built outside the citadel.
3/n 53 doctors and nurses, inmates of the camp, were assigned to the children. The children’s camp was completely separated from the other prisoners, and all contact with them was forbidden. The entire arrangement was shrouded in mystery.
4/n Despite this, rumors circulated that the children, who had arrived starved and exhausted, resisted undergoing disinfection out of fear of being gassed in the showers.
The inmates of Theresienstadt could not understand this fear,
The inmates of Theresienstadt could not understand this fear,
5/n but in the Bialystok Ghetto the children had already heard of the shower-like gas chambers in which the Germans killed Jews. Rumors of these had appeared in the Bialystok Ghetto, spread by escapees from Treblinka. The children were carefully examined by doctors,
6/n and those who were found to have infectious diseases were separated from he rest, and murdered. The remaining children received excellent care, special food and good clothing. The children’s health soon improved and they learnt once again how to smile and be happy.
7/n The prevailing rumor at the time was that they were to be sent to Palestine or Switzerland on the basis of some sort of exchange agreement. The doctors and nurses who were assigned to them were obliged to sign a secrecy pact in everything related to the conditions
8/n at Theresienstadt, and all signs indicated that the Germans did indeed intend to send the children abroad. However, one night, on 5 October, 1943, six weeks after they had been brought to Theresienstadt, the children and their accompanying adults disappeared,
9/9 as mysteriously as they had arrived. Only after the war did it become known that the children were brought to Auschwitz and sent straight to the gas chambers.
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