Terezin. The Fortress of Lies. Full Documentary
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- čas přidán 9. 05. 2020
- In honor of Victory Day in Europe and all of those who fought and died - soldiers and civilians alike, we are proud to present our short film, "Terezin: The Fortress Of Lies”, about the strange and convoluted story of the Bohemian town of Terezin- known for being a Nazi Propaganda tool in facilitating The Final Solution.
The town's dark legacy as a World War II Jewish Ghetto, Concentration Camp and evil propaganda "settlement" from which it never truly recovered, still embodies a melancholic and somber tone as a reminder of another chaotic and unsure world where hope and despair existed side by side.
The dark history belies the gorgeous surroundings of this "Fortress of Lies".
A film by Florin Radoi and Rick Manore
Copyright protected. 2020
If you want to support our work, please share and subscribe to this channel.
Music Credits:
Tristan Lohengrin - A Journey Beyond The Stars
Tristan Lohengrin - Time Of Solitude
Whitesand - Farewell
Justus Rümenapp - Sad Cello
Felix Mendelssohn - Violin concerto in E minor
My grandparents ran from Czechoslovakia after much of their possessions were confiscated. My grandmother loved to squeeze my face in her hand and I remember two of her fingers being stubby and short due to losing part of them to frost bite and she always wore socks even with sandals because many of her toes had to be amputated also. Unfortunately I do not know full details of their escape because I was a stubborn child and didn't understand the importance of this history. I regret this now. Few stories I can recall completely but two stuck in my mind. The first she told me of a hunger so intense that they had tried to catch a rat to eat, this story was told because I was wasteful with my food and didn't clean my plate at supper. The second was of her regret and the shame she felt after the news of what really happened in the camps was revealed, she said she felt like a coward for a long time because they ran and survived, and so she rarely told people where she was from. I can not imagine the sleepless nights due to fear. The heartache of knowing neighbors, acquaintances, and family members had not been so lucky. If I had the chance to say anything to my Grandparents it would have to be, "Thank you. Thank you for being so brave. Thank you for struggling so hard to survive, because without that strength and bravery, I probably wouldn't be alive today. You are amazing, you are a miracle, but most of all you are my heroes. No comic book character or celebrity can ever stand as tall as you do in my mind."
Thank you for sharing your grandparent’s story with us. 🙏🏻
To my beloved Human beings, we live in an age of people wanting to airbrush all the history so they do not have to face the truth. I say, please teach the new generations about the 20th century, for to forget our history would not only be disrespectful of the people that were murdered in cold blood! as painful as the truth may be for future generations if we do not educate people, we do so at our own peril. Because History will repeat itself. God Bless my fellow human beings. May this never happen again.
Thank you for your comment sir!
Our mum was Czech,my Dad was English,they married in 1947, we visited this place in the 60s I was too young to understand the events that went on. But remember the silence of all the people that were there. God bless all them that perished, for no reason.
I went on a tour there while on vacation a few years back. "Melancholy feel" is the absolute perfect description of the town and camp. I had never heard of the place until I took the tour. Thank you for this documentary, the heinous crimes of the holocaust should never be forgotten.
Thank you also for watching and your comment!
This is so powerful. The blatant contrast between the empty streets and the disgracefully crowded fortress reflects the contrast between the truth and the lie of the place. So much happened there, so much was hidden. Thank you for reminding us.
Thank you very much for the kind words.
Thank you Jitka! Also for the inspiration!
I visited this Fortress Terezin in the month of March in 2013 .As i arrived it started snowing and was bitter cold to add to the Horror of this place. After going on a tour of the fortress which was very sad and depressing, i went for a walk around the town which i found derelict and depressing also and as the documentary said has not changed since 1944. I could not wait to get quick enough to get out of this lonely town and got the next bus back to Prague.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Indeed is not an easy place to visit !
Thank you for making this documentary. Not a lot of people know how many lost their lives in the “spa” and was a footnote to Auschwitz
Thank you very much for your words Michele. I am not profesional filmmaker, but building this film was literally the only way I could express my feelings about that place. I could have never tell that just in words.
And hardly anyone knows about CROATIAN NAZI DEATH CAMPS where over a million Serbs were sadistically exterminated in a way that shocked the Germans! Do a video on JASENOVAC DEATH CAMP or do Serbian Holocaust Victims not matter!?
Thank you for sharing...
Thank you for watching!
My Oma (grandmother) was sent there shortly after giving birth to my mother, who was hidden with relatives and then several unrelated families. She survived to eventually relocate my mother years later. Most likely she was not transported from Terezin to Auschwitz like her mother and others was due to her being in a 'mixed marriage' or Mischehe with my Opa who was a German soldier. He also survived the war and they subsequently came to America. Her stories of Terezin were chilling.
What do You mean by "chilling"?
I found this to be beautifully and respectfully done. I appreciate very much that you did not use music when you were speaking as many do which makes it difficult for many like me to hear and understand words. Your editing is very well done.
I work on Find A Grave Shoah memorials using Yad Vashem and other archives to piece together these families so they won't be completely lost to history. I find it a nearly impossible task to find even one Nazi doctored document detailing how they all died of "enteritis" but I pick up where others left off there and I hope others beyond my life will still try. At least there will be a birth year or maiden name for some future person to build on. Many of these people did not even live long enough to be documented and receive a number so entire families were wiped out with no record. Almost no one survived. We must not forget them.
Manny thanks for your kind comment Sheila ! We are also working now with a scholar and former curator of Shoah to document a larger version of the film.
@@travelrideandfly8355 That sounds excellent. I will be watching for that. All the best to you.
I felt my family here. Actually visiting was a place like this had me believing in ghosts
Bless you.
Bless them and they had you - a miracle for them 👵👵👵👵👵🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🙏🙏🙏🙏
I visited when doing research for THE GIRL FROM THE MOUNTAINS. It is one of the most haunting places I have ever been to, save for Lidice, not far away. I've visited a number of the KZ-camps in Europe. But Terezín is by far the one that got really under my skin. I could not shake off the ghosts and could not leave it behind me fast enough.
Manny thanks for sharing your experience with us!
Never heard of this place 🤯. Thank u for sharing
Thank you also for watching and your kind comment
This history needs to be told many times, each day, in many places. Why? So it does not happen again.
Excellent, comprehensive, very well-done documentary. It clarified my understanding of the city. I was raised Jewish. In 2011 I lived in Prague for 3 ½ months. Terezin was highly recommended by the tour companies but I had no interest in going there and did it only to kill time before leaving Prague, since Terezin is quite close. To my amazement Terezin was maybe my best tourist experience (of many) in the country. I was blown away at how well done the museums were. The care and detail amazed me totally. I also liked the barracks area and the graveyard divided into the Christian part with the Christian cross and the Jewish part with the Star of David. I didn’t find the actual city so bleak as described in the documentary, however. Ii was just mostly empty with some shops and people shopping.
Thank you very much for your review. Maybe also the fact that we shot this during the pandemic had an effect on how we saw the city itself. Also at the time we shot this, unfortunately the museums were closed. Thank you once again for watching.
@Kafa kafica the small fortress it is, indeed . The cell that Gavrilo Princip was detained is a monument.
Thank you for this great video. I had never heard of this place before. I think they are all equally important to remember and to never forget what happened in them.
Manny thanks Teresa for watching it , and taking the time to comment here. :)
Around all documents about thé périod of Holocaust , camps, and historical studies which are available on CZcams or else, i have to say that you made à very, very good documentary.
I did not know so much about Terezin , and so TY for this.
👍❤️
Manny thanks for your kind review. We are happy that you liked it 🙏
Germany did not invade Czechoslovakia in 1939. They invaded the Czech part of the it. Slovakia was not occupied, became a separate state. But part of it were occupied by Hungary in March 1939.
Thank you for clarifying .
@@travelrideandfly8355 unfortunately my own country Poland took part in invading the Czech state in 1938. We demanded the Zaolzie region and the Czechs handed it over. Shame on us. We also invaded Slovakia and occupied some Slovakian villages
Lovely, well put together
Thank you very much!
I haven't seen in a while a documentary to give me goose bumps, it's an unbelievable piece of history. I have also for you a constructive critic: It would have been easier to follow the narrative story with a subtitle. Keep it up, I'm waiting for the second story !
Am in plan și varianta narata in romana.... Dar mai durează :)
Nu in romana, tot in engleza, sunt mai usor de urmarit numele proprii.
I didn’t know about this camp..the part where they filmed fake sport events remind me of what China did to the Uighur Muslim it’s scary.
Thank you for watching and we are glad that we could show you something lesser known. Unfortunately Uighur persecution is still big today. 😔
Brilliant narration! Spine chilling
manny thanks for your kind words !
Thank you for this film very informative, I did not that much about Terazin , so heartbreaking. 😢
Thank you for watching 🙏
Thank you!!
Very nice video. I am from the Czech Republic. I can confirm the information contained in the video.
You only forgot about one thing: It was not only the village Lidice that got wiped out, but later also one more village called "Ležáky".
Thank you for watching, and the info! Yes we knew also about Lezaky, but we could not find any conection to Terezin to link it in this story.
this is so very sad, all those poor lost souls ,its heartwrenching to see how inhuman people can be to each other.
I’m on a bus now to see this place. Thank you for the info.
Enjoy your time there! :)
Thanks for this
Thank you also for watching !
I need to visit, I've read so much about it in chapters from personal accounts, I must go there.
Excellent video
Thank you very much for watching! :)
as a german i visited some concentration camps,but in terezin i had tears in my eyes cause everthing is stil there the whole camp the ghetto,the graves ,then u realize it was the most evil face of human beings what happened there ,420 peace from germany
Krauter,it must be difficult for you, not sure what words can be said.
Kräuter...I dont mean to ask it in the wrong way, but when you are amongst your fellow german neighbors/friends...and they see that you have a sympathetic attitude for Jews n others victims....Do you find them agreeing with you...
Or do you think if, in a few years, another anti-semitic dictator takes over Germany, he will again have support of the majority of German people?
@@adambeasley2706 dude other european countries are way more antisemitic than germany today, the most jews in europe livin in france and a lot of them moved to israel in the last years. but its also the truth attacks on jews happened also in germany in the last years, at the end of the day you have everywhere idiots . antisemitic isnt a german thing,btw 45 % voted for the nazis in germany before they raided the houses of Parliament (reichstag) the most germans shame for the third reich.with the german democracie system another dictator cant overtake germany and it will for sure not happen
@@krauterbaron360 Thank you for your opinion Kräuter...I too hope that antisemitism and racism in general fade away completely with time.
I think in the modern world, a country's migration policies have a lot to do with these things. The more lenient a country is, the more outsiders start coming in, the more challenging it becomes for the natives to earn a livelihood...and then hate crimes, racism step in inevitably...
Thanks again for sharing your opinion...
@Ole Ahlers Yes, that is exactly what I was hinting at.
"We are a global citizen...the whole world belongs to me. Some people thought of creating borders on the planet, and all following generations have to comply with them....why?? etc etc."
We may agree that this kind of philosophy may be technically tight, but unfortunately its neither practical, nor acceptable to the majority.
Hence, when governments start opening their gates a "bit too much"...the insiders get a thousand reasons to get angry, and consequently vent it out on the outsiders.
It happened in history...and it happens in the present...sad...but true!
Thank you.
Thank you also for watching !
I was there in 2019. On a vacation in Prague.
Thank you Travel Rid and Fly
Documentary is short but has eloberate information
ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು=dhanyavad=thanks
🙏🏻🇮🇳🙏🏻
Great work! Really interesting and well made
Thank you! :)
Thank you!
This was such a beautiful and powerful documentary. When we discuss the Holocaust, often the discussion is limited to Auschwitz, Chelmno, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor etc...but Terezin is rarely discussed.
You have done a very thorough work, and I am so thankful to you. It was so depressing to see that football game being played between those innocent Jews and Nazi "brats"...and when you later mentioned that after a few days, all...participants as well as audience had perished...
I have a question though. When you showed the insides in today's time, I saw several cars parked. I thought this place was completely vacant. So are there any museums built in Terezin, (like in Auschwitz) where people work...and visitors visit?
Many thanks again...best regards...and God bless you for your efforts.
Manny thanks for your kind comment! Terezin is still today a living city, even though is still feels haunted by its past. The place is open for visits also, having multiple museums. The Small Fortress itsell is a memorial and a museum.
Once again, thank you. 🙂
@@travelrideandfly8355 Thank you for your response. So you mean a person can actually "buy" a house in Terezin...and live there? Like a residential colony?
@@adambeasley2706 yes. It is a relatively normal city within Czech Republic, with local authorities and people living, working owning apartments there. This is what makes the place even more intriguing. Imagine living in an apartment building that was a former barracks
@@travelrideandfly8355 Exactly...that's what amazes me! I thought that any house/building/camp/site that was even remotely associated with Nazi Atrocities should be marked as a site of historical heritage, and should be allowed for private ownership/use.
But that would be impractical, as Mr.Adolf had done this on such a large scale, and at so many sites, and in so many countries....that entire countries will need to be marked as sites of historical heritage.
Just out of curiosity, are you Jewish?
@@adambeasley2706 you are totally right. …and no, we are not Jewish. If you would like to see the story of how we got to make this, you can see this interview from Detroit Metro Times: www.metrotimes.com/detroit/a-detroit-art-promoter-and-a-romanian-engineer-collaborated-to-make-the-haunting-wwii-doc-terezin-the-fortress-of-lies/Content?oid=24712480
Man's inhumanity to man , ever since time began . " As it was in the beginning and as it still is forever and ever " . Victims become perpetrators and the innocent suffer in the endless circle of hatred , greed and evil does as evil is . Why ?
I visited this place in 2013. I still have the coin and postcard I got there. It was haunting to see such a place in real life. A place where so many thousands of people were murdered
Indeed . That is a place that can not be forgotten if you visit it. The same for other death camps !
Narrator: They scrubbed the streets were scrubbed with toothbrushes; recycled clothes were hung in fake stores; a fake post office with packaged items left behind and bank books and notes were printed to give the illusion of a city.
Me: That is some sick, demented, psychotic [stuff]! And sadly, you can't make it up because it actually happened!!!
are you implying its real or not
I visited in 2018. Very heartbreaking and surreal to be in a place where such horrible things happened.
Very good film of Terezin.
Thank you very much !
5:45: "The Small Fortress stands for those who perished in Theresienstadt ghetto. Over 35.000 people died there".
Yes, in the ghetto but not in the Small Fortess.
" The Small Fortress stands as memory for those who perished" that is the line from the film, and yes 35.000 refers to the number of deaths in the whole Ghetto.
The whole small fortress is a memorial for the victims.
4:45 the words on the board of the former communist military building say "Varšavská smlouva - štít socialismu", which means "The Warsaw Pact - a shield of socialism."
Thank you for mentioning this!
Evil has no boundaries. As horrible as Auschwitz was, and it was horrible, it’s important to know about all the different places and terrible things the Nazis did to all human beings so we can morn and respect each of them. My condolences to these poor souls.
@Ole Ahlers
Huge evil going on over there too.
@Kafa kafica
I can’t count how many books I have about the Nazis but I had to stop reading about Jasenovac. There are no words. Poor people, poor children.
@Kafa kafica you may be right, but i do not think this is a contest of which was worse ! Both show a horrible face of our recent history and their memory must be preserved to prevent it from happening again.
I have a 4-valve trombone made by P. Zalud, Thereseinstadt (engraved on the bell garland). I wonder if it has any connection to the camp or if it's just coincidence.
I couldn’t say! I don’t have any knowledge of these instruments. But probably it is worth investigating. Theresienstadt was also a work camp so it coild have been made there.
@@travelrideandfly8355 it was definitely made in Terezin. The Zalud company made brass instruments just before the war broke out. In 1941 the Nazis confiscated the factory and all the instruments and sent all of it to the ghetto. Thereseinstadt is well known for having concerts during the occupation. I can't locate any photos of the band that shows brass instruments, but there are accounts they had both concert and jazz ensembles. Sadly, none of the Zalud family survived and certainly no serial numbers of band instruments (more important things to worry about than tracking that sort of thing).
I bought the trombone from a antique dealer in Germany, but the provenance is unknown. I had no idea of Thereseinstadt until after I bought the horn. I will probably get an expert to look at it and see of it has a connection to the camp itself, or if it is just a run of the mill instrument made by the factory prior to the war (most likely).
In any event, it's still a little piece of history just for having been made by Pavel Zalud.
Hello thanks for this documentary .. it’s so touching.. I’m involved with a project that is related to Terezin. I actually know a survivor from there.
I’d like to contact you can I get your email?
I want to know how to get the rights of historical film shots.
Hi Sam. Thank you for writing. My email adress is: florinradoi87@gmail.com
@@travelrideandfly8355 I sent you email thanks 🙏🏼
THERE WAS A FILM CALLED "THE LAST BUTTERFLY" STARRING Tom Conti depicting Theresienstad.
Thank you for that tip! Yes, we have heard about it, but couldn’t find it any streaming platform unfortunately
So sad what human beings can do to each other. May G-D bless all the prisoners, both murdered so cruelly and those who survived . The poor survivors would be left with agonising memories of lost loved ones. How brave to carry on your life with dignity and courage. We could learn a lot from them 🙏🙏🙏🙏👵👵👵🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
Thank you for watching and your kind comment ! 🙏
It could be nice again if they restored it. Beautiful old buildings.
Yes, but maybe the energy of the former ghetto would be lost.
I think the old buildings are part of the look and feeling of that place “frozen in time”.
@@travelrideandfly8355 but the roof is falling in. Eventually they'll just be heaps of junk. Who wants to vacation at a pile of rubble?
Thank you so much for sharing with me an infamous fragment of the Hitler's Nazi horrendous regimen.
It must have been a painful odyssey it is to recollect such memories and to recount them.
The crimes and cruelties committed against my sons and daughters, my fathers and mothers, my brothers and sisters hurt me deeply, regardless their ethnicity and nationality.
In Isaiah 2: 4, Jehovah God, the Creator and Source of life, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, promises:
"He will be judge among the nations and will settle matters in relation to many peoples. They will turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. The nations will no longer raise their swords against each other and learn no more to wage war."
My immediate neighbors are Jews and I am a Jehovah's Witness.
Their hearts are superior than pure gold by far. They are extremely kind.
The gentleman takes care of my trash can every Wednesday without my asking him to do so. They are lovely human beings, and they are not in need of the smallest improvement.
May you enjoy these two super up building promises:
First-Promise recorded in Psalm 37: 9-12 says:
"For the wicked will be eliminated, but those who put their hope in Jehovah will inherit the earth. Just a little while longer, and the wicked will no longer exist; you will look where they were, and they will no longer be there. But the meek will inherit the earth and fully enjoy of abundant peace."
Second-Promise recorded in Isaiah 25: 8 says:
"He will remove death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe the tears from all faces. He will remove from all the earth the disgrace of his people, for Jehovah himself has spoken.
Have a very pleasant day.
Visited today. Never forget the past
I would think vast majority of ( if not all of) these places are haunted!
Makes me sick.
How incomparably awful. I pray that the souls of those imprisoned there have found peace and rest. We must never forget the crimes of the Holocaust and Aktion T4 programme.
i was there three years ago. its a haunted place, you could feel it
thank you for your comment, and sharing your experience!
" In four to six weeks after this match most people who appear in this film would be dead".
How would/do you know?
It is a well documented event an there are survival witnesses who offer the information. I would recommend to you the channel of Beit Theresienstadt association for more hystorical documented informations about the place
111
Wow
One of most shameful places on earth
😭
My goodness
If you want to know what you would have done during those hateful times you can stop wondering. You’re doing it now.
What do you mean by that ?
@@travelrideandfly8355 Why? Do you think you might be doing it? When militarized police fired into a crowd of protesters in Portland… what did you say, think, do about it?
It's a Star Fort.
And I have more pictures of two female concentration camp guards who were deployed there in autumn 1944: Hildegard Neumann and Annemarie Naumann.
vcs viram do que é capaz pessoas doentes quando assumem um compromisso.umm.?
Pity the roof is falling in
Yes, but i think that contributes to the overall feeling of the place …. “Frozen in time” and “city of ghosts”. Honestly i would not like a fully re-built Terezin.
I have been to Theresienstadt/Terezín and I can say that it was not fun but interesting from a historical perspective. I really recommend people to visited an concentration camp in there life to full grasp all the horrors that happened under the holocaust.
I visited many of them. Not single of them changed my mind. Nazis killing people in more organised and effiective way doesn't change the fact that UK killed more people and was never found guilty of it. Belgium, China, Japan too. Germany as country was bullied after WW1 and had no other options than to start another war to reclaim territories that have always been theirs. And in WW2 when they realised that they will lose, they didn't even get a chance to ask for peace, because Allies demanded total capitulation of Germany. Because of that decision, numerous of German cities have been bombed and who knows how many civilians were raped and killed.
That is brutal, and that is one side thinking it has moral superiority do what it wants and when it wants.
Studied this since age eight,60 now and that's why this Roman Catholic will always back Israel, never again? Going on now with the stakes upped considerably since advent of Nuclear power this next time the world will burn.
In sweden you have hällnäs in vindelnsmunicipality,
I have never heard of that place. What is it about ?
Its same some theresienstadt, sweden is.full of place simular to theresienstadt,and still a.part of gulag.
They suffered as Jesus Christ did this act was pure evil eyes 😈. They all are with Jesus Christ hallelujah hallelujah amen 🙏. They were good and did not know hate division as Hitler his followers 😅
This is like when the soviet union fooled western reporters about the starvation in the Ukraine.
Unfortunately we see horrible things now in Ucraine.
That is why we have to tell these stories, so it is remembered and hopefully will not happen again.
This is incredible that they can laugh n make fun of people, this is bad the nazis were brutal , the war was a terrible distraction everyone focus on the war.I think if the world had not been at war many people would not had died,it's my opinion.
That is why we should never forget that ! To prevent it from happening again. As i see the world today, i am honestly scared of the possibility of a new major conflict with Russia in Ukraine.
É bom lembrar que os aliados mataram 40 milhoes só na Alemanha com os bombardeios sobre cidades onde viviam mulheres, velhos e criancas. Bombas incendiarias incineravam as criaturas. O mal do apego, orgulho, vaidade, egoismo é a causa de todos os males e ainda hoje está em muitos de nós.
The Truman show
Ekelhafter Versuch, den Holocaust zu leugnen!
Palestinians
No, in Theresienstadt were no palestinians. The palestinians invented themselves in the 60s..
The Jewish state comes when? Not now. So who invented what when just shush
Model camp my butt