Last Day - Terezin Concentration Camp

Memorial to Those Who Suffered At Terezin - Inside Small Fortress Moat

Center of Large Fortress - today 1000 residents

On Sunday, June 5, 2011, we took a bus tour to Terezin, located about 1 hour's drive outside Prague. The Large and Small Fortresses of the small town were built in the late 18th Century by the Hapsburgs, named after the Empress Maria Teresa (i.e. Terezin in Czech). Although never attacked, it was built in response to the Austro-Prussian War.

Historically, the small fortress was used as a prison for political prisoners. In the early 1900's the man who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, and his wife, was imprisoned there until he died. Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian nationalist, was 19 years old when he killed the Archduke. He was imprisoned in tiny window-less cell #1 (which we saw) at Terezin for 3 years, dying of tuberculosis and malnutrition, before he completed his 20 year sentence.