Importantly , Terezin was the camp that the International Committee of the Red Cross visited in 1944 . The unprepared Red Cross delegates were completely deceived by the extensive Nazi preparations to hide the true nature of the site and to present the inmates as well-treated , with practically all the amenities of a summer camp .
Terezin is where many paintings , letters , notes , and poems were hidden by the inmates in the hope that they would one day be found . Here is an excerpt , displayed at Terezin today , from the poem of a 14-year-old boy , Hanus Hachenburg , who was killed in 1944 :
I was a child once — two short years ago . My youth was longing for another world . I am a child no longer ... But I also believe that I am only sleeping , That I shall see my childhood once again , Childhood like a wild , wild rose Like a bell to wake me from my dreams . And one day perhaps I shall understand That I was just a tiny creature , As small as that chorus of thirty thousand .
The Pinkas Synagogue in Prague lists the names of 80,000 Czech Jewish victims of the Shoah on its walls : Stangel , Tandler , Frankel , Koch , Koppel , Bergmann , Ornstein , Hoffenberg , Kohler , Heilbrunn , Luria , Grossman .... The names go on and on .
The places where they were sent , 24 in all , are listed on an adjacent wall : Terezin , Auschwitz , Treblinka , Chelmno , Lodz , Dachau , Mauthausen ....
5