A New History of Theresienstadt with Dr Anna Hájková

Dr Anna Hájková, Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, talks about her newly published book about Terezín / Theresienstadt. The Last Ghetto offers both a modern history of this Central European ghetto and the first in-depth analytical history of a prison society during the Holocaust. The event will be chaired by Francois Guesnet, Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College, London.

Theresienstadt was operated by the Nazis between November 1941 and May 1945 as a transit ghetto for Central and Western European Jews before their deportation for murder in the East.

Today, Theresienstadt is best known for the Nazi propaganda of the International Red Cross visit, cultural life, and children. But these aspects explain little what defined the lives of its 140,000 inmates.

The prison society of Terezín produced its own social hierarchies under which even small differences among prisoners decided their fate. During the three and a half years of the camp's existence, prisoners created their own culture and habits, bonded, fell in love, and forged new families. Based on extensive archival research in nine languages and on empathetic reading of victim testimonies, The Last Ghetto casts light on human society works in extremis.

Organised by the Czech Centre London in collaboration with JW3.