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1943 painting of the Vltava River in Prague created from a photograph by Theresienstadt prisoner Bedrich Fritta. [LCID: 44154]

Cultural Life in the Theresienstadt Ghetto

During the Holocaust, the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto was a site of imprisonment for more than 140,000 Jewish men, women, and children. The Jews imprisoned in Theresienstadt staged musical performances, scholarly lectures, poetry recitations, and sporting events. They created artwork, wrote poems, and composed music. This flourishing cultural life existed alongside the deadly reality of the ghetto.