Photograph of a Jewish policeman in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto. The photo was taken on June 23, 1944, by a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross during an official visit.
On the day the photo was taken, representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Danish Red Cross, and the Danish government visited the Theresienstadt ghetto. In preparation for this visit, Nazi authorities carried out a beautification campaign. They transformed part of Theresienstadt into a facade meant to make the ghetto area and life in the ghetto look far better than it was in reality. Nazi authorities carefully choreographed and staged the visit to give the international visitors a false picture of life in the ghetto. The Nazis’ goal was to trick the delegation into believing that conditions in Theresienstadt were good and to try to cover up the mass murder of Europe’s Jews.
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