“Czech Family Camp” at Auschwitz Liquidated

On July 11 I did not sleep. The night was bright, the sky red. Of that—somewhere—I can’t talk about it. On July 11 they killed my father. I balled my fists; I cried and promised to avenge him.

This description came from an entry in Michael Kraus’s postwar diary. In it, he recounted the destruction of the Czech family camp (Section BIIb), a sector of Auschwitz-Birkenau. This sector was also called the "Theresienstadt family camp." Between September 1943 and July 1944, the SS housed thousands of prisoners from the Theresienstadt ghetto there. Unlike most other Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz, the prisoners of the Czech family camp did not undergo an initial selection upon arrival. Prisoners of all ages wore civilian clothing and were not fully separated from their families. In July 1944, the SS liquidated the Czech family camp. First, they carried out a number of selections, choosing certain prisoners from the family camp for forced labor. Then on July 10–12, they murdered thousands of Jewish prisoners, including Michael Kraus's father.

Learn more about Michael’s diary in Curators Corner—“To the Memory of My Parents”: Michael Kraus’s Diaries.