Terezin, the Cursed Citadel of the Nazis | Documentary Subtitled in English

70km from Prague, in Theresienstadt, the Austrian Emperor Joseph II (18th century) made
build a fortress. 12 doors surround it and give it the typical shape of a star.
With the Nuremberg laws passed, the concentration camp and extermination machine in motion, the Nazis deported and imprisoned the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia there. The ghetto emptied and filled with deportations and transfers to Auschwitz-Birkenau from 1942.

When in 1943 the International Red Cross demanded to know the fate of the deportees, Terezin was chosen by the Nazi administration as decorum for a sprawling lie in the form of a propaganda film "The Fuhrer offers a city to the Jews", intended to keep the final solution secret. The citadel is restored, a kiosk and a music library are built, gardens planted, artistic and cultural activities encouraged by the needs of the lie, a fake school is opened.

On June 27, 1944, Doctor Rossel, sent by the International Red Cross, was amazed by his visit to Theresienstadt: in the middle of the war, the Jews were eating, laughing and having fun! Rossel submits an enthusiastic report, illustrated with the 36 photos he took on site. Thus he sends the prisoners back into the infernal machine of the final solution, gas and cremation.

From Terezin, we have a quantity of drawings, poems and texts, by children and artists. It is through these unique testimonies that we invite you to discover the underside of this historical imposture.

Director: Chochana Boukhobza