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JewishHistoryעברית

Theresienstadt ghetto

Date
24 November 1941 – 9 May 1945Hebrew date: 4th of Kislev, 5702 – 26th of Iyyar, 5705
Location
Terezín (Theresienstadt)Czechia
Then part of
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Perpetrators
  • SS (State)
  • Czech gendarmerie (State)
Killed (estimate)
33,456 – 35,440[1]Jews who died in Theresienstadt itself. USHMM gives 33,456 or about 34,000. Yad Vashem gives 35,440. In addition, USHMM records 88,202 Jews deported from Theresienstadt to the east, of whom about 3,500 survived; Yad Vashem gives 88,000 deported to be murdered. Of 82,309 Jews deported from the Protectorate, USHMM states that the Germans and their collaborators killed approximately 71,000.
Country

28% – 32% of the Jewish population of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (c. 1939)[47]

Worldwide

0.2% – 0.21% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1939)[4]

Category
Genocide, Persecution
Confidence
DisputedUSHMM pages give 33,456 or about 34,000 deaths inside Theresienstadt; Yad Vashem gives 35,440. The figures for Jews deported from the ghetto to the east are close (USHMM 88,202; Yad Vashem 88,000). The casualty range here is deaths in the ghetto only, not the larger number murdered after further deportation.

Summary

In November 1941 Reinhard Heydrich ordered a camp-ghetto at Theresienstadt (Terezín), north of Prague. USHMM dates the ghetto from 24 November 1941 until Soviet troops entered on 9 May 1945. German authorities, assisted by Czech gendarmerie, deported 73,603 Jews from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Theresienstadt; most were later sent east to killing sites and to Auschwitz. The SS also used the ghetto as a purported "model Jewish settlement" for propaganda, including a Red Cross visit on 23 June 1944. About 140,000 Jews passed through Theresienstadt.

Sources

  1. The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  2. The Theresienstadt (Terezín) Ghetto. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  3. Theresienstadt. Yad Vashem

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 16,500,000 – 16,633,675[4]c. 1939DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1939 is 16.5 million. The American Jewish Year Book 1948–49 compiled 16,633,675 at the end of 1939.
  • Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: 110,000 – 118,310[47]c. 1939After the breakup of Czechoslovakia, USHMM states approximately 118,310 persons defined as Jews lived in the Protectorate. AJYB Moskowitz note: 110,000–115,000 in the Czech Protectorate in March 1939, about 75,000 remaining by end of October 1939 after emigration.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
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  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
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  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
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  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  47. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
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  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
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  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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