Newsletter from Theresienstadt

Front: Tan paper with a black illustration of Theresienstadt at the top. Includes black typewritten text, an illustrations of a horse-drawn carriage, and a dove entering through a gate.Back: Black typewritten text going halfway down the page, and illustrations of a tree-lined path, and a man looking through a telescope. Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A self-published bulletin from the Theresienstadt ghetto dated June 24, 1944. Written by the Jewish Council (Altestenrat der Juden) in Theresienstadt-Hitler’s so called “gift to the Jews”-the bulletin typically gave orders and reports to the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto. The ‘beautification’ referred to as the “Stadtverschonerung” refers to the “beautification” program based on the cynical Nazi effort to sanitize the ghetto in advance of the infamous Swiss Red Cross visit on June 23, 1944, just one day before this bulletin’s publication. This planned visit, and the Nazi response to it, emerged out of Denmark’s pressuring the Nazi’s about the 466 Danish Jews sent to Theresienstadt. To ensure that they were being treated humanely, the Danish government sent two Danish representatives to accompany the Swiss representatives. The Nazis used this occasion to create propaganda and an embellishment campaign that was designed to present the ghetto in a favorable light. To impress the delegates, to create the appearance of a functioning and quasi-autonomous village life for the Jews, shops were opened, including a café and a bank; camp “money” was printed (scrip useless anywhere else) and distributed for Jews to purchase items at the shops. The ruse included cultural events that lasted for one week: soccer games were arranged, orchestral productions, parks were opened, a playground and special food given to the ghetto children, etc. Of course, the massively overcrowded conditions in the ghetto had to be relieved, necessitating the transport of17,517 Jews to Auschwitz. After the Red Cross visit, and the release of a glowing report, transports to Auschwitz resumed.https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1417/thumbnail.jp