The Virtual Historian

That first night in Terezin we slept in a large warehouse,body to body, with just enough room to move around on ourtiptoes. The next day, all the families were separated. Women weremoved to one of the large barracks, and men to another. There wasnot much time to say goodbye as we had to line up quickly. Foodwas distributed from large barrels into small pots that wereassigned to all the inmates in Terezin. Bread, potatoes and gravycomprised our main daily meal.We stayed in Terezin from April 1942 until November1943. The town grew more and more crowded from the incomingtransports of Jews from other parts of Czechoslovakia. Old peopleand sick people started dying quickly. Every morning, bodiescovered with white sheets were seen piled up in wagons, waiting tobe moved to the crematorium.At first, we all lived in the barracks, many to a room,sleeping on the floor. Somehow, amidst all this, children wereallowed a little fun. We were permitted to play in the yard, to singand play word games. One of my memories is of a teacher whowould sing his and my favourite song, “Spring Will Come Again,May Is Not Far Away.”Terezin was a town of brick and stone, and it had pavedstreets. There was hardly a tree or flower in sight.