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The Small Fortress (, ) is a fortress forming a significant part of the town of
Terezín
Terezín (; ) is a town in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,900 inhabitants. It is a former military fortress composed of the citadel and adjacent walled garrison town. The town centre i ...
in the Czech Republic. The former military fortress was established at the end of the 18th century together with the whole town of Terezín on the right bank of the
Ohře
The Ohře (), also known in English and German as Eger (), is a river in Germany and the Czech Republic, a left tributary of the Elbe River. It flows through the Bavarian district of Upper Franconia in Germany, and through the Karlovy Vary Region ...
River. It served as a prison in the 19th century and was also house of Imprisonment for
Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip ( sr-Cyrl, Гаврило Принцип, ; 25 July 189428 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie, Duchess von ...
.
World War I
During
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the fortress served as a prison for the opponents of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
. During the war, the
Yugoslav nationalist
Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip ( sr-Cyrl, Гаврило Принцип, ; 25 July 189428 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie, Duchess von ...
, who assassinated Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria, was imprisoned here. Princip died after nearly four years in the prison on 28 April 1918 of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
.
World War II
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the fortress served as a prison for the
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
from 10 June 1940 until May 1945. It was the largest prison in the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...
. Unlike the
Terezín Ghetto
Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresiensta ...
, where the Jews were imprisoned, the Small Fortress served as a prison for the political opponents of the Nazi German regime,
Czech resistance
Czechoslovak resistance to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II began after the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the formation of the protectorate o ...
members, some British POWs, and other people from the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, France, Italy etc. Throughout the operation of the Gestapo prison, around 32,000 people (including 5,000 women) were incarcerated here.
Executions in the fortress were carried out from 1943, based on the ''
Sonderbehandlung
(, "special treatment") is any sort of preferential treatment. However, the word ''Sonderbehandlung'' was used as a euphemism for mass murder by Nazi functionaries and the SS, who commonly used the abbreviation ''S.B.'' in documentation. It f ...
'' treatment. In total more than 250 prisoners were executed here, with the last execution of 51 people taking place on 2 May 1945.
Living conditions in the prison were deteriorating every year, with the prisoners being used as slave labor mainly outside the fortress with various companies in the area. Nazi authorities used forced slave labor for military production for the Reich until the very last days of the war.
The Small Fortress had the character of a transitional prison, where the prisoners were being gradually sent to
concentration camps
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...
. Around 2,600 prisoners were killed in the fortress through hunger, torture and poor hygiene. Thousands died after being transported from Terezín to concentration camps and elsewhere.
Commanding officer of the Small Fortress was
SS-Hauptsturmführer , executed after the war in October 1946.
Notable prisoners of the Small Fortress include ,
Ludvík Krejčí
Ludvík Krejčí (17 August 1890 – 9 February 1972) was a Czechoslovak army general and legionary of the First World War.
Biography Early life and World War I
He was born on 17 August 1890 in Brno-Tuřany, near Brno, as the youngest of eight ch ...
, , ,
Siegfried Lederer,
Josef Bílý
Josef Bílý (30 June 1872 in Varvažov, Zbonín-Ochoz – 28 September 1941 in Prague) was a Czechs, Czech general and commander of the Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak national armed forces.
Early life and education
Bílý attended the State Real G ...
, ,
Milada Horáková
Milada Horáková (born: Králová, 25 December 1901 – 27 June 1950) was a Czech politician and a member of the underground resistance movement during World War II. She was a victim of judicial murder, convicted and executed by the Communis ...
,
, Anna Letenská, Emil František Burian">Anna Letenská">stablishment and dissolution of government coalitions i ...
, Anna Letenská, Emil František Burian, Věra Tichánková, Eduard Urx and others.
After World War II
At the end of World War II, epidemic typhus erupted in the fortress and the nearby ghetto. Czech epidemiologists
Karel Raška
Karel Raška (; 17 November 1909 – 21 November 1987) was a Czech physician and epidemiologist, who headed the successful international effort during the 1960s to eradicate smallpox.
Early life
Raška was a Director of the WHO Division of Commu ...
and
František Patočka arrived from Prague, and were leading measures to stop the spread of the epidemic in the fortress and the ghetto.
Together they wrote a report describing the appalling conditions and mistreatment of German civilians incarcerated in the Small Fortress after the war ended.
In 1945–1948 the fortress served as an internment camp initially for the German POWs, and later for the German civilian population from Czechoslovakia, destined to be
expelled from the country in line with the
Beneš decrees
The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II. They were issued by President Edvard Beneš fr ...
. The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia was a taboo topic in
communist Czechoslovakia
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, (Czech and Slovak: ''Československá socialistická republika'', ČSSR) known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic (''Československá republika)'', Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, or simply Czech ...
. The first research into this area was possible only after the fall of communism in 1989. Results of the historical research were published in 1997, and are available on the premises of the Terezín Memorial.
There were several trials held for atrocities committed in the fortress during the war.
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
held two trials against people who worked in Small Fortress in the early 1950s. In 1950, Karl Spielmann was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for grievous bodily harm in connection to the abuse of prisoners. In 1953, a Kapo, Josef Wollenweber, was sentenced to 4 years in prison on four counts of dangerous bodily harm and one count fatal bodily harm, for abusing inmates, sometimes fatally.
In the late 1960s,
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
arrested , a former Small Fortress supervisor. Wachholz was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity for participating in the murders of over 300 prisoners, some of whom he personally beat, stoned, kicked, and drowned. He was also convicted of complicity in the firing squad executions of at least 183 people. Wachholz was sentenced to death in 1968, and executed at
Leipzig Prison on 28 April 1969.
In 2000, German officials also arrested
Anton Malloth, a former Small Fortress supervisor who was nicknamed "The handsome Toni". In 2001, Malloth was convicted of beating at least 100 prisoners to death and sentenced to life in prison. Dying of cancer, he was released from prison 10 days before his death on 31 October 2002.
References
{{Coord, 50, 30, 45, N, 14, 9, 26, E, display=title
Forts in the Czech Republic
Terezín
Prisons in the Czech Republic
Gavrilo Princip
Nazi concentration camps in Czechoslovakia