This trip is based on the routes that Marc Telkamp drove in 2009 during his tour of the Czech Republic. The routes may differ from the original due to map changes and daily distances.

World War II has also left its mark in the Czech Republic, which you will see during your visit to the city of Terezin. The garrison town of Theresienstadt, also known by its current name Terezín, was used by the Gestapo as a ghetto to gather Jews from different countries, giving it the function of a concentration camp.

Theresienstadt is a fortified town in the Czech region of Ústí nad Labem. Theresienstadt is located on the banks of the Eger at a height of 150 meters. The city was used as a Theresienstadt concentration camp in World War II. At the end of the 18th century, the Theresienstadt fortress was founded by Emperor Joseph II. He named the city after his mother, Maria Theresia.

Construction started in the year 1780 and took ten years. The total area of the fort was 3.98 square kilometers. That is exactly the area that the municipality still has today. The fortress was designed in the style of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, and consists of a "large" fortress (living area) and a "small" fortress (military area which now houses a museum). Normally Theresienstadt was the base of 5,655 soldiers, but in times of war as many as 11,000 soldiers could be placed in the fortress. Although the population was mainly German-speaking until the first half of the nineteenth century, more and more Czechs came to live in the city. Yet it took until the end of the nineteenth century before a Czech primary school was allowed.
In the second half of the 19th century, the small fortress was used as a prison. Terezín was not used as a garrison town during wars. In the last half of the 19th century, the fortress served as a prison. During the First World War, the fort served as a prisoner of war camp, where the murderer of Frans Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip, was also held until 1916.

In World War II, the Nazis used Theresienstadt as a concentration camp, while the Kleine Fort was used as a prison and headquarters by the Gestapo. In 1942, the large fortress was evacuated, the population expelled and the city turned into one large Jewish Ghetto.
In June 1946 the first Czechs returned to the city. Nowadays everything is being restored in Theresienstadt and it is the intention of the city council to develop a small university town.
During the Second World War, Theresienstadt was the Czech fortified city of Theresienstadt, which was transformed into a concentration camp and ghetto. Theresienstadt was primarily a transit camp for Jews who were usually soon sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau or other extermination camps.
On June 10, 1940, the Gestapo took over command in Terezín. Czech and Moravian resistance fighters were held captive in the fortress. From November 1941, the city of Theresienstadt (the Great Fortress) would serve as a ghetto for deported Jews. Theresienstadt had thus become a concentration camp.
On October 30, 1941, SS-Obersturmführer Siegfried Seidl was charged by Adolf Eichmann with setting up the ghetto. From November 1941 to July 1943, Seidl served as the first commander of the ghetto.
The Theresienstadt camp officially opened its doors on November 24, 1941. Many Jews from Czechoslovakia were deported to Terezín. In the summer of 1942, the non-Jewish population of Theresienstadt was expelled. The new population included many artists, musicians and lawyers. This created a busy cultural life in the ghetto. In addition to adults, the camp also housed about 11,000 children. The Jewish ghetto population apparently had some degree of self-government: the council of the elderly. One of the tasks of this council was to draw up lists of who would be deported and who would not. If they refused to cooperate with the Germans, all residents would simply be deported and murdered. In the meantime, living conditions in Theresienstadt were getting worse. Where previously some 7,000 Czechoslovakians had lived, 50,000 people were now housed. Food was scarce and some 16,000 residents died in 1942 alone. Inhabitants who opposed the Germans or otherwise did something that according to the Germans was unacceptable ended up in the "small fort" (the prison), where the living conditions were even worse.

In 1943, 500 Danish Jews were sent to Terezín. The Danish government insisted that the Red Cross should have access to the prisoners. At the end of 1943, the Red Cross was allowed to visit the city in 1944. The Nazis then set up fake cafes and shops in the camp, to give the whole the appearance of a normal place of residence. Many Jews were sent to Auschwitz to hide the overcrowding from the Red Cross. As a result, the remaining prisoners were in a room with no more than three people. The Red Cross was 'satisfied' with the reception of Jews and reported accordingly; they had let themselves be completely fooled.
The ruse was so successful that a propaganda film about Theresienstadt was made: Theresienstadt: Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet or 'A documentary from the Jewish settlement area'. The film was shot for ten days, starting on September 1, 1944. The film pretends that Hitler gave the Jews a beautiful city. The film shows imprisoned Jews playing sports or shopping in the camp. After the shooting, both the actors and director Kurt Gerron were sent to Auschwitz and gassed there. With the film, the Germans wanted to quell rumors about concentration camps for Jews. The film was supposed to go around the world via the Red Cross. The film was found by the Allies during the liberation of Theresienstadt. The film is still shown today in the museum on the site of the camp.

Still, in 1945, the Nazis also built a gas chamber in Theresienstadt, in a corridor of the fortress wall at the former Litomerice Gate. That gas chamber was never put into use.
On May 3, 1945, the Nazis transferred control of the camp to the Red Cross and on May 8, Theresienstadt was officially liberated by the Red Army. Theresienstadt had the dubious honor of being a reservation camp. Although the situation in the other reservation camps was significantly better, Theresienstadt was also intended to save people for another purpose: propaganda. From November 1941 to April 1945, 139,667 Jews were deported to Theresienstadt, 33,818 of them died in the city itself of deprivation, disease, torture or execution. 88,000 Jews were deported from Theresienstadt to extermination camps (mainly Auschwitz and Treblinka). At the time of liberation, 19,000 prisoners were still alive. Of the deported Jews who ended up in the extermination camps, only 3,000 survived. Of the 10,500 children in the ghetto, a meager 142 would survive the war. Many of the prisoners were executed just before the Allies liberated Theresienstadt and dumped in mass graves. These were reburied next to the fortress after the war.

The more than 140,000 deportees to Theresienstadt came from the following countries:
Czechoslovakia - 75,500, Germany - 42,000, Austria - 15,000, Netherlands - 5,000, Hungary - 1,150, Poland - 1,000 & Denmark- 500. (Source: Wikipedia).

This route, with a look into history, where the visit to Terezín is certainly worthwhile because it should not be forgotten. That's why I rate this route with 4 stars.