Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Andrew Ruppenstein
Taken: August 25, 2009
Caption: Columbarium - From the South
Additional Description: According to Hans Günther Adler, Theresienstadt 1941 - 1945, Das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft . as cited in www.ghetto-theresienstadt.info's "Columbarium" translated entry, "...Early in November 1944 an order was given to remove the interred ashes. Women and children ghetto inmates were employed, who were given sardine cans as a bonus. In this work, which lasted four days, a macabre scene was played out. The papery ash bags inscribed with with the names of the dead, which had been placed in the columbarium in underground casemates - more than 22,000, were loaded onto trucks…. The prisoners were told that the ashes would occupy six mass graves in a Jewish cemetery in Prague. In contrast, the ashes were emptied into the River Ohře near the city".
Submitted: September 26, 2009, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.
Database Locator Identification Number: p78484
File Size: 1.158 Megabytes

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