Theresienstadt (film)

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Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet
Directed by	Kurt Gerron
Written by	Kurt Gerron
Release date(s)	1944 (unreleased)
Running time	ca. 20 minutes (surviving footage)
Country	Nazi Germany
Language	German
IMDb profile

Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet (English: Terezin: A Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettlement was a projected Nazi propaganda film shot in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt.

In the summer of 1944 the Nazi government had perpetrated a hoax against the Danish Red Cross by taking them on a tour of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Sudetenland, occupied Czechoslovakia. They fixed up and cleaned the camp prior to arrival and arranged cultural activities to give the appearance of a happy, industrious community. To cover up the endemic overpopulation of the camp, numerous inmates were deported to Auschwitz before the arrival of the Red Cross delegation.^{[citation needed]}

The gimmick was so successful that the Nazis attempted to expand on it by having Kurt Gerron, a Jewish actor/director, make a short film about the camp to assure audiences that the inmates kept there were not being abused. In return they promised that both he and his family would live.^{[citation needed]} Shortly after he finished shooting the film, however, both he and his family were "evacuated" to Auschwitz where they were gassed upon arrival.^{[citation needed]}

The footage that Gerron shot was intended to be edited into a film called either Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet (Terezin: A Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettlement) or Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt (The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City) however the progress of the war in that period (late 1944 to early 1945) made that impossible, so the scenes were used independently.^{[citation needed]} Only about 20 minutes of the film survives.

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