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A small fortress built by Joseph II guarding the Northern Access to Bohemia later served as a prison. Gavrilo Princip, died here after assassinating the Austrian Archduke in 1914. But during World War II, Nazis took hold of the place and transformed it into a concentration camp. More than 1 500 000 people, both Romany and Jewish, were brought here, over 35 000 dying in Terezin and the rest being transported to camps all over Europe.
The scary monument of holocaust even helped Hitler’s propaganda – two prisoners escaped in 1942 and contacted the Swiss Red Cross, talking about the horrible experience. Swiss delegates decided to visit the camp - but not before Hitler had it reconstructed to look like a peaceful ghetto with shops, tea houses, restaurants and even a bank. This horrible lie was accepted by the delegates and Terezín prisoners continued to live and die in these inhuman conditions until 1945.