Introduction

"It is great here, so many interesting people. One could live here quite decently, if not for the constant fear of being sent to the East" -- Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, artist, designer, art teacher, and Holocaust martyr, wrote in a postcard sent from Ghetto Theresienstadt, in 1943.

Theresienstadt (Terezin), an 18th century fortress near Prague, was converted by the Nazis into a transit point, where deported Jews were interned, sometimes as long as two years, and then sent to the extermination camps. The prisoners were mainly professional people from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, Holland and Denmark, many of them a part of the European cultural elite.

But the cliched image of a 'pitiful Jew', crushed by a 'demonic force', didn’t hold in Terezin. Despite miserable conditions and numerous deaths from starvation and diseases, the prisoners never gave in. In this surrealistic world on the edge of life and death, exhausted by hunger and severe conditions, they stubbornly clung to their cultural values - books, art, music, intellectual debate, humor and irony.

Volumes have been written about the culture in Theresienstadt. Inspired operas and musical pieces that originated there are widely performed. Drawings by children and adult artists, camp magazines and poems have been published.

The children in Terezin were educated and cared for by excellent teachers and social workers. They regained their will to live and hope for the future, but, with few exceptions, were ruthlessly exterminated.

In addition to that, hundreds of professionals and academics gave thousands of lectures on all imaginable cultural and scientific subjects. In the documents that survived the war, many of them explain the main motivation for this work - first, to prepare and educate the youth for the post-war life; and second - to revive their own professional self-esteem and replace the misery of physical existence with the richness of spiritual life. 
 

Detail from: Karel Fleischmann, Cultural Lecture, 1943,
coloured pen and India ink wash, paper,
State Jewish Museum, Prague

Lectures substituted teaching forbidden by the Nazis. Delivered in scattered miserable attics and cellars, however cold or hot the weather, the lectures took the shape of full courses in history, philosophy, art, literature, medicine, science, Judaism and other fields. They attracted tens of thousands of young people and adults, hungry and exhausted after their day’s work - the triumph of human dignity and integrity in the face of death.

The inmates had to report to the Nazis of all cultural activities that took place in the camp. Ironically, the survived reports proved a precious source to recover data for thousands of lectures - including their titles, time and locations.

Some of the speakers were well-known before the war in their own right, for example, Dr. Leo Baeck, Chief Rabbi of Germany, Alfred Meissner, Minister of Masaryk Government in Czechoslovakia, and composer Viktor Ullmann. Others survived the Holocaust and found wider recognition afterwards, like psychologist Viktor Frankl, historian Miroslav Karny, writer Josef Bor (Bondy), and author Norbert Fried. But the majority perished. Their careers stopped short, together with their lives; they were simply forgotten. They were such fascinating people as the Jewish philosopher Jehuda Palache, the psychologist Max Brahn, the art historian Max Bohm, the classical philologist Maximillian Adler, the psychologist Gertrude Boeml, the art collector Hugo Friedmann, the journalist Philipp Manes, and the semitologist Moizis Woskin.

Below just a tiny fragment of their exuberant intellectual world is reproduced: 

 
 

 
Our independent research group Elena Makarova Initiatives has undertaken to collect all dispersed information about Terezin lectures and lecturers stored in the archives and libraries of Europe, Israel and the US. The result of this work is a computer database with 520 names and 2430 lecture titles, supported by volumes of related documents and copies. As far as we know, it is the most comprehensive collection ever compiled. You may find the list of the lecturers in Terezin on the next page. 
 

Detail from: General Subject Lectures, Program for the period from 12 to 18 of June 1944,
Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem

 
The records for every lecturer include the titles of the lectures he or she delivered, and linked documents. We have also recorded the time and location of about 75% of the lectures. The texts and listeners’ notes are available for over 80 lectures. Additional information includes general data and visual material on ghetto/transit camp Theresienstadt, on the Jews’ own committee (FZG, 'Free Time Organization') that regulated the inmates’ spare time, and on other cultural and spiritual activities in Terezin. The purpose of this on-line publication is to bring to the public’s attention the information we have collected. For more details on any particular person on our list, please read University Over the Abyss described below--or contact us. We have done our utmost to ensure that our research is accurate. However it may contain some errors. We would be grateful for any comments and additions to our list.