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SpecialDefiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin
Late 1943. The cold barracks of the Terezin ghetto stand against an autumn
sky. Although deportations to the camp had come to a standstill earlier in
the year, the overcrowded conditions, disease and hunger still remained.
As
did the ever present threat of the gas chambers. But on this occasion the
usual sounds carried through Terezin's bleak corridors were interrupted by
very different strains. More
Current AffairsCeremony honors Holocaust victims, Europe looks at tragedy's lessons
Holocaust Rememberance Day marks the 63rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising. Commemorations in honor of the victims were held throughout the
Czech Republic, and education ministers from across Europe met for a
second day of talks on Holocaust education. An elderly survivor at one
memorial in Prague reads the names and fates of many Czech Holocaust
victims: A ghetto, a concentration camp, and the end.
More
Current AffairsZdenka Fantlova on her Holocaust experience: "We all have a blueprint"
On Tuesday, Jewish communities in the Czech Republic are commemorating Yom
ha Shoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day which is observed around the
anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943. The names of Czech
Holocaust victims will be read out during ceremonies in Prague and a
former concentration camp in Terezin. Around 80,000 Czech Jews perished in
the Holocaust, among them the whole family of Zdenka Fantlova, who was
herself imprisoned in several concentration camps: Terezin, Auschwitz,
Gross-Rosen and Mauthausen until she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen.
Here she recalls what followed after the war broke out and that it was
sometimes little things that saved people's lives.
More
Current AffairsFoundation for Holocaust Victims announces conclusion of compensation programme
Czech Jews who lost their property during WWII have finally received
compensation from the Czech state. In the course of five years, the
Foundation for Holocaust Victims distributed 100 million crowns (over 4
million dollars) put in by the Czech state among some 500 claimants from
27 countries to mitigate some property injustices caused to Holocaust
victims.
More
Current Affairs"Holocaust denier" Irving's books freely available in Czech Republic
Controversial British historian David Irving has featured heavily in the
world's media this week after being convicted in Austria for denying the
Holocaust. The trial was based on Mr Irving's book "Hitler's
War", in which the author claims that Hitler knew nothing of the
Holocaust and Auschwitz was not an extermination camp. But Czech
translations of David Irving's books are also widely available in this
country - where Holocaust denial is a crime.
More
ArtsTickets on sale for Prague Spring 60th anniversary celebrations
Every May, thousands of music lovers from around the world flock to the
Czech capital for the Czech Republic's biggest and most renowned classical
music festival - the Prague Spring. 2006 will be no exception, featuring
some of the world's leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists at
impressive venues like Prague's Rudolfinum, the Bertramka, or the
Municipal House. Tickets went on sale this week.
More
Current AffairsBreathing new life into Terezin
The entire garrison town of Terezin served as a ghetto for Czech and
European Jews during the Second World War and housed a Gestapo-run prison.
Tens of thousands died within its walled fortresses, which were taken over
by the Czechoslovak army after the war, and then abandoned in 1996. The
debate over how best to both preserve -- and breathe new life -- into the
northern Bohemian town took on a new urgency after it was devastated by
floods in 2002. But as Brian Kenety reports, Terezin is still waiting for
a miracle. More
Current AffairsUsti nad Labem unveils Holocaust Memorial
It has been sixty years since the end of the Second World War but it was
not until last Sunday that the northern Czech industrial town of Usti nad
Labem unveiled a memorial dedicated to the 1,000 Jewish residents who
perished in the Holocaust. It is one of the most striking memorials in
Europe - a massive granite Star of David half immersed into the site of a
former Jewish cemetery. It is simple but powerful.
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