A commemoration of the eighty years since the beginning of the transports to Terezín took place in Prague Company News Pražská Drbna
A pieta commemorating the 80th anniversary of the commencement of transports of the Jewish population to Terezín took place at Masaryk Railway Station in Prague. Ivan Bednárik, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Czech Railways, also took part in the reverential act. There was also a special wagon on display, which symbolized cattle, which people used to leave Terezín for their death eighty years ago.
The worst period of railway abuse in Europe
“Apart from the respect, piety and reflection on human tragedies and horrors that took place 80 years ago, today as a railway worker I commemorate the worst period of railway abuse in Europe. More than 150,000 people were deported to Terezín by train. Similar events must never happen again. That is why I am standing here today with my head bowed and that is also why Czech Railways has long supported the Research Center of Evil Archeology, which is organizing this event, ” said the CEO of Czech Railways at a reverential meeting Ivan Bednárik.
Cattle as a reminder of horrors
Czech Railways lent the organizers a special car, which symbolized the transport wagons, the so-called cattle cars. Eighty years ago, hundreds of thousands of Jews left for the Terezín concentration camp.
The photographic exhibition SOS Terezín – Let’s Save Terezín was also a part of the memorial service. “An exhibition on the poor condition of the fortress, which is inextricably linked to the Holocaust period,” added a spokesperson for Czech Railways Vanda Rajnochova.
150,000 people passed through Terezín, 34,000 people died there
During the Second World War, up to 150,000 Jewish men, women and children from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Hungary passed through the camp in Terezín. 34,000 Jewish prisoners died directly in Terezín as a result of illness, malnutrition and cruel treatment. Another 87,000 of them were deported to other camps, where death awaited them. Only 4,000 prisoners survived the deportations.