The Earliest Danish Testimonies About the Theresienstadt Ghetto: Gathered in Sweden by the World Jewish Congress, April 1945

Abstract

Abstract In April 1945, even before the Theresienstadt ghetto’s liberation, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) began to document the experiences of the Danish Jewish survivors who had been brought to safety in Sweden. Collecting lists of fellow prisoners still in the ghetto and telegrams to relatives, the organization also gathered some of the earliest known written testimonies from Danish survivors. Though the author has to date only uncovered a small sample set of twenty-two testimonies within the organization’s archival holdings, these testimonies shed light on Danish survivors’ fresh memories and impressions of Theresienstadt. When compared to later testimonies, they provide insight into the changing focuses and concerns of survivors. Additionally, the name lists that the survivors compiled add information about their networks in the ghetto, and the telegrams that survivors sent through the WJC reveal their urgent efforts to both convey and obtain further information from relatives and friends abroad. These sources, written before the war had ended, thus provide a compelling and raw glimpse into Danish survivors’ early memories of ghetto life in Theresienstadt.