Terezín Commemoration 2018

The traditional Terezín Commemoration was held in the National Cemetery in front of the Small Fortress in Terezín on May 20, 2018. This act of remembrance is organized by the Terezín Memorial in conjunction with the Central Committee of the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters, the Terezín Initiative, the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, the Ústí Region, and the town of Terezín. Czech Minister of Culture Ilja Šmíd took over the auspices of the Terezín Commemoration 2018.

The Commemoration was opened at 10:00 a.m. with a ceremony of laying wreaths and flowers. After hearing the national anthem, its participants were welcomed by Mr. Jan Roubínek, Director of the Terezín Memorial; the act of remembrance was then inaugurated by Mr. Jaroslav Vodička, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters. The key speech was delivered by Mr. Radek Vondráček, Speaker of the House of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, which was followed by Christian and Jewish prayers. The whole program ended with the performance of the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Act III of G. Verdi´s opera Nabucco, performed by the Děčín Choir.

The Terezín Commemoration is held every year, always on the third Sunday in May, at the end of the International Days of Remembrance and Resistance as a legacy of the so called Buchenwald Oath. This contained a declaration, made by the just liberated inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, stressing that they would not cease commemorating the wartime events until all the roots of Nazism have been eradicated.

At 9:00 a.m. on May 20, 2018 wreaths were also laid in the former execution ground in the Small Fortress to mark the anniversary of the last and also the biggest wartime execution, held there at the very end of the war on May 2, 1945.

Based on Terezín Memorial´s press release