(A series of lectures of the Terezín Memorial‘s Historical Department in the K. H. Mácha Library in Litoměřice)
Almost a year ago, the Terezín Memorial approached the Karel Hynek Mácha Library in Litoměřice with a proposal for cooperation. After follow-up meetings, both parties agreed to organize a series of public lectures. Over the next few months, they planned the specific topics, dates, and other necessary details.
As suggested by its title “History around Us: Repressive Facilities in Terezín and Litoměřice (1940–1948),” the series is focused on the history of the Terezín Police Prison (1940–1945), the Terezín Ghetto (1941–1945), the concentration camp in Litoměřice (1944–1945), and the lesser-known history of the reception camp in the Terezín Small Fortress (1945–1948).
The lecture series began in October 2023 with an introductory session in the true sense of the word. This provided an overview of the entire program and detailed the history of the Terezín Memorial from its establishment in 1947 to the present day. Each subsequent month featured a different topic. The initial three meetings covered the origin, operation, and development of the Police Prison, the Terezín Ghetto, and the concentration camp in Litoměřice, along with the living conditions of their inmates. The following presentations focused on specific aspects of the individual repressive facilities. For example, the lecture in April 2024 was devoted to the live of children and their educators in the Terezín Ghetto, while the May lecture aptly portrayed the liberation of Terezín at the end of World War II in 1945. The season’s lecture cycle concluded in June with a postwar and relatively lesser-known chapter from the history of the Small Fortress in Terezín, where a reception camp for Germans was set up immediately after the liberation in May 1945.
We were genuinely pleased with the public’s interest in our lectures. Every month, the lecture hall in the Litoměřice library is full of people of all ages who share an interest in history.
After each presentation, the attendees come up to us with lots of questions and share captivating stories of their own relatives who had first-hand experience with the totalitarian regime. We are really happy when our research output helps them piece together the missing fragments of their family history. Our work, which is not very easy to quantify and usually does not bring immediate feedback, suddenly gains an added meaning, another dimension, and that is the human touch.
Our cooperation with the Litoměřice library will continue in the fall of 2024 and we will keep trying to present to the inhabitants of Litoměřice and its surroundings and beyond historical topics related to the places where many of them live and which they usually know very well.
First autumnal lecture will be held in the Litoměřice Library on October 16th, 2024 and its title is: Post-war justice? Retributive Judiciary in the Czech Lands (1945-1948). Lecturer: Ivana Rapavá.
If you did not have the opportunity to attend the individual lectures, you are welcome to watch most of them in Czech only on the Terezín Memorial’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@terezinmemorial
Ivana Rapavá
