Theresienstadt is considered to be the showplace of German concentration camps. Compared to most, this is probably true. However, it is still a prison; still a place where Jews and others suffer greatly; still a place of torture, disease, terror, and death. When you enter the camp, you feel hopeless. Only one fate awaits you — a horrible, senseless death.
A few days later, after the long day of hard labor, you are invited into a neighboring barracks. You are so tired that you almost decline the invitation, but the other inmates are insistent, and so you go, there you find a small gray-bearded, bald man sitting in the center of a circle of prisoners. He is talking intensely in the kind of German you used to hear from your professors at the university. You listen intently and discover that he is teaching Greek philosophy.
After the lecture, you inquire: Who is this person?
That's Rabbi
Dr. Leo Baeck. Before the war, he was the chief Liberal rabbi of Berlin.
During World War One, he was a chaplain in the German army. He could
have left Germany in 1938 or 1939, but he stayed with his congregation
and insisted on coming here with us. Every day, he teaches a class after
work. Coming here keeps us alive and alert.
After that experience, you sit quietly in a corner, thinking to yourself:
If Rabbi Baeck can have enough hope to teach philosophy, I can have
enough hope to survive.
Later, you are transferred to another camp.
If you are sent to Ravensbrück, continue to page 113.
If you end up in Dachau, continue to page 114.