The Terezín Memorial in the town of Terezín was built as a Baroque army fortress by emperor Josef II in the 18th century. The fortress served as a prison almost from the very beginning and became notorious as a Gestapo prison, Jewish Ghetto and concentration camp in World War II. In the years 1941 - 1945, Terezín became the largest concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Over 140,000 Jewish men, women and children were brought there from around the country, as well as from Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, Slovakia and Hungary. The majority of those who survived the forced labor, malnutrition and terrible living conditions were later transported to the extermination camps further east. Terezín was turned into a memorial in 1947.
