Overview

Terezín, as it was known in Czech, or Theresienstadt as it was known in German, was operated by the Nazis between November 1941 and May 1945 as a transit ghetto for Central and Western European Jews before their deportation for murder in the East. Terezín was the last ghetto to be liberated, one day after the end of World War II.The Last Ghetto is the first in-depth analytical history of a prison society during the Holocaust. Rather than depict the prison society which existed within the ghetto as an exceptional one, unique in kind and not understandable by normal analytical methods, Anna Hájková argues that such prison societies that developed during the Holocaust are best understood as simply other instances of the societies human beings create under normal circumstances. Challenging conventional claims of Holocaust exceptionalism, Hájková insists instead that we ought to view the Holocaust with the same analytical tools as other historical events. The prison society of Terezín produced its own social hierarchies under which seemingly small differences among prisoners (of age, ethnicity, or previous occupation) could determine whether one ultimately lived or died. During the three and a half years of the camp's existence, prisoners created their own culture and habits, bonded, fell in love, and forged new families. Based on extensive archival research in nine languages and on empathetic reading of victim testimonies, The Last Ghetto is a transnational, cultural, social, gender, and organizational history of Terezín, revealing how human society works in extremis and highlighting the key issues of responsibility, agency and its boundaries, and belonging.

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9780190051778

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Reviews

"""Hajkova's history of Terezin is a tour de force. Thanks to Hajkova's astonishing research and courageous reappraisal of victim society, aspects of this history that have been overlooked or marginalized are now before our eyes. A major contribution to the history of the Holocaust, The Last Ghetto also opens up new perspectives on class, nationalism, ethnicity, gender and sexuality in twentieth-century Europe. A deeply, wrenchingly human story that everyone ought to read."" -- Alexandra Garbarini, author of Numbered Days: Diaries and the Holocaust ""This splendid and devastating, gorgeously written, paradigm-shifting book offers one transformative revelation after another. Exemplifying radical empathy without sentimentality, it represents the very best the new Holocaust history has to offer."" -- Dagmar Herzog, Graduate Center, City University of New York, author of Unlearning Eugenics: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Disability in Post-Nazi Europe ""Theresienstadt has been shrouded in myths since Nazis first presented it as a 'model ghetto' to trick the world that Jewish prisoners were being treated humanely. Hájková's The Last Ghetto reveals the interior life of the ghetto and persuasively demonstrates that like the society that produced it, this society in extremis was riven by ethnic, gender, political, linguistic, and economic divisions that prevented a common sense of Jewishness from forming among the prisoners."" -- Barry Trachtenberg, Michael H. and Deborah K. Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History,Wake Forest University ""The Last Ghetto is the most important book on Theresienstadt to appear in many years. With unparalleled knowledge of the sources and deep sensitivity, Anna Hájková has made a major contribution to the history of the Holocaust. With her focus on the everyday life of the ghetto's inhabitants, she also provides us with a model of social, cultural, and gender history."" -- Dan Stone, Professor of Modern History, Royal Holloway, University of London"

The Last Ghetto is the most important book on Theresienstadt to appear in many years. With unparalleled knowledge of the sources and deep sensitivity, Anna Hajkova has made a major contribution to the history of the Holocaust. With her focus on the everyday life of the ghetto's inhabitants, she also provides us with a model of social, cultural, and gender history. * Dan Stone, Professor of Modern History, Royal Holloway, University of London * Theresienstadt has been shrouded in myths since Nazis first presented it as a 'model ghetto' to trick the world that Jewish prisoners were being treated humanely. Hajkova's The Last Ghetto reveals the interior life of the ghetto and persuasively demonstrates that like the society that produced it, this society in extremis was riven by ethnic, gender, political, linguistic, and economic divisions that prevented a common sense of Jewishness from forming among the prisoners. * Barry Trachtenberg, Michael H. and Deborah K. Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History,Wake Forest University * This splendid and devastating, gorgeously written, paradigm-shifting book offers one transformative revelation after another. Exemplifying radical empathy without sentimentality, it represents the very best the new Holocaust history has to offer. * Dagmar Herzog, Graduate Center, City University of New York, author of Unlearning Eugenics: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Disability in Post-Nazi Europe * Hajkova's history of Terezin is a tour de force. Thanks to Hajkova's astonishing research and courageous reappraisal of victim society, aspects of this history that have been overlooked or marginalized are now before our eyes. A major contribution to the history of the Holocaust, The Last Ghetto also opens up new perspectives on class, nationalism, ethnicity, gender and sexuality in twentieth-century Europe. A deeply, wrenchingly human story that everyone ought to read. * Alexandra Garbarini, author of Numbered Days: Diaries and the Holocaust *

Author Information

Anna Hájková is Associate Professor of Modern European Continental History at the University of Warwick. She regularly contributes to mass media in English, German, and Czech in the publications Haaretz, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tablet, and Tagespiegel. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.

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