Projection of “Transport from Paradise” movie to commemorate 70 years from setting up the Terezín ghetto on 24.11.1941
24.11.2011 / 13:30 | Aktualizováno: 09.10.2012 / 15:50
(This article expired 01.12.2012 / 01:00.)
As a „Year of Remembering Holocaust Victims“ event, the Czech Embassy in Vilnius in cooperation with the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum (Tolerance Center) and the Czech National Film Archive projected Zbyněk Brynych’s movie “Transport from Paradise“ (1962).
H.E. Ambassador Radek Pech in his introductory remarks explained the history of establishing the Terezín ghetto and the movie itself, which was based upon an autobiography book by Arnošt Lustig “Night of Hope”. He also expressed gratitude to Tolerance Center for their continuous interest in Czech movies.
The story takes the viewers to the Terezín (or Theresienstadt ghetto, as it was called in German), which served an important propaganda function for the Germans. The publicly stated purpose for the deportation of the Jews from Germany was their "resettlement to the east," where they would be compelled to perform forced labor.
The deportations to Terezín were, however, part of the Nazi strategy of deception. The ghetto was in reality a collection center for deportations to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Succumbing to pressure following the deportation of Danish Jews to Terezín, the Nazis permitted the International Red Cross to visit in June 1944. It was all an elaborate hoax.
