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Theresienstadt: A Geographical Picture of Transports, Demography, and Communicable Disease in a Jewish Camp-Ghetto, 1941–45

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2020

Matthew R. Smallman-Raynor Open the ORCID record for Matthew R. Smallman-Raynor [Opens in a new window]  and
Andrew D. Cliff Open the ORCID record for Andrew D. Cliff [Opens in a new window]
Matthew R. Smallman-Raynor*
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of Nottingham
Andrew D. Cliff
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Nazi ghetto system was one of the principal vehicles for the persecution of Jewish and other peoples in German-occupied Europe in World War II. Transport and confinement—twin pillars of the ghetto system—were intrinsically geographical matters that operated on scales from the international to the local and that shaped the demographic and epidemiological character of ghettos across Eastern Europe. This article uses geographical techniques of map-based visualization and spatial analysis to portray the demographic and epidemic history of the Nazi “model” camp-ghetto at Theresienstadt (Terezín) in the former German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, 1941–45. Our study reconstructs the space-time pattern and demographic structure of transports of Jewish prisoners to the ghetto and their association with substantial outbreaks of communicable diseases in the ghetto. The study highlights the importance of a geographical approach to an understanding of the demographic and public health impacts of both the Holocaust and other genocidal events.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , Winter 2020 , pp. 615 - 639
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Social Science History Association

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References

Archival Sources

Archives du Comité International de la Croix-Rouge (ACICR), Geneva Google Scholar
(ACICR folders G59/12-368 and G59/12-369)Google Scholar
Židé v Terezíně: Statistické Sestavení (Jews in Theresienstadt: A Statistical Report) Google Scholar

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